Notes from Portugal: Final Note: Iron Maiden Mecca

by Iva Skoch on

Can’t say I’m a huge heavy metal fan, but it was cool to find out that the town we were staying in over the New Years, Santa Barbara de Nexe, Portugal, is considered the world-wide center for Iron Maiden fans.

It turns out that bassist and IM founder Steve Harris started a bar there almost twenty years ago and has a local presence, including owning at least one luxury villa on the hill there, in the mountains north of Faro, Portugal.

The bar is named after the skeletal mascot of the band, Eddie, who’s image adorns the front entrance as well as the interior.

Forget “Planet Hollywood” (or “Cabo Wabo,” for that matter), Eddie’s Bar is a real, neighborhood bar, that just happens to be owned by a real metal celebrity.

What better place to grab a cold Sagres cerveza?

Spain versus Portugal. Can we get along?

by Iva Skoch on

Before going to Portugal for New Year’s, we were advised that we shouldn’t even try to speak Spanish there. If you don’t speak Portuguese, stick with English because the Portuguese don’t like using Spanish, even if they speak it.

I didn’t realize how deep is their resentment toward the Spanish until I saw this sign spray-painted on a building in Alfama, Lisbon.

I feel for you, Portugal. In the early nineties, there were similar signs in Prague: “Shut up, or stay in Germany.”

Notes from Portugal: So Faro, so good

by Iva Skoch on

I know, I know the Algarve isn´t the “real” Portugal. It´s the built-up touristy area in the south of the country (which is a little ironic, considering the name “Algarve” is from the phrase “the West” in Arabic). Still, you´re definitely missing something if you don´t visit the center of the old town.

Walk past the busy shops and cafes (and avoid Jumbo altogether), and you´ll be rewarded. The walled old city is a lovely, roughly circular area of small streets, which center on a small, Gothic church from the 13th century and a small square.

Everywhere, wintering storks can be seen perched up in nests, high above the square.

I stopped in to buy hand-painted ceramic tiles from the 17th and 18th centuries in a dusty little shop. You know, it´s kind of a wonder that the old town isn´t filled with cafes, boutique hotels, and stupid T-shirt shops, like similar areas all around Europe. It´s truly lovely, and couldn´t have been more picturesque than just after sunset, as the nightingales started singing.

Notes from Portugal: Tiles from the dark side

by Iva Skoch on

On a lark, while on the road to Faro, Portugal, today we stopped in at the church in Almancil, the Church of St. Lawrence (Igreja de São Lourenço). It´s in a strange location: east of town, along a highway.

St. Lawrence had the pretty ghastly martyrdom of having been burned to death on an outdoor stove in 258, during which he supposedly said something to the effect that if he was already well roasted on one side, that they should flip him over.

This lovely little church commemorates these events pictorially using painted white-and-blue ceramic tile, covering the entire inside of the church. The effect is dramatic, and well worth the hefty 2 euro entrance fee.

The general church style is of the Baroque period, and dates to the 17th century, having been finished in 1730.

Notes from Portugal: Cat Steals Chorizo, Escapes

by Iva Skoch on

So far, I have enjoyed Algarve, Portugal immensely. Together with ten friends, we rented a villa overlooking the town of Santa Barbara de Nexe, which is a pretty cute town, but it is literally overrun by British tourists who own all the property.

Needless to say, we have turned the house into a party house. There are only two problems with it, and–incidentally–both have to do with animals.

  1. The cat. The owners have a cat and it steals our food. A few days ago, it stole my friend David’s chorizo [sausage] which was on the kitchen counter, sealed in plastic. He paid 8 euro for this special piece of sausage in a market in Spain, and, honestly, I think it will take years of therapy for him to get over this loss. Yes, that is an actual portrait of kitty the thief from yesterday, taken with flash through the window for extra-special scary effect.
  2. Ants. Our very first night there, we made the mistake of leaving a piece of cheese out overnight (what goes better with port wine than cheese). By the next morning, we had literally armies of thousands of ants marching through the living room, bedroom and bathroom. Trying to put an old wive’s tale to the test, we tried to pour salt over their path but it only worked a little bit. What else works on ants, besides poison?