Mafra was not an intentional stop, more of a whim. We saw the sign for the UNESCO World Heritage Site from the highway and decided to have a walk around. We found a parking spot not far from the highway ramp and walked toward the palace. There were some interesting mosaics and street art on the way.
The palace was, unfortunately, just closing when we arrived. One day I will have to make it back there.
The palace gardens were open so we took a walk around.
It just so happened that we stopped for the Festival do Pao. The park was absolutely packed with people! On the main stage, young girls danced with bread. People walked around in costumes. There was a giant bicycle somewhere, food trucks, an artesinal fair, and music. It was really good energy.
There were vendors selling some kind of bread roll with meats baked in. I have absolutely no idea what they are called, but they were freshly baked in a wood fire oven, so I had to give it a try.
Opposite the food trucks, there was an artisanal fair. As I walked around the booths looking at art I was stopped dead in my tracks, literally, by the smell of strawberries. This is not like strawberries in the grocery store. If you have never picked strawberries on the farm in the heat of summer you do not know this smell. This is the smell of summer roadstand fruits, ripe, ready, warm in the July heat. And wafting through this park. I had to hunt for a while before I found the booth. But there it was. We bought a whole kilo of the strawberries and ate them as we walked around.
I bought two candles from a booth with some crazy designs I had never seen before. You can find them at @velasencantadas on Instagram. The candles are 3D printed in wax.
We managed to finish the whole kilo of strawberries before leaving the park. Really, they were that good. So we went back and bought another kilo. There were about 6 left in the morning. These strawberries were actually so good I got a tattoo. Not even joking. I went and got a strawberry tattoo. If you are near Lisboa in summer, you absolutely have to find Frescos da Vila
PigTailz 