the salty coast

Just in time for lunch time, today, I wanted to celebrate a great eat whenever you are in Portugal in August (mostly).  It is the Pão Com Chouriço that you can buy a many Festas Populares. It is super yummy, and just a good reason to sit and have a drink with friends.  Plus, it makes it that much easier to watch people go by.  This is a national past time, after all. Here is an example of the type of vendors you'll find.  They go through and show you how they prepare it and everything.  Makes me miss it that much more! I also found another site that actually has a great recipe to make it at home with.   Oh my goodness, her photos are great, made me that much hungrier for pão com chouriço! Photo from Flicker .  Great shot!

Here we go! The official song for us to cheer Portugal with! Cântico da Seleção Portuguesa - Euro 2012 Temos a luz que não se apaga E a voz que ninguém vai calar Temos no peito uma vontade Que só nos faz querer ganhar Dá-lhe dá-lhe Portugal! x2 Dá-lhe dá-lhe dá-lhe Portugal Filhos da força e da coragem Donos de uma alma sem igual Uma energia inesgotável Está sempre contigo, Portugal. Dá-lhe dá-lhe Portugal! x2 Dá-lhe dá-lhe dá-lhe Portugal

Thank-you Vanity Fair, for putting Cristiano & World Cup friends on its June cover, but also inside their pages - photos below. Here is a snippet from the article: For the June issue of Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz set out to capture some of the sport’s biggest stars, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, and Brazil’s Kaká. Leibovitz’s portraits are, well, revealing. And underwear has never looked so patriotic. In America, these men might not enjoy the same name recognition as the stars of the N.F.L.—that game that we call football—but for most of the planet, they are more than just showstoppers. They are gods. Watch video below: Source

As you may have heard, last Saturday February 20th, there were devastating floods and mudslides on the island of Madeira.  Based on government estimations, there could be as many as 42 victims of this tragedy.  With at least 120 people injured. On Monday, the government declared three days of mourning.  On the left, is the cover of the recent edition of the national Portuguese newspaper, O Publico.  It is terribly sad what has happened to this island.  They need as much assistance as possible at this point. Cristiano Ronaldo, who is from Madeira, has paid tribute to the victims - during a recent match, after scoring a goal he lifted his shirt to reveal a white t-shirt with "Madeira" written on it.   He later offered his assistance.  Being that I'm living in Canada, I looked for a way to help, and I found a web site that is currently accepting donations to help - a disaster relief fund .    ...

Danny had the unfortunate result of placing last in this year's 15 Cross-Country Skiing event (at the 2010 Winter Olympics).  Great effort, and keep it up - if you do what you love, that's all that matters.   It's been great to even be able to look for Portugal in the Winter Olympics (in Portugal, normally, you don't see much snow...although it hasn't been like that lately).  Perhaps, we can look forward to more athletes competing in the future.  For now, we can put all our hopes in the 2010 World Cup.

Back in 2006, during the Torino Winter Olympics, I had blogged about Danny Silva, the sole Portuguese athlete representing Portugal at the Winter Olympics.   It was great to have him visit the site & leave me some feedback.  It is something to be proud of - I can only hope that we have more Portuguese athletes competing in the coming years.  This year, in the 2010, Danny is back, and will be competing tomorrow, February 15th,  in the Men's 15 km Cross-Country Skiing event.   Good luck Danny!  Força!   Read this great article about him ( em portugues ). Danny's personal site - ( em portugues )

It's official! Portugal has picked a theme song for the 2010 World Cup - it's Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling". As a response, the Black Eyed Peas posted a video on YouTube congratulating and backing Portugal to win the World Cup. If only that were enough to win. I gotta feeling we're in for one of those 2002 type world cups...hopefully not...but like I said, it's a feeling: