Discovering.

This last weekend I discovered the magic of a very special place here in Viseu. I´ll get to the details later but I think that´s a good opening sentence :) On Saturday I woke up early as usual and had tennis lessons with Afonso. I think I´m getting the hang of tennis and look forward to the lessons each week. After tennis I went home but still felt like being active so I hopped on a bike and went to explore one of the city parks. This park is named Fontelo and it´s slogan is ``Center of life,´´ justly so I think. Fontelo is situated just outside the heart of Viseu and provides some of the best views of the commanding cathedral ``Sé´´. I have been to this park before, but only to one section and that´s the soccer fields. Fontelo is home to four full size soccer fields complete with stadiums and the likes. Apparently the national team trained here for the EuroCup a while back. These stadiums are situated in the very front of the park right behind one of the last standing Roman gates of the city. I´ve been to the soccer fields to watch some of Afonso´s games which have all been very exciting. Next to the soccer stadiums there is a basketball/handball stadium, a tennis stadium, a building for squash and raquetball I think and a large picnic area set under rows of giant sicamores. All this is merely only about a third of what Fontelo has to offer. As I ventured deeper into the park I rode my bike up and down winding trails past special zones set up with excersise challenges called a ``Maintenance Circuit´´ as the translation goes. I also stopped at a bouldering boulder. For those of you who don´t know what bouldering is, it is a form of rock climbing where the climber never gets very high off the ground, does not use ropes, and generally tries to make lateral and technical maneuveres on the rock face. I was stoked when I found this feature, the boulder itself is really big and split in two, it has a lot of moss on it in some areas but other than that is good to climb. On one side the boulder even has steps carved into it to get up on the top an easy way, and on the tallest side has mounted clips for carabiners. After I left this spot I found a cool dry creekbed that lead to a waterfall and a pond with ducks and a swan. Then I found a bridge and a path that I followed to a little house in the park where I think the caretaker lives. The house was sorrounded by probably twenty brightly colored Peacock just roaming around, and there were probably about 4 more in the trees and on the roof of a small chapel across the path. I didn´t have my camera with me at this time and missed out on a great photo-op. After this the path lead to a playground, more excersise points, more boulders(which didn´t look as good as the first) and a lot of green space with trees and the likes. I think I will be spending a lot more time here as it provides me with a place to feel like I´m ``In the woods´´ and can really relax in a peaceful environment. After roaming the back of the park I headed up to the front to meet Louis to watch another of Afonso´s soccer matches. We tied 1-1 if I remember correctly. On sunday I woke up and made Chocolate Chip Pancakes for the whole family. That went well and I was tottally stuffed. Just as I was feeling like I could move after that behemoth of a breakfast Sofia informed me that we were heading over to Hotel Montebelo for the buffet. Well, after another meal (even though I didn´t/couldn´t eat as much as usaul) we headed home to make gifts for Christmas. We took shoe boxes and decorated them with christmas-ie things and put toys in them. These shoeboxes with toys will be given to an organization that will then distribute them to poor families on Christmas. After that I went to go see ``007 Quantom Of Solace´´ with Afonso and Louis. This is not a movie review blog (although I´m sure those exist) but I thought the new 007 fell instantly into the category of ``Sequal´´. And that concludes my weekend.

Weekend.

This weekend was good. Today I went to the hotel Montebelo buffet for lunch and ate sooo much great food. I just want to comment on the food here in detail. I´ll go by meal. Breakfast is usually bread, fresh bread from the bakers, there are bakers everywhere and cafés aswell. This is a huge part of the portuguese culture, but I´ll get to that later. Anyways, breakfast is bread, sometimes with jam, marmelade(real marmelade made from quince) meat and cheese. We also have cornflakes. Chocolate milk is a staple for breakfast as well. Fruit is common too. Then lunch. Lunch is a lot like dinner in the states. There will usually be a meat, Steak, chicken or something. Sometimes breaded or prepared otherwise. Rice, french fries and a salad. The salads here only come one way, no dressing but with oil and vinegar I think. If served with an egg this combination is called bitoque (pronounced bitok). Also really common lunches include jardineira, a sort of beef stew with patatoes and veggies, Spaghetti, other noodles, pizza, mCdonalds, and not much else. Then there is tea, called Lunche from the verb lunchar. This meal is between lunch and dinner and is a very important part of the portuguese culture. At this time most people head to the nearest café or bakery (Seriously located on every corner)where they sit, mostly outside, and smoke cigarettes, talk/gossip, read the paper, drink portuguese coffee and eat portuguese pasteries. Now one thing that any self-respecting portuguese will tell you is that non-portuguese coffee is really brown colored water or coffee flavored tea. When you order coffee in portugal it comes in a cup no bigger than a thimble, steaming and, for lack of a better word, writhing in it´s place. It looks like tar and smells just as strong. It is usually mixed with a little bit of sugar and enjoyed as is. I have actually yet to try one, not that I lack bravery or anything... Ok. Well the portuguese pasteries are a different story entirely. There are soooo many various types I can´t tell you about them all. I´ll just say I like them a lot and it´s something to experience. Well to bring a touch of the west to portugal I made pancakes this morning. On saturday I woke up and had tennis lessons from nine until noon. After that I went for a run and worked up an appettite. When I arrived back at home there was really good pizza waiting for me. After lunch I went to the mall and saw Mamma Mia. I actually really liked it. After that I helped Kika give Lisa a bath. That was really entertaining, and we got some pictures. After lisas bath we went out for dinner at Piazza Roma, a really good Italian joint with prime calzones. Well, that´s all for know, Até Já.

Amazing Day.

Today was so sick! I woke up around nine and went to watch an Urban Downhill Mountain Bike Race with my host father Louis. We watched practice runs for a while until we learned that the competition didn´t start until after two. This worked out perfectly as we had to attend a luncheon with my Grandma around one. We headed home to get ready and pick up the rest of the family and headed literally across the street to a five-star hotel-spa-restaurant. There they had the best buffet I have ever seen and we indulged ourselves until we could hardly walk. After that it was back to the racecourse for me and Louis. We watched the race until it ended at around six. This Urban Downhill business is some of the craziest, gnarliest riding I have ever seen. And some of the most poetic. The riders started in a church courtyard older than the United States, dropped down massive stairsets and wove through closely-nit granite buildings and skidded over rough cobble stone pathways. I didn´t have my camera and am very bummed I couldn´t document it. Louis had his phone and we got some videos and pictures. I´m sure if you wanted you could google it and find some info/pictures. Just type in Viseu Urban Downhill or something. Oh, and the hotel we had lunch at is called Hotel Monebelo and it is litterally across the street from our house.