Ouch!
Guess what’s back,
Back again,
My blog is back,
Tell your friends,
Tell your friends,
Tell your friends…
Well at least for the next week while I am in Portugal taking a mini vacation from my already vacation of a life I will blog about the happenings. While in London I went to the library one day and looked through a book that described the best festivals and celebrations across the world. I focused on Europe over the summer and read about a festival called Sao Joao (Saint John) Festival in Porto, Portugal. Last year I never made it to Portugal and figured if I was going to be there for the festival I might as well check out the rest of the country as well.
I read that the festival was on the 24th and booked my hostel for the nights of the 23rd, 24th and 25th to give me time to prepare for and recover from the festival. I arrived on the evening of the 23rd only to discover that the festival was that night NOT the 24th and quickly went to my hostel to check in. I didn’t know much about the festival before I got there other than it was supposed to be a fun party in the streets. While going to my hostel I encountered hundreds of people walking the streets with large plastic hammers that they were using to whack each other and me with on top of my head. People were also walking around carrying flowering garlic and sticking the smelly flower part in people’s faces.
I asked the guy at my hostel where I should go to enjoy the best of the festival and he proceeded to circle over 10 places on my map and told me those would be good places. I decided I would just wander the streets and follow the crowds and see where I ended up, since the party was spread out all over the town.
Everyone seemed to have hammers, the funniest were the old ladies who could barely walk but hit every single person that they could and you could see the pure joy in their faces as they smacked person after person. The streets were packed with families and stands selling sardines, hot dogs and beer. I found a good spot high on a cliff overlooking the river and watched the firework show at midnight shot off from barges on the river. After the firework show people unfolded tissue paper blimps that had a candle at the bottom and when lit, filled with hot air and soared into the night sky like ghosts.
All of the squares in town had a different band playing and I found one near my hostel and listened to a mixture of American pop and classic Portuguese music. It was a good first night in Portugal.
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| 2010_06_23 Porto |
