Good morning. It is a brisk, crisp morning in Portugal, and we are leaving Braga today.
It's a Thursday and we are headed to the nearby town of Barcelos. They have a market that is a weekly
market, and if you have watched some of our other videos, you know that we love to get to know a city
by climbing up and viewing a height or by going to the city market...
I hope you can hear those bells. That's really cool.
Anyhow, the market that we're headed to is not just the largest one in Portugal, but it is reputed to
be the largest one in Europe. I don't know if it's going to be the breadth of options, or if
it's how much space it covers, but we are really curious to see what this market has on offer.
[They'll have everything!] They probably will have more than Chagny. By the way, if you want to check
out some of our other videos on markets, go ahead and click the link in the top corner,
otherwise we'll pick you up in Barcelos. We don't have a car yet, so we're traveling by train.
WOW.
This is by far the biggest market we've ever been to. I don't even know how to keep track of
everywhere that we've been, versus where we haven't been. There are people going
up and down the aisles giving out brochures to real estate property, and they're selling lotto
tickets and linens by hand - like they're competing with the stalls that are here.
Sprawling doesn't begin to describe this. Just immense. Huge. Wow. There are maybe
like a hundred clothing stalls. I've never seen so many clothing stalls in a market.
Way more than that. Bill thinks more than a hundred.
If you watched our French series, you saw us visit the market in Chagny, France, and we
said that they had everything, and at the time we meant it. This market *really* has everything. They
have woven baskets. Lots of pottery, including something that I can't figure out what it is.
They have throw rugs. Need some furniture for your house?
You can even custom order your furniture while you're here.
Lawn ornaments. Souvenirs. You can buy curtains for your house. Very nice looking. You can buy
fabric here, and bedding. Plants for your house. You can never have too many purses. You might
need an umbrella! Seeds, so you can start your own garden. There's even a hardware stand.
You can be really happy when you kill a fly. :D
The cutest slippers I've ever seen.
Well, that's the first. We've never seen rope at a market before,
and a variety of handmade wooden objects.
You can buy CDs! Wait, does anybody do that anymore?? This cafe did not have Pastel da Nata.
This actually might be better. I have no idea what it is. It looks sort of like a nut roll.
It has a crust on the bottom, and it has a custard in the middle, very similar to the Pastel da Nata. Then it's
topped with roasted peanuts and a layer of honey on top, and it's a mouthful, so give me a minute.
Oh gosh. There's also some coconut. It is crunchy and creamy and crispy all at the same time. It is
one of the most amazing desserts i've ever had, and Bill thinks he's getting half of this.
Little does he know! Poor Bill. So until Heather lets me have a bite of the other thing,
this is what I've got. It's basically a Pastel da Nata, but in a kind of muffin form,
with the stuffed cream in the middle, and a little bit of coconut. It's very good.
All of this was only 3 euro.
We just finished our break. We would estimate that we're about 33 to 50% done with
walking through the market, and we have been here for an hour and a half...but like
20 minutes of that was our coffee break. Expansive. The market's just huge. We haven't even gotten to
like the food part yet. There was a little bit. Yeah, there was a little bit, just in
the middle, and it was all really small farmers, it looked like, or maybe just people selling things
from their gardens, which was kind of neat. That was the busiest part of the market for sure.
We found all the produce.
Look at all the amazing fruit!
Ham and cheese, right next to a bread stand. The bread smells amazing.
Nuts! Norwegian Bacalao.
Kitchen items.
Can I bring this in my carry on?
Don't bump this table!
There are roosters everywhere! And why are there so many roosters in Barcelos? Well, there's an old
Portuguese folktale about a man accused of a crime he didn't commit. He proclaimed his
innocence to the local magistrate, who was in the middle of eating a rooster dinner. He protested by
saying, "It is as certain as I am innocent, as that rooster will crow when they hang me." As the man
was being hung, the judge's roasted rooster got up and crowed, proving the man's innocence. The judge
hurried into town to save the man, was successful, and the man continued on his pilgrimage as a free
man. The legend has continued over the years and the rooster is now one of the proud symbols of
Portugal. The rooster sculpture that's behind me is actually made of paper roses and it's beautiful.
Up on top is one of their roosters all made out of paper roses. It's beautiful, really unique. Very cool.
That was a pretty good market. Yeah. It was fantastic - similar to some of
the other ones we've been to, but it's just bigger. Everything was bigger about it.
I know we said it before, but they really did have everything there. It was such a diverse offering.
I don't think I've ever seen so many clothes in one place. You can clothe yourself, you can
furnish your home, get everything you need to cook a meal, including the pots and pans.
It was definitely a market that was more toward the locals, which made it a really fun
atmosphere. We were some of the only tourists and we really loved experiencing their weekly market.
We just had the best lunch! We stumbled into this restaurant and we asked,
"Do you speak English, or Spanish?" and he goes, "no English, no English - Spanish," and then proceeded
to speak in English to us, just a little bit, and told us that we have chicken, and we have pork.
I ordered chicken and Bill ordered pork, and we had no idea how much it cost. There didn't seem to
be a menu, and we asked if they had soup and they did, so we had soup. I had a Coke, Bill had wine.
We had a pretty big meal. No idea how much it was going to cost.
And the bill came out and Bill paid it. Bill paid the bill (haha), and it was a whopping 10 euro. That's for
both of us, not each. What a bargain, my gosh. It was totally local Portuguese cooking and we
were clearly the only tourists that were there. That's the best kind of meal to have.
We are headed back to Braga. We've had fun here checking out the market. As we've mentioned,
we really enjoy markets, especially when they're like these and they're made more for locals.
This one is a bit clumsy to get to from Braga. If you love markets, then plan on making a day trip
out of this because there are no direct trains, and you have to connect so it's a little bit
longer of a journey in order to come here. If you have a car and you enjoy markets, then you
have to put this on your list when you visit Portugal. Yep, definitely. Now we're headed back
because there's some rain moving in and we are a little bit underprepared for that today.