I last posted on Thursday, today is Tuesday. What happened since then? I went for an aborted walk around town, getting caught out in a rainstorm. It started out spitting, and I thought it would subside, but no, just got worse. So I made my way back to the apartment, slowly getting soaked. The cobblestones of Lisbon are actually very smooth and therefore slippery. It became ridiculous to walk in my flipflops, because the flipflops were slipping on the stones, and my wet feet were slipping on the flipflops. It was getting to be quite dangerous, so I just took off my flipflops and walked barefoot around the city. The residents of Lisbon seem to know when it will rain and were all equipped with umbrellas. not me, so there was a soaking wet tourist, walking barefoot around a strange new city, getting funny looks from the old people and smiles from the young people. I had to just smirk and walk confidently through the rain. I mean it's quite fun when you know you're on your way back to dry clothes.
Friday night turned into an impromptu party with my flatmates. Ok, party is overstating it. But we all ate together, and had a buffet of various drinks, from beer, wine, grappa, and the Jägermeister I imported from Germany. I later went upstairs to the neighbours who were having more of a party. This house is fantastic. Everyone is so friendly. Apparently each flat has its own niche of political activism. Our flat apparently is proper politics - protesting the government, the flat next to ours is about gay (LGBT) rights, upstairs they're into communism, and who knows what the others are into.
Saturday involved the walk around town that failed the day before. that was a lovely day out. Lisbon is FULL of Germans on holiday. I went up to the castle on the hill, and found myself walking behind a pair of 30-something German girls, on holiday from their boyfriends. :D (Well, I'm sure that wasn't the reason). Anyway, I struck up a conversation because yes, I suppose I like the opportunity to speak German instead of broken English, and Germans are rather pleasant on holiday. So the one girl is half Portuguese and served as an informal tour guide from her previous time spent living in Lisbon. So the three of us wandered around town together, seeing some new sights, seeing some old sites, drinking a coffee, and having a pleasant chat. Ana and I agreed in principle to teach each other a bit of Piano and Drums, respectively. Ana lives in Berlin and is a concert Pianist.
Just after coming home to shower and eat a quick salad, the neighbours came knocking to invite me out with them to wine bar. Two of my neighbours are studying winemaking at University. So we went out to the 'going out' district, Bairro Alto, and had some wine before moving on to a traditional restaurant. After that, our group got separated and so Peter the Australian, Beatrice the Italian, Frederick the German and myself were wandering the streets of Bairro Alto on a Saturday night. WOW. There were people everywhere! Bars everywhere! Shops everywhere. We did the classic student thing which was to buy a litre bottle of beer with 4 cups for 2 euros, and ducked into shops for a refill as required. I also tried a portuguese Schnaps called Ginja, which tastes like a flat, alcoholic Dr. Pepper. It was really quite pleasant. Now, it became quite apparent to me on that night that Lisbon is clearly a very gay friendly city. There were certain streets that were predominantly men with beards and perfectly plucked eyebrows. At any rate, it's a very friendly, seemingly peaceful city.
Sunday was also fun. We got going around noon, the neighbours and I, and made crepes, with fruit and/or ham and cheese. Coffee, home-made juices, rolls, etc. Really wonderful. After breakfast ended around 2.30pm we took the metro into the heart of the city and watched a massive, red-bull sponsored soap box derby. it was interesting, but a little too hot, I didn't have sunglasses, we were admittedly a bit hungover and the loudspeakers there were a touch too loud. So we hung out there for about 45 minutes then moved on to a cafe for a cold drink, then went food shopping at a rather large supermarket. It always puzzles me how a relatively godless Germany has all of its shops closed on Sundays, but the hardcore christian countries, such as USA/Canada, Italy, Portugal, France, etc allow Sunday shopping. God bless capitalism?!
Sunday night we collectively cooked a feast consisting of barbecued chicken, tossed salad, baked potatoes, grilled eggplant, and chili con carne. This all on the rooftop terrace, which is huge! We did that as the sun set, and then everything got really cold and windy. After dinner we came back in and drank German Christmas tea, left behind by travelers of ages past.
Yesterday was an amazingly lazy day, which today is looking to shape up to be exactly the same. Woke up, ate breakfast, read the news, read a bit of my book, programmed a bit of a little app idea i've had, then around 1pm went to the town of Cascais (beautiful!!) and lay on the beach for 3-4 hours. Now, the weather was comfortably warm, and the Atlantic ocean was ice cold! My only real experience with beaches and oceans was last year in Greece, and the water there was unbelievably warm. So this was quite the surprise. But really nice. When the weather is so warm, taking a dip in really cold water is fantastic.
Then walked around the town of Cascais before returning to the city. Cooked some leftover chili, hung out with Flavio my flatmate - this guy and I, we understand each other pretty well, I'm really lucky with my apartment. Was in bed just after 11pm. And here I am now, breakfast, having read a bit more of my book "A confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. This book is awesome! Thought I'd make a post then probably go back to the beach. It would be more fun to go with someone, as yesterday I was with Margot, a girl from Toulouse, France. Holidays are fun, but sometimes a little strange to be going alone. Oh well, there are friendly people to hang out with, but sometimes it all seems a bit absurd to go places without your loved ones.
Anyhow, now some eye candy.
A view of the Castle at the left.
A famous elevator, built in the 19th century, offering a lovely view at the top.
The view from the platform at the top of this elevator
On my walk home, stumbled across another lovely viewpoint. Lisbon is the city of 7 hills, so there are really wonderful vantage points.
The scenic town of Cascais, about a 30 min. train ride out of the city.
Cascais.
This photo doesn't do this building justice at all.
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