A tale of the regions

I live in the Alentejo which is the farming/rural region. We're about second on the list of regions/people you make fun of for being a bit slow. You will have noticed all the white houses in my photos. They stay that white because they get painted every year/two and they they get cleaned every week. The joke is that the reason for this is theres nothing better to do here. One of my geos made the joke that she was a true Alentajana this week when she got given a pocket knife. Even in restaraunts you're sometimes expected to slice bread, sausage or cheese with your own knife.

While I was walking around the castle I was walking through the day-trippers out from Lisbon. Theyre pretty easy to pick from the Alentejanos as theyre yuppies. Im trying to decide whether theyre more like Sydneysiders or Melburnians. Probably Melburnians -like them they have the gold jewellery, leather jackets and designer jeans. Thankfully the young people are more like what you expect from European 20-somethings with the same sub-cultures as everywhere although with the Portugese twist/taste - i.e. food, drink and football as well as movies and music!

Madeira is the "region" made fun of most because they "sound strange". Another reason may be because its an island so its in the same position as Tasmania (loose stats 40km x 20km). Anyway Nacional Madeira were top of La Liga last weekend for the first time in 90-odd years. And like when Tasmania won the shield everyone went a bit quiet. But the the season is only 12 weeks old and thankfully normal service was resumed on Monday when Porto won and moved to the top of the league.

I had to choose a football team here, a big decision given how football-mad everyone is. Your team stamps who you are, who your friends are and how much respect others give you. Most go for one of the big three (Sporting, Benfica, Porto), however you really have to be from the north to go for Porto and everyone hates Benfica. Theyre like the Man U or Collingwood of Portugal. So choosing Sporting wasnt really that hard. They play Porto tonight so its the first real test of my new loyalties and I may realise the full implications of that decision (one of my fieldies is already disgusted with me, the other reckons its great).