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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2013 5:51:01 GMT
The brochures really bring home the feeling of the era, but what I find really amazing is how the 1970's are beginning to look like the 1950's in my mind. And yet when I was living through the 1970's, I thought they were exciting and modern.
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Post by htmb on Aug 6, 2013 6:52:34 GMT
Yes, it was definitely a first class-type of trip. When they planned it they had no idea I'd be tagging along. I was hastily added about a couple of weeks before the beginning of the trip. I have no recollection of getting a passport that fast, but somehow it was worked out.
Yes, I was allowed in the casino. I had just turned 22.
Just to add, these were not people who lived the high life on a routine basis, but rather solid, hardworking individuals who were treating themselves to a well-deserved vacation. This was probably their first trip abroad, but their first semi-extravagant trip, for sure.
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Post by htmb on Aug 6, 2013 22:26:16 GMT
At some point in the trip we visited the shrine at Fatima. We then left Lisbon for the eastern border with Spain. The date was around April 15, 1974, and there was a lot of tension in the car during the drive to the border. Ever since entering Portugal one of the ladies had constantly sipped alcohol to calm her nerves. As Jack drove towards the border, Maria sipped and prayed, while clutching rosary beads in her hand. She really was a wreck. As a Spanish American, she had felt very alienated and unsafe the whole time we were in Portugal. 25 April 1974 - Carnation Revolution
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2013 4:14:21 GMT
I don't know how it is now, but in the past the Spaniards and Portuguese had very few affinities.
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Post by htmb on Aug 7, 2013 14:41:05 GMT
I don't know if it was officially suggested or if the chaperones just made the supposition, but there was thought that the vandalizing of our car in Porto during a large street gathering had been partially precipitated by the Spanish license plates.
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Post by bjd on Aug 7, 2013 18:00:11 GMT
This inspired me to read about the Carnation Revolution. All I remembered was that shops and restaurants in the Portuguese neighbourhood of Toronto suddenly changed their names in order to put "April 25" or "revolution" or something like that in the name.
I guess it wasn't too overblown in the news at the time because Portugal was a small country on the edge of Europe, but I really should have known more about it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2013 4:13:16 GMT
Htmb, I can't tell you how much bittersweet pleasure this thread has given me, particularly the first part. Even though my family was in Spain almost 20 years before your visit there, so many of the pictures look the same as I remember it. But it's that first photo of the family you visited that puts me around the bend every time I look at it. More than anything, it brings back forcefully the whole feel of the country, even the way it smelled. *sniffle* Thanks for this!
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Post by htmb on Aug 10, 2013 6:44:26 GMT
You are welcome, Bixa.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2013 6:45:14 GMT
I don't know if it was officially suggested or if the chaperones just made the supposition, but there was thought that the vandalizing of our car in Porto during a large street gathering had been partially precipitated by the Spanish license plates. Up until about 10 years ago, cars with French plates were regularly vandalized in the Spanish Basque country due to the cooperation -- or rather zeal -- of the French government in arresting ETA members.
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