magick greetings to you my friends!
today I'm going to talk about a very romantic outing with my Skav.
there's this place in mysterious, magickal Sintra where all the little fairies and friendly spirits gather;
"A Casa do Fauno", which loosely translated means, The House of Faun or Pan.
It's basically a big ancient house with some land situated up hill and very much removed from the comings and goings of all the damn tourist that swarm around the downtown and usual places for sightseeing.
*a part of they're garden dedicated to the fertility of mother earth*
on the ground floor you have the most cute and warm Medieval Pub, where they serve various meads and beers, and the occasional snacks. on the second floor you have the Magick Store, where you can find books upon books of secrets, statues and stones, jewelery of gods and witches - and of course - the sweet scent of incense prevails ever so strong.
every now and then I enjoy greatly to just pop in for a bit of spicy mead and an afternoon lunching.
there's something about Sintra that simply enchants every person that steps foot in it.
no wonder it's considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
when we leave to Norway... Sintra will be the place I miss the most.
oh well, on with the post;
*headband - Claire's/ scarf - thrift store/ coat - H&M/ skeleton leggings - Tally Weijl/ platform shoes - Demonia*
the photo is not by a long shot anything over the top gorgeous, but since I had no idea if I would be going on to the insides of the forest, I chose to do something simple and easy.
*black mascara - Maybelline/ black eyeliner - Kiko/ lipstick - dark plum by Avon/ eyebrows - shit I forgot*
once again the makeup is lazy at its best, but at least it seems I did some teeny-tiny effort.
*we hope*
oh yeah... I forgot to tell you guys something... remember that big announcement I had?
well, look at my photo once more.
My Skav has presented me with a gorgeous commitment ring!
well, it was actually last year after our one year anniversary... ops. sorry guys.
I just exploded when he showed me, we had a dinner and everything, it was so awesome... but the most badass thing is that this is actually a replica of the Lord of the Rings' the One ring! we just went with the sliver one because, honestly; when do you see metalheads wearing gold?
for a better look:
it never leaves my finger.
and it never will.
<3
when arriving at the place, the first thing you notice is the Faun, protecting the entrance and greeting us with a very kind face... and not prude at all. well, he must feel at home.
let's avoid the exhibitionist jokes just yet...
*view from the door, with the stage where celtic & medieval music is played, and stairs that lead to the Magick shop*
me and Skav are just in love with the decor of the entire place, we kept talking about doing something very similar in our future home.
*my sexy Bearded man*
*view from the back with a big, lovely fire place*
I was thinking to myself:
"there's absolutely no way in heaven that I'm gonna come here yet again and not take any pictures for future decorating reference...!"
*yours truly, happy but hungry*
*the cute menu, kinda makes you want to order something just for fun!*
this was our lunching!
two huge Franciscan beers and Requeijão & bread with honey and pumpkin jam.
if you're wondering about the requeijão:
oh my gosh, it was so delicious. I bet my left arm most of that stuff is biologically produced.
yummy.
after that we went on a little stroll, visiting some of the places we passed by when we went on a night time haunted tour of the woods, also provided by the Casa do Fauno.
my favorite story was not one that happened in the woods or the old forsaken villages that we saw on the tour, it was actually very close to the center of the town:
**Story Time**
maybe two decades ago, there was a building that used to be a hospital, what it was before no one quite remembered, but due to being very dilapidated the city council decided to have it renovated. the men started working right away, but it was not long before they started to feel the air very heavy...
but the men continued their labor. until one of them realised that one of the walls inside the building seemed to be hollow...
using the escuse of "hey, we're just doing our job" they broke down the wall, only to discover a massive throne all in dark wood and filled with intricate details carved in the wood itself.
and sitting at the throne there was a mummified Bishop, in full gown and hat, still clinging on to his gold staff of his "savior".
the men ran insanely out the doors and refused to continue working there until the place was exorcised.
what we now think that may have happened was that when the Plague came to Sintra (and considering those times when you had to make journeys on horseback for days to get anywhere) the Bishop caught the Plague, and to not contaminate anyone he must've ordered his servants to build a wall on the door of that room.
death by immurement.
creepy.
***
this place is a bit funnier... it has a very very... gay ghost that only tries to contact men.
a couple of paranormal researcher once slept there and nothing at all occurred.
the next night the man went alone. and guess what... our "happy" ghost tried his luck!
*caption on the slate loosely translated: Trail of the Valley of Angels*
as a translator I know perfectly well we're not supposed to translate certain names of places, but I think it's rather eerie that a place where so many horrid things happen to have *that* name.
I always feel extremely attracted to this trail... it's like something is beckoning me to enter. I have perfect knowledge of my "sensitive nature" and this place exudes older, ancient beings all around.
I feel exhilarated but prudent just by standing in the entrance. when I went there I just felt secure, as if whatever was there would not hurt me. I went with respect and openness to whatever they would like to share with me. but those experiences are a bit too personal, sorry!
*I have a little Orb just next to my face!*
**Story Time**
this is more of a conglomerate of stories actually, in this valley hundreds of years ago, many Nobles went there to have picnics or to steal a kiss or two from a Dame. one couple in particular that was very wealthy used to let her small child - a little girl with blonde hair - play in the valley whenever they went there, and nothing bad ever happened, after all that was a part of their property.
one day the child was found missing from their house, and almost everyone went out to try and find her.
there was talk of a man that may have stole the girl and ran to the Valley. but all the search made came to nothing. the girl, and supposed man never surfaced.
what was terrible about this is that something very horrible must've fallen upon that little girl, because since that day many people have seen her in the middle of the night, roaming the Valley of Angels, almost calling you. but people always seem to start running away screaming their lungs out.
some other stories were about a woman that was going to get married in a old house and on the day of her wedding she found a dead crow with a long pin thrust ed into his chest with a small piece of paper with the name of the groom on it.
that same night the groom dropped dead.
another story was the strange house where the movie "The Ninth Gate" that was partly filmed with our gorgeous Johnny Depp, called The House of the Witches, due to its very high roof tops in black that resemble the hats of old time witches. the man that lived there supposedly had the real book talked about in the movie, written by the Devil himself.
the reality differs from the movie (and a bit from the book, which I'm currently reading) this book was the sole creation of the horned god and no one else.
there were many more stories, but now... one of my own that I really want to share.
me and Skav went on the haunted tour with four more friends. we had our laughs and scares, and had a lovely night together. our friends were parked in the center of Sintra and we were parked fairly close to the House of Faun, so we said we would give them a little lift to their car.
now the math, pay attention:
we were 3 girls and 3 boys in the car, meaning 6 people in total.
we went on Skav's car talking and laughing, the usual.
at exactly 3:36 the radio of the car went from OFF to ON, on its own, in full blast.
I just let out a scream in disbelief...
everyone inside that car could not deny what we had just witenessed.
how about that, for the end of an haunted tour?
xoxo
