Lisboa

This is the cloister of the Sé, the Cathedral of Lisbon.



I'm back home, resting from my one week vecation in Lisbon. I had a blast and everything would have been perfect if the Lisboetas weren't reptilian humanoids trying to commit saricide. Seriously guys, if you want to join Spain (28% of Portuguese think that merging with Spain is a good idea), you have to treat Spanish tourists better than that. I would totally understand if people who know me wanted to kill me, but complete strangers?

I was spit at in Mafra, almost driven over by a scooter redesigned as ice-cream cart and stuffed nearly to death on sardines and bacalao... Eh, that last one might have been my fault.

I also fell down the stairs of a tower in Sintra, but that could have been because of the slippery steps (however, I'm still investigating the RH hipothesis in that one too). Thankfully, I didn't twist anything or hit anything too hard.

Oh well, saricide attepts figure in the job description.



A nice view over the Tejo.


I think this one was taken in Alfama



And a street in Baixa.

Sardine Kisses

I'm in Lisbon!

This is the first day of a one-week vecation I'm taking before attempting to start studying for my internship in earnest. I'm so tired I want to cry, but damn did I have a good time. We started at the cathedral, stopped for lunch at Alfama and ended up in the Castle.

By the way, I had sardines. God, I'd forgotten how good those are. The first bite filled me with quiet contentment. Let's all sing an ode to sardines, the staple of the coastal Mediterranean diet. Dang, are they good! Sardines taste like the sea. They were grilled, (I think that's the term in English, I said "roasted" in LH before and everyone went "wha?"), salty, fleshy... all mine.

Unlike in Madrid, people here don't walk--they stroll. If you ask a lisboeta, they'll probably say that people in Madrid don't walk--they run. Fair enough. It was nice to slow down for a change.

The views from the Castle were wonderful. Miguel took a nap sitting on a bench up there while I read the guidebook and looked out on the river. The orangutan pidgeons didn't get us. All was good.

Kisses from Lisbon. When I get back, I promise there will be pictures.