It sounds like a joke, but we’re absolutely serious. Let me rephrase that: we seriously intend to have a lot of fun. Fun in bars all over Portugal, along with the diverse and delightful cast of characters that own, run and frequent them. “We” being myself and the Irishman you met a few columns ago, Bobby O’Reilly, together with a professor of documentary filmmaking, Andrew Cline.
It was Andy, fairly recently settled in Aveiro having moved from the United States, who innocently shared an over-a-beer-idea to make some short films about the life we love here in Portugal.
Less than a year, and many more beers later, the first such film has been released, where the Englishman and the Irishman walk into a bar in my hometown. Here, the host invites us to see octopus and black pork being cooked expertly in his kitchen, and share the experience with a merry band of foreigners, who are similarly delighted by this country’s culture and the wonderful adventures it so easily generates.
It had long been a wish of mine to document and celebrate life in Portugal, with a heavy emphasis on food, wine and local characters. With the arrival of expert film-maker Andy, the idea seemed to have legs, apparently as abundantly as the sea creature featured in our first episode.
Mr O’Reilly, we soon discovered, was also interested in sharing the unassuming beauty of Portuguese culture around the world, which led to a first filming event in Tomar, late last year.
The Silver Coast provided the backdrop for our second ‘shoot’, and Coimbra, at Christmas time, the third. With so many bars to choose from, and with so many bar owners, who are more often than not fascinating characters, the challenge for us has been, and will remain, one of being spoiled for choice, not scarcity of opportunity or content. We could of course, and would gladly, make this a life-long endeavour, which I am sure will never run dry in terms of amazing venues and incredible hosts, sharing local specialities with unique back-stories.
So that’s the idea: Carl and Bobby walk into a bar, somewhere in Portugal, and have a conversation with the owner, the regulars, any Good Morning Portugal! Community members who’ve come along for the ‘craic’, filmed by Andy, and we see what happens.
What has happened so far has been superb with confessions (“I don’t really like Bacalhau”), Templar Knights (originally from Birmingham, UK) seen armed and running from banks in Tomar, as well as the sampling of beer made from wine in Coimbra (after a red-faced visit to the city’s ‘erotic’ museum). All of life is here; rich, deep and playful Portuguese life, shared with a quiet pride, in all its modest yet outstanding glory.
A subtle undercurrent of this joyful endeavour is the gentle rivalry between us co-hosts and the love we have for our respective parts of the country. Me on what’s called the Silver Coast of Portugal (though not generally by the Portuguese), and Bobby, South of Lisbon, on the ‘Margem Sul’, a place he has loved deeply since he first set eyes on it, seeing early on a potential that many more now realise.
He’s someone who spends a lot of time travelling around the world and has been to many of the greatest destinations on our wonderful planet. “I can’t see myself living anywhere else in the world, except here,” he told me during one of our filming sessions, as we took a sunset drink together on his beloved Fonte da Telha beach, which is featured in our introductory sequence. “Portugal is fantastic, 20 minutes from the city and paradise on my shoulder.”
For me, I love small town life where it’s an ongoing pleasure to feel more and more a part of a local community that so amply illustrates the key themes we want to share in our film series.
“Portugal is so picturesque, so accessible,” I begin in my on-camera appreciation whilst chatting with my Emerald Isle amigo. “But I think we’re looking to go a bit deeper. Everyone knows about the Algarve and the pastel de nata, but if you’re patient and you’re prepared to go on a journey, it’s like a courtship and Portugal is a ‘mysterious maiden’.”
As for Bobby: “I want to show the madness. The bull running for instance. It’s amazing. It is really, really crazy. And we can stamp on some grapes and maybe try a bit of kite surfing? I invite people to come along with us and see what crazy stuff we’re gonna get up to, and hopefully they’ll like what they see.”
“You have to go on a journey and there’s so much to see. You can keep going, and you’re still going to find new things. Everything from its architecture to its customs and culture. What they eat, what they drink, how they do it and when they do it. This country is so different from the North to the South,” adds my buddy enthusiastically, whilst sipping his cocktail from a nearby bar, unnervingly for me – a Sex on the Beach.
Strangely, I don’t remember signing up for any bull running, turning my legs purple with grape juice or donning my speedos for some extreme watersports, but I am game for a laugh, a challenge, and, most importantly, to discover more of the mystery that this country continues to reveal to me, year after year. As well as all of those customs and quirks that Bobby so passionately speaks of.
My local landscape, Tomar, Coimbra and Bobby’s backyard have all already revealed treasure under their touristic surface. And I have no doubt that many more villages, towns and cities will be equally enthralling once that touristy top layer has been scratched and the booty beneath is exposed to us expat explorers, fittingly in the land of the notable navigators and diligent discoverers.
Returning to my mysterious maiden metaphor on film, I assert that “if you’re pushy, demanding, impolite or rude, some of the secrets of this country will not be revealed to you.” And this, just as Bobby craves craziness, will remain my part of the partnership – the cautious courtship with Portugal that began as romance and continues to develop into a deep bond that only time and tenderness can bring.
But don’t get me wrong, a little bit of crazy won’t be far away. Especially when an Englishman and Irishman walk into a bar in Portugal …
See below the first film in the series: ‘A tender octopus & a dark secret about cod’
Carl Munson is host of the Good Morning Portugal! show every weekday on YouTube and creator of www.learnaboutportugal.com, where you can learn something new about Portugal every day!
