A Portuguese Love

Until July 20, with 2 daily sessions, at 9:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m., this show takes place inside the Ruins of Carmo Church. This event will transport the public into an immersive journey through more than 600 years of history the city of Lisbon and Portugal. LISBOA UNDER STARS is a unique spectacle in Lisbon. A multidisciplinary experience was developed for multimedia, virtual writing, and visual effects, to the sound of great names of Portuguese music. The Ruins of Carmo have been the ideal stage for LISBOA UNDER STARS. This is a new way of experiencing more than 600 years of the history of Lisbon and Portugal. You can watch the making of here . 

As I told you previously I went to visit NRP Sagres on the weekend. I had great expectations about this ship and they were totally fulfilled. I visited Sagres during the night with my sister and nephew and then in the morning, just by myself. It's amazing to watch the ship with all 6000 lights up - it takes 2 hours and a half to put all the cables and lights one by one! But by night there were too many visitors for my taste. The next morning I returned and then I was able to watch every detail of the ship the way I wanted and even asked the crew all sorts of questions. Sagres has sailed across the world and will continue to do it. If you have the chance to visit it, don't miss the opportunity. It's a beautiful ship. I also watched her going up the river and then going away to the sea in her return to Lisbon. It was quite a show. Usually, Figueira da Foz is very windy but on Sunday morning there was no wind at all, and when she left neither! So I did not have ...

When I was a child my mother instructed me to write letters to my baptism godmother. Then I would go with her to the Post Office building, in Braga, and buy stamps like this one to stick on the envelope. This stamp from 1972 shows the University of Coimbra. "Linda and I had Portugal on the back burner for many years. A mistake! Had we not procrastinated, this would have been a return trip. Portugal is booming. With a strong economy and funds from the EU, the transportation and telecommunications infrastructure is being upgraded at a record rate. Restoration of old and historic buildings and homes as well as new construction can be seen everywhere. Portugal is a country on the move while at the same time preserving its old-world culture, traditions, and lifestyle - its heritage. Language is not a barrier. In addition to Portuguese, the younger generations speak English and at least one other language. There is always someone nearby who is more than willing to help you if you are h...

Yesterday thousands of pilgrims gathered in Fátima to celebrate May 13th apparitions. And a solar halo, a halo that formed around the sun, was visible yesterday at the Shrine of Fátima at the precise moment a film about the bonds of John Paul II to the Cova da Iria was shown. A bright ring centered on the sun and caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. It provoked expressions of religious fervor, with many speaking of an action of God. Many of the present wept and recorded the phenomenon on the phone.  I am not a person of faith but I respect other people's beliefs. And I can get the symbolism of such an event and its coincidence was perfect even if science can clearly explain it. Every year I see pilgrims crossing my country on foot to pay respect to the Virgin. Some go there to thank a grace they received, others to ask for a miracle. Devotion to Nossa Senhora de Fátima is very strong. People from many nationalities gather at Fátima t...

Video As some of my blog visitors might know my country, Portugal, is going through pretty rough times. This year's street protests were the biggest ever to take place. 400,000 people took to the streets and many strikes occur just before the downfall of Sócrates's socialist government. Then the IMF arrived in Portugal to negotiate the terms of the rescue, the bailout. The "troika" are the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB), and European Commission (EC). Negotiations took place about the conditions that Portugal has to obey in order to receive financial aid. If you think that things are going to get better for Portuguese people you are not aware of what this bailout means. The IMF help depends on accepting austerity measures that will deepen the crisis further. I believe that living standards will fall and unemployment will get higher. So most of us are not happy about IMF presence, but Portugal had no choice because at one point ban...

Click to discover more! Bellow red square with information and Mimi's photo, click Ver Galeria, on your left! http://www1.ci.uc.pt/cd25a/wikka.php?wakka=coleccaoConceicaoNeuparth Today is Freedom Day. It’s a national holiday in Portugal. 37 years ago by sunrise, the Movement of the Armed Forces, or MFA, took control of Portugal's destiny. After almost five decades of dictatorship, MFA promised to restore civil liberties and hold general elections. The people longed for the replacement of state institutions that included political police that imprisoned and tortured people. Six civilians were dead during the outburst. The 25 April coup became known as the Carnation Revolution. (Florists distributed the flowers they were selling to the military on the street.) It ended the longest dictatorship in Europe, the Estado Novo. The new regime pushed decolonization. Over the next few years Guiné -Bissau, Moçambique, Cabo Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Angola became indepen...