Broadening my horizons

If you know me at all you know I have cultivated an aversion to all events with the word Fair(e), Fest, or Festival in them and to crowds in general. I’ve never been to a music festival as an adult and I’ve never been to a Renaissance faire. Full stop. Thus far in my decade of marriage to the lovely and talented Jill Praisner, we have not had any instances where I have knowingly/voluntarily braved a festival.

Only once did Jill trick me into putting my head into the lion’s mouth. One Saturday when I was returning to Frisco from visiting my mom in Dallas, Jill suggested I meet her and her family for a late lunch at Pizzeria Testa, my favorite pizza place in Frisco. Jill selected Pizzeria Testa knowing, but not telling me, that it was right smack in the middle of an art festival – and also knowing I can’t turn down pizza. After a delicious lunch, I had to endure an excruciating half hour of sweaty, snails-pace browsing all of the artisan stalls. Fool me once…

Well, my streak is over.

Every year the nearby walled city of Obidos has a Medieval Fair. Our friends Catherine and Bob bought four tickets this year and, at one point when we were enjoying a bottle of vinho verde with them, invited us to accompany them. The wine must have slowed my reaction time and before I could raise my hand to give my standard opt-out speech with the disclaimer about things with the word Fair(e), Fest, or Festival, Jill said “We’d love to go!”

When the appointed day came, Bob chauffeured us for the 25 minute drive to Obidos.

Well…

I’m pleased to report that maybe ALL festivals aren’t horrible. We had a great time at this particular one.

As we were walking toward the castle from the parking lot we saw lots of attendees in period costume. I learned at that point if you dress in appropriate period costume, admission to the festival is free. However, you can’t just phone it in. There’s a set of judges who rule on whether you’ve met the mark before you are granted free admission. I thought that was a really clever way of making the festival more interactive for everyone, because once inside the castle walls it wasn’t always obvious who was officially on festival staff and who had dressed up for free admission – although authentic period footwear seemed to be one common distinguishing point. I wish I had known about that before disposing of my leather jerkin and wolfskin traveling cloak pre-move to Portugal.

We had a great dinner at one of the representative food stalls. Here’s a thing that’s different in Europe – sustainability-wise… There were no plastic cups or plates at the various purveyors of food and drink and the utensils were bamboo. When we ordered our food I paid a 10€ deposit for the stoneware our food came on. And when we finished eating, I returned the stoneware to be washed and got my deposit back. It was a subtle, but feel good thing.

We had a great time watching the various dance, music, and acrobatic performances which seemed to be going all the time so no one of them drew so many people that there was jostling to get a good view. And Bob, who is a man after my own heart, was able to wander off on a whim and get us all pastries without waiting in a line that caused him to miss the show we were all watching.

In summary, the Obidos Medieval Fair had a little something for everyone:

1. Jousting
2. Giant pigs roasting on spits (but not a turkey drumstick to be found)
3. Roaming gaggles of geese
4. Acrobats
5. Petting zoo
6. Dance troops
7. An armorer making chain mail
8. Falconry
9. Adult beverages

I think a major factor in making it work out for me was it never really felt hot and crowded – which is certainly what I conjured up in my head when I first heard “Let’s go to a medieval faire in late July.” The temperature was about 65F (and more like 60F after sunset) and there were maybe 2000 people in attendance on the night we were there. Plus we really enjoy our time with Bob and Catherine.

If anyone happens to visit us when the Obidos Medieval Fair is on, we will definitely offer it up as an evening outing.

Fresh off of the success of our Obidos fair outing, Catherine and Bob invited us to an Opera and Chocolate event in Nazaré. That turned out to be quite an adventure.

We’ve been on a mission to try new restaurants to broaden our list of go-to options for when we have company, so Catherine got us a reservation at a nice restaurant called Tia Caia just down the street from the Opera and Chocolate venue. Because there was also a bullfight scheduled for the same evening (no, we are not bullfight fans) we allowed plenty of time for dinner. We arrived at our reservation time and the restaurant was still in the process of setting up the dining room so we walked across the street to a neighborhood cafe for to have a beer while we waited for the Tia Caia to be ready for us. Total cost for three mini-beers was €3.50.

