Hello hello! Greetings from sunny warm Portugal. It's nice to be here, still wearing shorts and tank tops and not worrying about my next relocation for at least a few more days...or weeks.. :)
Let's see. I took the night train out of Madrid last week... Friday night. I got into Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday around 8am and the power was out. I couldn't get any money from the machines and all I had were Pesetas from Spain. Not to mention that the automatic lockers in the station were out of order.. so Icouldn't drop my pack and wander. The original plan was to drop my pack and explore Lisbon for the day then take a later train down to Algarve, where my cousins and uncle were. Well, seen as how I had to take a ferry across the river to get to the train station that serves the south and on and on and on, I decided to stay in Lisbon for the night and leave my digs in the hostel and march around properly. Well, I got denied at a few places cause I didn't plan ahead with reservations, then the last spot I went to sent me around the corner and into another hostel spot where I got a 'great' room with six beds! There were only three other gals in the room and I only met one of them... later...
I saw the Castello de Sao Jorge.. big castle which overlooks the city. It was cool. It provided the best view of the city, all the white walls with the red roof tops, all glistening in the sun and overlooking the water.. the River that cuts through Lisbon and eventually becomes the Atlantic! At that time there was a big fuss going on in the streets below.. Red Bull sponsors, cameras, video crew, whistles, music, etc... and loads and loads of cyclists.. geared up to high tail it down this windy path and down a set of stairs and on still through narrow alleys in the town. It was like some extreme sport event or something. It was exciting to watch. They had to ride through the streets and all, so the crew would let cars and pedestrians cross at mockspeed between each competetors... they weren't all going at once.. it was a timed event. I heard some cyclists speaking in broken English to each other, so I think it was an international event.
From there I went to a museum on the other end of town.. I forget the guy's name, but he has this huge collection of art from Egyptian relics.. dating backto 600BC, to Greek coins aged from 300 BC and on up to velvet tapestries, cloaks, pottery.. apparently, if we all just hang on to our rugs and old clothes, they too will be in a museum some day. Then they also had a phat collection of Asian art.. again, dishes, pottery, statues, writing tool storage boxes.. cute little things and then loads of paintings from plenty of great artists.. Van Dyke, Manet, Rembrandt, Rafael, and a couple that I know through Michaelangelo.. I saw one woman admiring a piece by my friend Guiliano and I sauntered past her saying, yeah, I know the guy that did that.. she just ran the other way.. humm. ;)
From there I just walked aimlessly, admiring the streets, the colors, the fact that it felt like the capital of a developing country except they had a metro line under ground.. oh and they have these great trolleys that roll around the heart of the city.. cute, like the ones in San Fran, all decked out in Coca Cola and random beer adverts.. The food sucks as far as I can tell.. they don't have a certain Portuguese food...well, fish. Cod. Apparently, they have 365 ways to cook Cod. Sounds like Bubba's 365 ways to cook shrimp... Bubba?
While by the water, sitting in this plaza by a big statue, this wrecked, mental homeless fellah walked by, well, around in circles, yelling at the top of his lungs... something in Portuguese that again sounded like HILE.. raising his hand firmly toward this statue and the Arc d'Triumf-like monument that overlooks the Placa d'Comercio.. Everyone is riled up these days.
Well, I went back to the hostel and met one of my roommates... Natalie.. from Amsterdam. She speaks fluent perfect English, in fact, she teaches it, along with Economics and other random odds like me. She is also addicted to travelling and can't decide what to do with her life.. sounds familiar. We had a laugh, talking and finding things out about each other and about similar places we'd been to. When all was said and done and it was time for good night and goodbye (I was taking the 6am metro) she said she would come south to the part of Portugal I was headed to and give me a ring.. so far, so sound, but she's a wild bird and probably met some other folks to run about with.. So, 6:30am and I'm wandering beneath the belly of the city in the metro and would you believe the streets were packed with folks coming home from the discotheques.. discotecas.. drunk off their rockers! Iwas serenaded on the metro and given bad directions on the street, which sent me on a 40 minute walk in the wrong direction. By the time I got to the boat I was five minutes short of waving it good bye.. and my connecting train on the other side.. but, luckily, I met this drunk African guy and he played guide for me. He was from a Portuguese colony in Africa, Angola?! He was very kind and spoke good English and fairly good Spanish, so communicating was fine. Poor guy, though. I had him walking at such a speed in his little green blazer and slacks.... He didn't mind a bit. He actually fell in love with me. Said it was such a travesty that I had to leave him alone and that he wouldn't be able to get to know me better.. that he wanted me to stay.. blah blah.. He planted his luscious lips on my cheeks and said, Adeus Amore and that was that.
Then, I had the pleasure of sitting on the ferry next to some more partiers.. heading back to their part of the city, across the river. There were three boys and a girl.. all around my age or younger. The one guy next to me, reached out and put his hand on my leg and I just raised my eyebrows as his female friend said, no... like, don't do that... We ended up having a great talk... his English was pretty good. They were all excited that I was from the US and asked all kinds of questions.. none about the war. Then they poked fun at the guy next to me... trying to get him to ask me for coffee on the other side and all this nonsense.. I said I had a tight connection, but thanks... We all said good bye and he said if I was staying, he'd ask me to marry him.. God, it's amazing what a little booze can do for the bold and outgoing nature within a person!
I got to the train station in Albufiera on the southern coast of Portugal and it felt like I just arrived in some small village in a third world country... then I remembered that the station was 6km inland and hopefully the sights would change.. The place is very dry, but scattered with palm trees and occasional grassy patches.. mostly red, dry dirt though.. The folks here that own the house are Jimmy and Nancy. Nancy is my mom's cousin. The same night that I arrived, my uncle Louis and cousin Cathrine came in. Catherine is the daughter of Jimmy and Nancy and a surprise for them both! They had no idea. So everyone has been in the best of spirits! They are all from Northern Ireland. They've been cracking me up with their stories.. Things we shouldn't take for granted.
My uncle Louis who is only in his 40's (along with Nancy) was telling all kinds of 'back in the days' stories about how, back in the day, you got bathed in the sink and only had a bath on Saturday....the water had to be boiled pot by pot until there was enough and you shared this bath with your siblings... how, there was no fridge..the food was kept in a meat sieve and you only bought for the day.. day by day.. How the teachers could whack you as hard as they wanted and if you told your mommy, she would probably say, well, I'm sure you didn't get it for nothing.. and how in the bog meadows where they played soccer, they would push the dirt aside and drink out of a stream that popped up out of the dirt... how you could go into a sweet shop and pay a penny for a little teency glass of something sweet to drink.. and everyone drank out of the same glass, no washing between... how the same would take place in the bars with Sasparilla and they all felt like cowboys from the American movies, who they loved so much.. it's so funny to hear all of these stories.. I wish I could recount them more thoroughly and as well as my uncle with his great Irish accent.. All in all, I am loving it here. It is very relaxing! The apartment they own is great and we lay by the pool during the day and I am slowly preparing myself for the return to real life! For now, I'm happy being with some family and not thinking toooooooo much, although a bit, about my FRIGGIN future! Love to you all and hope I'm not borin' the tails off ya. -rai
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