Saturday, September 6, 2014

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Street Art in Lisbon, Portugal

Here again are a few more shots of life in Portugal taken this past April.  There are many abandoned buildings in Portugal, as they continue to struggle with a shaky economy.  Most are several hundred years old, passed down family to family.  If the family does not have the money to keep them up, they generally brick over the windows until one day they either have the money or they are able to sell the property.  A guide on one of the tours we took told us that they are effecting legislation requiring owners of these derelict buildings to maintain the outside of them.  The owners of these two buildings took a step further.  Rather than trying to continuously combat the graffiti they encouraged local artists to paint scenes on the outside.  

Street Art in Lisbon, Portugal, my favorite one

I don't really like crowds but with only one or two exceptions we did not run into many except at one of the castles we toured.  I just loved a quiet little town we took a tour to called Tomar, where one of the Knights Templar castles was located.  The trees were in bloom, not sure what type and the only debris in the streets were the purple petals.

Town of Tomar, Portugal
 There are some pretty narrow alleyways in the oldest part of Tomar.  I tried to make friends with this black cat but no luck.  That is the Tomar Castle right above the village.
Tomar, Portugal alleyway with Tomar Castle above

We spent a couple days on the coast right between Estoril and Cascais.  Life is pretty quiet in these two towns except in summer when the throngs of tourists arrive to enjoy the beaches.  It is still completely lovely in Spring time and I am so glad we were there when it was quieter.

Cascais, Portugal
 There were families out enjoying picnics on the beach, and others just having a coffee by the water.
Small beach at Cascais, Portugal
Many properties are up for sale for years before they are sold in Portugal.  In the town of Sintra, which is known as the palace town as many European families had, and still have summer palaces there, we spotted this old palace up for sale.  I have no idea on the price but if anyone out there is looking for a fixer upper, this might just fit the bill :)

My future DIY dreamhome, Sintra, Portugal

I managed to hand in my resignation on Friday to my part-time job.  I gave them four weeks notice to assure them I will not leave them high and dry in their busy season which ends at the end of September.  It came as a relief to me, as I have been working far too many hours between our company and that job.  Hopefully, starting in October, I can make sure we get a better work-life balance back which seems to somehow have gotten out of kilter this year when our business got so busy.  Well, hubby is off to pack for his 12 day business trip which he leaves on tomorrow and I am off to do laundry.  We have set a date this afternoon for a couple hours of beach time to enjoy the 27 degree celcius sunny weather we are having today and we will end it off with a BBQ tonight with Mom and a movie on Netflix.  Have a great weekend everyone!

16 comments:

  1. Portugal is a country I would like to visit. Crusader castles, cobblestone streets and an old palace for sale, wow. I like the whimsical art painting on the old buildings; sad the owners had to brick up the windows.

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    1. Portugal was such a wonderful place, so many sides to it. I will definitely try and go back some day.

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  2. So neat to use those windows as the top of the crown. I did some murals in my parents' garage when I was 17. I have to scan the photos and get them on my blog one of these days.

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    1. Great post on your blog today - the murals are beautiful! You are so talented

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  3. Hope you have a great weekend too! I loved that there was a cat in the alley, made me giggle :)

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    1. I so wanted to make friends with that bloody cat but it wouldn't let me get near it.

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  4. I wouldn't mind one of those properties - off to Google some Portuguese estate agents and day dream. xxx

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    1. Wouldn't that be nice? All that pretty tilework - I like dreaming about those places too.

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  5. Loving your Portugal pictures :) I like the idea of bricking in the windows of unused buildings - they should do that here - I bet it would cut down on the number of people squatting in them and ruining them in the process.

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    1. It was unfortunate but we did see alot of tagging - a plague of people around the world who think it is perfectly fine to destroy other peoples things by painting on them. I loved that those owners let the artists paint the buildings.

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  6. Great photos. The "organized graffiti" is brilliant. Congrats on having a little more control of your life, too!

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    1. Thanks - I do feel quite relieved now to be honest. It was a nice part-time job with nice people but too much work and not enough time for ourselves.

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  7. I too really enjoyed your photos of the houses.

    Just to let you know I'm back CC-on my old blog and I've just started up a new one-all about travelling to 100 countries!

    http://349sfttoseetheworldchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

    Sft x

    Sft x

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  8. All the shots look beautiful. I love graffiti :D

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  9. I'm glad that your business is doing so well that you can quit your sidejob. That is awesome!
    And the pictures are amazing. It really was a great idea to have them paint the buildings for them! Way better than graffiti.

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