When we saw Tia Caia open up their front doors we wandered over and were seated. First off, the food was delicious, but boy did we dodge a bullet by getting there first. Between the Opera and Chocolate crowd and some bullfight patrons, the restaurant was completely overwhelmed. We got our order in as fast as we could before the one server on duty got too far underwater, which didn’t take long. From then on we just sat back and watched a number of tables come in and sit down and after 20 minutes of not getting a menu or drink order taken just get up and walk out. Best we can tell there was some sort of situation where the seasoned waiter(s) couldn’t make it in to work and they pressed some inexperienced family members into service. They did their best but it was a disaster service-wise for it to occur when there was an event-driven dinner rush. Fortunately, we all had great attitudes and our food was the first food out of the kitchen. Again, it was delicious and we will likely give them another go at some point on a regular school night.

After dinner we were off to Opera and Chocolate, which was held in a small century-plus old local theatre. It was well attended and there were only a few empty seats. There were also multiple parties that we’d seen at Tia Caia – and we KNEW they hadn’t managed to have dinner before the show. It was a fun event with different genres of music and my only complaint was that the chairs made for the standard-issue Portuguese person of the 19th century were about 75% of the size they need to be for me. It was an expat-heavy crowd. A thing the event drove home to me is expats in our area will turn out in droves for any plausible event. We are still the new kids in town, but there was a non-stop stream of people checking in with Bob and Catherine.

The show had a 9:30PM start and we didn’t get home until around midnight. I mention that because it was the first time I noticed that EVERYTHING closes at night here. There are no all night gas stations, convenience stores, or grocery stores in our neck of the woods. I suspect there may be some in the bigger cities like Lisboa and O Porto, but not here. And our local Intermarché does’t open until 9AM.

Here’s the latest picture of SMP’s beach on a Saturday. Things should start to tone down a little bit in the next few weeks as the Portuguese families who frequent our town have to head home for the beginning of the school year.

And hopefully that will translate into us encountering fewer dune buggy excursions from Nazaré on our afternoon dog walks…

I’ve made it almost four months in SMP before trying a Francesinha, a decadent sandwich creation from not too far north of here, but I finally took the plunge this week.

My verdict: Francesinhas are solid, but not better than a good tosta mista on Alantejo bread. The Francesinho is a creation from near O Porto – so I’ll likely try one again when I’m there just to see how the original compares to SMPs version.

Now that we’ve been here for almost four months we are starting to brave the dental/medical establishment for routine things like teeth cleanings and annual checkups. Jill and I both had our first visits with the dentist at Clinica Baía here in SMP this week. We both had x-rays, checkup, and cleaning. Everything about the office was more modern than our dentists in Austin. Most notable was the space-age x-ray machine where our x-rays were taken while we were standing by putting our chin in a tray and having an x-ray robot swing around our heads. No more bite-wings!!! And our total bill for the services was €12/each with insurance. I mention the cost because recently in Austin, even with insurance, our semi-annual cleanings were routinely >$100.

I’ve got my first annual medical checkup tomorrow in Leiria, which is about 30 minutes from here. I’ll be interested in my first set of local bloodwork labs to see how they compare to my most recent bloodwork from the US. My blood pressure continues to be down substantially from pre-move levels, which I attribute to less stress, more-exercise, and less sugar/processed food levels. I’m hoping that translates into better LDL, HDL, etc. values.

We had a fun surprise a couple of days ago when we were walking the boys around the bay…

And finally, we’ve been spending some time at Storytellers Palace to get to know the owner so we will have a connection for our out of town guests who may end up staying there when we don’t have enough room in our rental. We tried out their speakeasy-themed bar, called The Gatsby, for gin and tonics with Stephanie when she was here with us in January. And now we’ve also sorted out the main patio bar area, including both adult beverages and nibbles. The owner, Marco, is really nice and we are quickly becoming regulars there

And that is all the news that’s fit to print here in Lake Wobegon.

Adventure is out there!