We'll see how far I get today. Lately I just have not been in any mood to write. Also it's Friday and I get out of work in 20 minutes. So I can't concentrate on much of anything, let alone work. So I'll try this.
Also, weird thing. It seems my blog has some bot or something reading it. I swear I only ever get 2 or 3 people reading this thing, and recently there's all this traffic from America and I have like 60 - 100 reads on each post. I feel like it has to be a bot because there's no way that many people are interested in reading my verbal diarrhea. But if you are, sorry?
Anyway next stop was Faro. We had originally planned to spend our whole trip in Southern Portugal, doing day trips and seeing Jewish stuff. After going to Faro I'm glad we didn't. The town is cute enough, but there isn't very much to do there and it was pretty deserted. Most people go to this area for the beach, which my family is not so into. We went because it's an old Jewish historical region, and they have a small Jewish museum about the Jews who came back to Portugal in the early 19th century, after having been expelled at the end of the 15th. So in case you didn't know, Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and then from Portugal in about 1496. I always thought it was at the same time, but apparently not. A bunch of Spanish Jews fled to Portugal, and it was only a few years later when the Portuguese prince wanted to marry the Spanish princess that she made him expel the Jews as well. So a bunch of them went to North Africa and Gibraltar or off to the Americas for the next few hundred years, and only came back around 1820. The first settlements formed in Faro, and they have a small museum and graveyard there, with a really nice old guy who teaches history at the local university and volunteers to watch the place and give tours. It's super small, but if you go, this guy will tell you all kinds of stuff about the history of Jews in Portugal, which is exactly what we wanted. So we did that and left, pretty much. There's a cute old town that we saw also, but it was nothing compared to some of the other ones we saw.
Then it was up to a town called Evora in central-ish Portugal. We chose to stay in this place because it's only a couple hours from Lisbon and from a few other Jewish points of interest, and it sounded really interesting itself. It's an old Roman town on a hill with one of the most complete and oldest aquaducts in Portugal. In fact the apartment we rented was built into the aquaduct and was absolutely gorgeous. Probably the best place we stayed the whole trip. And Evora was awesome too. Everything there is preserved really well, but it's also got some really interesting and unique sights for Portugal. There are old Roman baths and temples in addition to the aquaduct, and they're all stuck right in the middle of the old alleys making up the otherwise typical (and super cute) Portuguese town. Sadly because we were using it as a jumping off point for day trips, we didn't actually spend much time seeing Evora. Not in the daylight anyway. I kind of wish we'd had more time there, but I guess it's just one more reason to go back to Portugal! And since I have to leave work soon, I'll talk about the rest next time.
But before I go, here's some new and upbeat music that should be fitting for a Friday night. Two new and upbeat musics, even! The first one is Can't Wait, the debut single from Taylor Bense, off of his debut EP, Caught Up. The whole EP is pretty fun, but this song caught my attention immediately when I first heard it. Reminded me of Jai Paul a bit, which is always a good thing.
The second one is Severed, off of Bewilderbeast's new album, Unreal_Estate. I've only heard about half the album so far. Sometimes I feel like it's way too electronic and I shouldn't like it, but I still kind of do. This song in particular. And also really upbeat and fun for a Friday!
Also, weird thing. It seems my blog has some bot or something reading it. I swear I only ever get 2 or 3 people reading this thing, and recently there's all this traffic from America and I have like 60 - 100 reads on each post. I feel like it has to be a bot because there's no way that many people are interested in reading my verbal diarrhea. But if you are, sorry?
Anyway next stop was Faro. We had originally planned to spend our whole trip in Southern Portugal, doing day trips and seeing Jewish stuff. After going to Faro I'm glad we didn't. The town is cute enough, but there isn't very much to do there and it was pretty deserted. Most people go to this area for the beach, which my family is not so into. We went because it's an old Jewish historical region, and they have a small Jewish museum about the Jews who came back to Portugal in the early 19th century, after having been expelled at the end of the 15th. So in case you didn't know, Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and then from Portugal in about 1496. I always thought it was at the same time, but apparently not. A bunch of Spanish Jews fled to Portugal, and it was only a few years later when the Portuguese prince wanted to marry the Spanish princess that she made him expel the Jews as well. So a bunch of them went to North Africa and Gibraltar or off to the Americas for the next few hundred years, and only came back around 1820. The first settlements formed in Faro, and they have a small museum and graveyard there, with a really nice old guy who teaches history at the local university and volunteers to watch the place and give tours. It's super small, but if you go, this guy will tell you all kinds of stuff about the history of Jews in Portugal, which is exactly what we wanted. So we did that and left, pretty much. There's a cute old town that we saw also, but it was nothing compared to some of the other ones we saw.
Then it was up to a town called Evora in central-ish Portugal. We chose to stay in this place because it's only a couple hours from Lisbon and from a few other Jewish points of interest, and it sounded really interesting itself. It's an old Roman town on a hill with one of the most complete and oldest aquaducts in Portugal. In fact the apartment we rented was built into the aquaduct and was absolutely gorgeous. Probably the best place we stayed the whole trip. And Evora was awesome too. Everything there is preserved really well, but it's also got some really interesting and unique sights for Portugal. There are old Roman baths and temples in addition to the aquaduct, and they're all stuck right in the middle of the old alleys making up the otherwise typical (and super cute) Portuguese town. Sadly because we were using it as a jumping off point for day trips, we didn't actually spend much time seeing Evora. Not in the daylight anyway. I kind of wish we'd had more time there, but I guess it's just one more reason to go back to Portugal! And since I have to leave work soon, I'll talk about the rest next time.
But before I go, here's some new and upbeat music that should be fitting for a Friday night. Two new and upbeat musics, even! The first one is Can't Wait, the debut single from Taylor Bense, off of his debut EP, Caught Up. The whole EP is pretty fun, but this song caught my attention immediately when I first heard it. Reminded me of Jai Paul a bit, which is always a good thing.
The second one is Severed, off of Bewilderbeast's new album, Unreal_Estate. I've only heard about half the album so far. Sometimes I feel like it's way too electronic and I shouldn't like it, but I still kind of do. This song in particular. And also really upbeat and fun for a Friday!
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