This past summer, I went to Lisbon with my boyfriend for about 10 days, where we saw museums, historical sights and experienced amazing food. Throughout our trip, I was able to not only practice my Portuguese, but also show my culture to my boyfriend and have him experience the culture I was raised in. We stayed in Lisbon for the whole trip, while also doing day trips to other cities and towns in the area. Having visited many museums, I also learned a lot about the history of Portugal, especially during and right after the Salazar dictatorship.
The only things I had really ever learned about the dictatorship as a kid was when my grandmother would tell me about little blips from her childhood – his picture was in every classroom at her school and my whole family immigrated to the US to avoid my grandmother’s brother from being enlisted in the Portuguese Amy during the Portuguese Colonial War. As I got older I learned some of the history by myself, but being in Portugal I learned a lot through exhibitions in the museums.
My favorite part of the trip was when went to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos – a monument on the Tejo River in Lisbon dedicated to the Portuguese discoverers like Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral. While the monument was completed right before the start of the Colonial War, it was used during the rest of the Salazar regime to bolster national pride in colonialism and public opinion on the war. Nowadays, the basement of the monument has different exhibits depending on the time of the year. When I went, it was Visões do Império, which focused on Portugal’s atrocities committed during their colonization of Africa. It was so interesting to learn about the lies the Salazar government told the UN and the views the colonizers had towards native Africans. Online versions of the pamphlets about the exhibit are available in English and in Portuguese.
Another really interesting museum was the Fado Museum. Fado is a type of traditional Portuguese music that incorporates feelings of melancholy and nostalgia (saudade), and was very popular leading up to and during the Salazar regime. At the Fado museum, we walked around with an audio device that told about the history of the music genre, while showing different guitars and photographs of famous Fado singers or Fado houses where it was sung. It was so interesting to not only learn about the history, but to also see how newer Fado singers are changing the genre and diverging from its reputation and association with the Salazar regime. The website gives a good history of the Fado as well.
We went to other places too, like the Monastery of Jerónimos, Fátima, Sintra and Óbitos. We saw religious sites and historical monuments, all while I was able to practice my Portuguese. There were a lot of COVID restrictions at the time, especially because in August when we went, the vaccination drive was still underway so not everyone had access to vaccines. We had to wear our masks in all indoor and outdoor settings, which was really different to the US, where no one was wearing their masks anywhere at all. Another thing that was interesting was the EU COVID Green Pass, which was required to eat at restaurants at night or on the weekends. I was only asked for proof of vaccination when I entered Portugal and when I went to check into our hotel. While I saw it being used for French tourists to enter restaurants, my boyfriend and I were never asked at all, which could be because US citizens don’t have access to the pass. One interesting thing that I noticed was that the Portuguese were very good at wearing their masks, and the one time we saw someone wearing it under their nose, it was a British tourist who was immediately asked to leave the museum we were in. Now, Portugal has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and I believe most COVID restrictions were removed. Overall, the experience was really amazing. Lisbon is known internationally for their museums, and if you ever get the chance to go, I would highly recommend going!
