Masato's Southern Europe/Morocco Africa Adventure

[Masato]

Hey all

I'm back. Crazy adventure, mind quite blown. Having culture shock coming back to Canada, if this makes any sense. Really open my eyes a lot and changed a lot of preconceived ideas and thoughts.

I guess that's what traveling does, I really hope to do more before I'm dead. Experiencing a real Islamic land for the first time is still like a dream in my head... was it even real??

1st stop: Lisbon, Portugal

This was the first pic I took, quite literally around the corner from our hotel. I have to congratulate my wife and father-in-law for finding hotels in cool parts of town. They only screwed up once, which worked out in our favor (I'll write about that when I get to it).



1st day we just went out exploring, not concerned with getting too lost because taxis are everywhere.



As a fan of symbology and conspiracy history, Lisbon made me question whether it really means anything anymore, lol. Obelisks, Masonic & Templar architecture and symbols EVERYWHERE, like to the point of redundancy. I gave up taking photos of it in the first 20 minutes, it is simply embedded into the city itself.




Food in Portugal was basically just like food in Brasil, only not as good, lol. Was sweet to have access to some brasilian delights:





Lisbon had the best quality GRAFFITI I've ever seen. That is, the ratio of really good graf to crappy graf was really high. Most of it I saw from moving vehicles so I really didn't score any photos of it. This is more of a mural than graffiti... but suffice to say there was lots of colorful street-art to be found. What was also nice is that there was virtually NO graffiti on the old architecture and historic sites... graf was in the right places, and the beauty of the old city could still look great













These guys are JAMMIN, lol and the old folks around them were digging it :D The pic doesn't show but the old people were singing and swaying along with huge smiles. Super delightful:

[Masato]

We went to some medieval town I forget the name of.

Like in the hardcore days where they'd hang someone from a wall to die just a few hundred feet away from the church, lol









view from the castle wall:

[Masato]

Portugal was most interesting because of the blatant evidence of KINGS and ELITE CLASS throughout its history. Castles and palaces... and CHURCHES EVERYWHERE. It almost became worthless to take pictures of beautiful catholic churches, because there are just so many of them. The Vatican and rich royal fucks ruled this land for a long time, and it seriously made me wonder if the whole 1% thing we are seeing right now is anything new at all.





Nonetheless, its hard to deny the craftsmanship of these buildings:



MOST of the churches all had direct reference and connection to the King and/or Queen of the time. Here is a tomb of one such royalty within the main hall of an old church. I began to seriously suspect that the 'church' was actually just a front/disguise to make the ruling class more appealing and justifiable to the masses. Were they churches, or monuments for the ruling families? The line becomes very blurred...

For instance, in this pic, there is a scale model of the church itself ON ITS SIDE, floating just above the Queen's head. ie; the church is her crown. After all the churches and palaces I saw, I feel that the churches were likely not at all the honest beacons of light and morality that such minds like EY profess, but were in fact massive egotistical arrogant boasting of the elite class, who simply hid under a guise of 'holiness' to protect them from being lynched

[Masato]

Beach about 2 hours out from Lisbon:


Another Church.
Another statue of nobility.



Nice carvings though... its a shame all the best artists of the day all had to work for the Vatican





Here is a site where apparently 3 children saw an apparition of Mary. Mary told them to gather the people the next day at a certain time and spot where she would reveal herself again. They did so, and the next day something like 30,000 people all saw some lights in the sky or something. Since then the site is considered a miracle site and catholics gather in mass every year. We caught the low season but on certain dates this place is FULL of catholics:


The long smooth pathway is for people to walk on their knees to give thanks for prayers that were answered. It is fucking LONG, lol... yet I saw many people of all ages and abilities making the pilgrimage. Some were obviously in pain, yet they kept going... many with help from their families etc.


The very tree that the original vision the 3 kids supposedly had took place:


These are the 3 kids:


This is a massive souvenir shop. This is only 1 corner. The place was HUGE, lol

[Masato]

One of few street-art photos I was able to take from moving vehicles:

[Masato]

OK Here is where I can explain what I mean about ROYALTY and 1% concepts while in Portugal.

This was a SUMMER HOUSE for the King & Queen. Not their palace, but their vacation home where they would come for fun and leisure.

This palace was the most ridiculously lavish thing I have ever seen in my life. It is humongous, and over the top to the point of absurdity. It is on the top of a high rock.mountain peak, which makes one wonder how the fuck they managed to even get the raw materials up there in the first place to build the damn thing.

It is a stupendous work of art, all for the private pleasure of the King and Queen's family. Paid for by EVERY OTHER WORKING MAN IN PORTUGAL.

This 'summer home' was enjoyed by 4 successive generations of royalty.

The final 'King & Queen' to enjoy this palace was lynched, dragged back to Lisbon, and publicly killed in the city square for all to see. Now the place generates money for the government as a tourist attraction. Has anything changed? lol








Not just the palace itself was luxurious... but they owned a massive plot of land around it, in which were endless walking paths, fountains, gardens, horse stables, pools, etc etc etc.








Kitchen: I took more pics of the balcony, bedrooms, etc... but you get the idea.

My son had some kind of a panic attack in here, which is strange because he has never had one before or since. About halfway through he started saying 'it's too much... it's too much..." and really started to creep out. I've never seen him react like this, but think I understand what he felt;

This place, as beautiful and touristy as it may be, was in my suspicion a very evil place. Nasty, nasty twisted people had this built off of slave-work, and lived in it with all their elitist greed and pompousness. No doubt they did not understand love and likely did many horrifying deeds. This was a fucked up place, and it was my hope that most tourists would see it as such, despite the impressive photos that it makes

[Masato]

The picturesque town beneath the King's Summer Palace... lots of other lesser-palaces of rich folk. Today this is a getaway for millionaires and movie stars, lots of huge private mansions and luxury hotels nestled among the hills:









The most western point of all Europe.
They called it 'the end of the world':

[Masato]

Rotary monument to Paul Harris. Apparently they like holding subs as long as possible:


:D

[Masato]

Some beach town we ate seafood in:



This was the port where all the Portuguese ships would sail out from to go to the 'New World'.
Columbus etc all sailed from this point, and would receive their farewells here.

It was also the point where they would blow the fuck out of you if you tried to soil in unwelcomed :D




More recent monument in the same place in tribute to the great explorers/conquerers:

[Masato]

OK - as an amateur conspiracy-history hunter, this place confused the hell out of me.

It was a Catholic Church... yet was absolutely littered with MASONIC and TEMPLAR symbols and architecture.

According to my limited bachelors degree at EY University, The Masons and the Vatican were UN-friendly with each other, until Vatican II if you follow that yarn. Yet here they are in a multi-100-year old church, together in unison. If anyone can take a crack at this I'd love to hear what you have to say about it:


Masonic architecture through and through... in a CATHOLIC CHURCH. wtf


Templar Crosses all over, outside and in, carved into the very stone: