Starting this trip was pretty difficult-I had many doubts, I felt like everything was against me except for my wish to leave. I made the reservations and just one day before leaving I caught a terrible conjunctivitis :-) so I postponed for another day and even thought about canceling the whole trip. This is what I did not do but I had second thoughts for a while. My final destination was Santiago de Compostela, a place that I wanted to visit for a long time so I thought-"well, people usually go on their own to Santiago, maybe this was my very own way, my pilgrimage, modern pilgrimage" :-) I discovered marvelous places along the way, I fell in love more and more with Portugal and its people and I got scared of the crowds of Santiago. My journey began in Viana do Castelo.
Viana do Castelo
I got there after noon, looked for my hotel for a while (I still take pride in not owning a GPS but I think it is a foolish pride now :-) and enjoyed the warm weather of Viana. This is the second time I am there-the first was on a rainy, grey day, with no people in the street-this is why now I realized what the blessing of the Sun means. The streets were crowded but not that noisy, the city was in feast (they were celebrating Romaria da Nossa Senhora d'Agonia http://www.vianafestas.com/festas-agonia/ - these are religious feasts when everybody gets in the street, go to the church and they organize various beautiful events and adorned with hanging scarves.
or you can just see the nice puppets and the puppets museum....these are just a few "samples" from the entrance.
I am not a "soul thief" as they say, but I couldn't help myself not to take a picture of this nice couple-in my mind they were definitely French and living a lovely love story.
Unfortunately I was not there present during the ceremony of Romaria, but I felt the energy around it. I also fell in love again with the traditional artwork of the artisans. I didn't have much time to visit but Viana is little and accidently I got to see the main churches-if you are a passionate of religious art and love anything from the 15-16th century on you can easily find all these in Viana do Castelo. I visited Igraja das Almas, Misericórdia, Igreja de São Domingos, the Cathedral....
I have a crush on Viana do Castelo gold earrings and discovered the sweets of the regions-aleluia :-), clarinhas...and some tiny round chocolates that I never got to taste-"Imperadores Avianense".
