New and Interesting experiences
We explore some new places and enjoy an International Thanksgiving
The email query from my aunt and uncle arrived late one evening, asking about which airport was best to fly into when coming for a visit. We told them to avoid the Lisbon airport when possible, and that the Porto airport allows for easy access. About 3 weeks later, we were picking them up at the Porto airport.
Thirty-five years ago, my aunt and uncle had been Rotary volunteers in a humanitarian project in the Montemuro region of Portugal. Among other work they performed, they brought two looms up to a small farming village, to enable village families to weave wool and flax fabric, creating income to pay bus fare for their children to travel to neighboring towns for school. The villagers already had a single 200-year-old loom, but adding two more would triple their capacity and create learning opportunities for other artisans.
Through Facebook and email, my uncle sought help in re-visiting the project sites. Through Lamego Rotary Club, which hosted the original project, plans were made to revisit the workshop where the looms had been installed.
Visiting the workshop was the start of a magical and meaningful day. Not only were the looms still in use, but they still play an important part in the economics of the community. The “Capuchinhas” workshop still employs multiple artisans in the small village of Campo Benfeito. We enjoyed visiting with them, and many smiles and hugs were exchanged. Efti and I were surprised that our Portuguese had improved enough that we could carry on basic conversations, especially since they speak slower and more distinctly outside of major cities.
The Rotarians had even more surprises in store. Another Rotary volunteer from 35 years ago made the Montemuro his home, starting an additional effort that is also still functioning. Ervital grows and harvests organic herbal products mainly used in infusions and condiments. They use solar energy to dry, cut and package their products, and are one of the largest lemongrass producers in Portugal. They employ numerous locals from the Montemuro area to do the work. The warehouse smelled amazing. We went for lunch with everyone, at a local restaurant. The grilling herbs used at the restaurant of course came from ervital. We used some at home for the evening’s chicken dinner, and not only was it delicious, it made the entire house smell delightful for hours afterwards. Highly recommended. We ordered 8 more tins of the grilling herbs after dinner - it’s that good.
After grabbing a charge for Feijão at the Burger King (the only fast charger in Lamego) and visiting the nearby Rotary-sponsored traffic circle, we walked through Lamego to grab coffee and visit with locals, and wrapped up with a visit to the coffee shop where my aunt and uncle had spent many evenings after their volunteer activities. It was a fantastic experience, and the Rotary Club members went out of their way to make the visit special.
The following week I undertook some long-delayed dental surgery to address some significant gum recession I’ve been experiencing. The recovery was a little rougher than I had anticipated, and I stupidly decided to overlap the recovery period with starting up a new Ultimate Frisbee club in Coimbra. The good news is that I’m fully recovered, and the Ultimate team is seeing regular turnout.
In the middle of all that, we had a very international Thanksgiving dinner with our multinational friends here in Coimbra. Every dinner participant drew a country for a main savory dish or a dessert, but none of the food sources corresponded with where people are from, so we had food from 10 different countries, prepared by people from 10 other countries. It was a delicious experience that we hope to replicate again next year. It was a fun challenge, and very flavourful.
The day after Thanksgiving, we flew to Istanbul to start an intense and moving trip. First, we had the opportunity to meet my brother-in-law’s new wife, Asti. They were in Istanbul on their honeymoon, and we managed to grab a coffee with them while we were all there.
The new airport in Istanbul is a long way from the city, and most Taxi rides are roughly 400-500 Turkish Lira. There is a bit of a game where most of the taxis serving the airport refuse to turn on their meter, and won’t accept credit card payment, instead trying to get riders to pay in Euro or USD. We had a rough experience on arrival and departure, and ended up over-paying in both directions. The return was especially egregious: The driver told me the charge was going to be 500 lira, but covered the screen as I tapped the credit card to the machine, and then handed me a receipt for 1,400 as he left. We toyed with the idea of reporting him to the police, but in the end, decided that karma would be a better payment method.
From Istanbul, we flew to Medina, Saudi Arabia. It was the first stop in our “Umrah” visit to Medina and Mecca. Getting passes to complete the required Hajj have been almost impossible post-COVID, so we decided that doing Umrah first would be a good way to learn more about the process and how things worked. The experience in both cities was intense and powerful.
