Belem

Olá!

Welcome to Belém. Today we explored a different area of Portugal known for its war tower, monastery, and sweets! Exactly in that order, because after such a holy endeavor it was only right that we engaged in gluttony, reminded me again why it’s a sin when it tastes soooo good? 

We woke up bright an early before the rest of the city thanks to jet lag. Literally it was us and the suits walking the streets, which was kind of funny because it was only 8:30 am. Man, maybe I’ll move here just to be a suit that walks into work at 9, forget the American system where as a law intern I was up at 5:30 am and clocking in at 7:15 hahaha. 



Fun fact, the whole city is tiled (buildings and floors) which is beautiful but makes a rather precarious walk. I’ve almost fallen down a couple of times going up or downhill, good think I’ve got pretty good balance. The black and white tiles are actually Roman influence, and the colorful tiles you saw yesterday are Moorish influence. Who knew? 



This is the tower of Belem, which served as both a guarding tower and hosting place for both governors and dignitaries. They were either hosted in the chambers upstairs or locked away in the prison cells down under. Being the loud mouth, opinionated woman that I am, my stay here in the 16th century would have most likely been in one of the lovely prison cells. 

The photoshoots continue, I really have to hand it to Nayyirah. She’s very into Instagram and has somehow turned me into a model. I swear all of these pictures she’s captured were actually 100% natural, she just happened to catch the right moment.

See what I mean? These two pictures are two seconds apart and the bottom one is what I look like 99.99% of the time hahaha. Nine I think you’ve found a back up job if pre-med fails you, remember to invite me to all your A lister parties okay?

Look what Mom found? Turns out the Moors and the Jews has some fun sneaking some Star of David and Allahu images into the designs. Didn’t see that mentioned in the Portuguese tour....hmmmm...









We climbed the tower!  They only allow 50 people at a time up the tower.







We decided Rapunzul would need a lot of hair to get down from this part of the tower...





And those tiny dots are us, way up there between the crenelated battlements...





We then made our way to Jeronimos Monastery. It was beautiful and HUGE. This was a vacation pad for the Monks.  Those monks lived in a really nice space. 










Mom was having a blast photographing the archways and angles with her artistic eye. I say she did pretty well!!










After spending the day baking in the hot Portuguese sun, and I mean baking, I think this is the first time in my life I’ve actually been sunburned and it was WITH 90 SPF, we decided to indulge in the local specialty, Pasteis de Belem called Pastel de Nata. Essentially it’s a puff pastry egg custard and it’s DELICIOUS. I’m not a big egg person but add some sugar and cream and sure, I’ll eat these any day of the week. 





The line was out the door, so we got ours to go and enjoyed the shade in the park across the street. 







That’s how we found this structure apparently gifted to the city of Belen by a Thai princess!! Sometimes I’m so jealous of older countries histories. You just can’t compete.





Anyways, we were pretty beat by the end of the day. I know that I just crashed in bed the second my head hit the pillow. These hills and stairs will kill ya, looks like I don’t have to worry about fitting into my bridesmaids dress after all hahaha. Talk to you tomorrow!!

Xoxo,
Carolyn