Medina was first, and is home to the Prophet's Mosque, which incorporates the final resting place of Muhammad (PBUH). It is a beautiful spot, with large sun-shielding umbrellas that open in the morning to shield people from the harsh sun, and symmetrical two-color arches throughout the interior.
The Prophet's Mosque provided a relatively peaceful place of reflection. However, during prayer times it was crowded. It can hold 1.5 million people, and it does an excellent job of allowing ingress and egress to those large numbers of people.
After a few meaningful days in Medina, we took the fast train to Mecca to perform Umrah. Neither of us had ever been to Mecca, and we were somewhat blown away by the enormity of it. Masjid al-Haram in Mecca is the most expensive building in the world today and one of the oldest Mosques in the world. It is home to the Ka’ba, the ZamZam Well, the hills of Safa and Marwa, and is the place where every able-bodied Muslim in the world is required to visit if they can.
After our poor experiences in Istanbul, in both Medina and Mecca we located alternative modes of transportation than taxis. This resulted in good luck. In Mecca we arrived at the hotel in midafternoon after taking the public bus from the train station, and were upgraded to an executive suite which had just come available, overlooking Masjid al-Haram. In some cases, we were even able to jama‘ah from our room, without having to go all the way to the mosque itself.
We were able to complete Umrah that first night we arrived, with the assistance of an Indonesian who lives in Mecca and assists pilgrims with Hajj and Umrah. Afterwards, we were able to complete the Umrah again without any assistance.
It’s difficult to even get a picture of Masjid al-Haram due to its enormity. It is constantly full of people, and can hold somewhere around 2.5 million. It’s been expanded numerous times over its history, and there are parts which are still quite ancient, and other parts which are fully modern, with air conditioning and escalators. While we were in Saudi Arabia, we were lucky to be able to meet up with some of our Indonesian relatives, who also assisted us in navigating our way through the massive complex and with some of the finer points of the Umrah.
It’s hard to capture the true nature of the experience. It is intense, meaningful, crowded, hot, challenging and comes with a kaleidoscope of cultures, languages and people. I’m still mentally chewing over the experience. We hope to be able to complete Hajj in the near future, and feel better prepared for the experience now that we’ve completed Umrah. We also know that Hajj, with its immense crowds of people and additional requirements, will be even more challenging.
With sadness, we left Mecca and flew back to Istanbul for a few days of sightseeing. We booked a dedicated van ride from the airport this time. It’s normal to get sick after the crowds of Medina and Mecca. Despite wearing masks as much as possible, we both ended up sick by the time we arrived in Turkey – Efti worse than I. What was going to be some local sightseeing turned into a 36-hour sick-in-bed-with-fever episode. Thankfully that episode passed soon enough that we were able to join a Sunset tour of the Bosphorus Strait that we had pre-booked.
Our hotel was in the old town, quite near to the ancient Roman Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque and Agia Sophia. After a couple days of convalescence, we finally managed to get out of the hotel and explore a little bit. Both Agia Sophia and the Blue Mosque have a very distinctive architecture, where four massive internal columns support multiple, overlapping domes. It makes for a stunning sight, both inside and out. Almost every other major mosque in Istanbul mimics this architecture, making for large domes, soaring ceilings and beautiful minarets to punctuate the corners.
This was our first trip to Turkey and KSA (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), but Insha’Allah will not be our last. We hope to further explore Turkey, and get outside of Istanbul to be away from the hordes of tourists and pushy salespeople. We also hope to complete Hajj, when we can win a lottery slot.
It was nice to come home, get the stitches removed from my mouth, and get clearance to participate in sports again. The kayak paddling club was happy to see me, and it was great fun to teach and play ultimate with some eager new faces.
Karma update: After getting ripped off by the Turkish taxi driver, we enjoyed three successive hotel room upgrades, so we figured we evened out our luck for the trip. Thanks Marriot Bonvoy!
Happy Holidays everyone!
Hi Rustam & Mba Efti, I stumbled into your blog. What amazing reads! We are currently in Portugal and wondering if you guys still live in Coimbra. If so, would love to get together! I sent a DM to Mba Ef’s Instagram.
What amazing experiences! Thank you for sharing this, Rustam.