July 8. Sunglasses or hashish

 

Today we got the full house of “awakeneds” by way past 10am. Still making the time switch. Irina is going two hours back, we are going five hours forward.

Our plan for the day was to visit St. George castle. On the way we saw a performance of three 10-12 year old gymnasts on Rua Augusta. Rua Augusta is home to multiple performances throughout the day. Most of them feature “mechanical” people dressed in all sorts of costumes. Initially it was kind of interesting, but now that there are so many of them and the gig is really simple to watch but tortuous to the performer stuck in uncomfortable clothing and poses for hours to no end. Gymnasts were a breath of fresh air.  

 

We stopped on the way to look at Roman theater ruins. The theater was one of the last ones built by the Roman empire. What was really neat is that buildings grew all around it. If you notice the signs and walk inside the beautiful museum build around the ruins, the world around dramatically transforms to what it was 2000 years ago. Look outside the window – and the world of today is back. This site has pictures that do this some place justice: http://expatinlisbon.com/tag/alfama/ in contrast to most other links I saw had a “don’t bother” types of descriptions. Isabella spotted a pedestal and immediately climbed on top to our mortification on account of a museum worker standing by. We took her off to much disappointment.

As we approached St. George castle I stopped by an a ceramic store nearby while the rest of the party continued to get the tickets. As I came up to the gate there was a sound of bleating. As I wondered about goats I’ve spotted an old beggar. He was making that sound. Very strange. Kids, Dan and Irina also thought that there were goats nearby.

The castle, at last, was a great place for kids. The castle is pretty much in ruins but they’ve repaired the bottom platform of it and a number of walls, and set up some coffee shops. It is a great place to spend several hours with kids. It is relatively difficult to get out and safe except for a couple of places with low embankment walls. There are innumerable benches and shady nooks with beautiful views of the city and Taugus river. Yes, it is actually not standing right on the Atlantic ocean. Though supposedly it is possible to see it from Christo Rei statue across the river. There was a full peacock family walking around too for extra fun and chasing. 



We walked around narrow streets outside looking for a good place to eat. Some waiter swooped us into a scenic restaurant setup on a narrow street. We ordered milkshakes made from frozen fruit pulp and milk. Isabella said “I am extremely satisfied.” For the meal we tried fried sardines with salad, local melts (tostadas), and a burger. So the verdict was “eatable.” Not a gourmet. And I don’t even remember the name of the place.

Back on Rua Augusta we finished off our 4pm lunch with some marvelous ice-cream from Amorino (http://www.amorino.com/en/). Now that was gourmet!!! And, lucky for us, they have a shop in NYC. Sorry, HK!

Then Georgia watched two clown street performers. Initially we thought that they are Russian. But they were Portuguese. It is cool how with a few simple repeated phrases they were able to engage so many kids, many of whom did not speak the language.

That's Angelo saying

"Hello"

We finished the day by the riverside promenade near Cais do Sobre station. Initially it looks like the urban planning committee wanted to have a fun kid-friendly play area with new trees stuck in a combination pots plus benches done in multiple colors. However, the area had apparently been befriended by the local alcoholics. So even though it is not outright dirty, it is just not a pleasant place to be at.

At night, we remembered about our responsibility and headed out to find a place to eat. We looked at a couple of places and ultimately settled in Taverna Do Chiado. The plan was to pick several appetizers. Supposedly it is one of the first quick “impress the customer” entry points and should give an idea on the rest of the menu. We picked 3 appetizers: blood sausage decorated by pineapple, cod-stuffed tomato, and fried perdon peppers. I am thinking that 2 days is a long enough commitment to fish. It cannot be that only thing you can do to cod is cover it with fried onions and oil (and also carrots in Taberna) there must be better alternatives out there. Blood sausage was glorious. They could not have cooked it there. Especially if you consider the pairing. So the verdict is 2 stars. Onto the better tasting things!!



Those are my sunglasses

Almost forgot, the title of this post. On Rua Augusta there are those men who approach you with bands of sunglasses and offer hashish. Kind of like men with seashells and pot in Jamaica. Incidentally, they are good about exposing little ones to the habit early and so had never approached us when we are with kids. At my brother’s advice we try to offer them something back in return. Amphetamines? Crack cocaine? Crystal Meth? Usually scares them right off. Don’t know what Google would make of these from the SEO standpoint. Hopefully not an evil thing.

Blogger.com is extremely difficult to work with if you want to lay out your pictures. These ones are all over the place. Will try harder next time but it is not productive in terms of time.

Speaking of pictures, can't afford to take a picture of this guy, but here is a picture from someone else who could: Lazy Beggars. He seems to be one of the city characters like Rosita of Vilnius. Will find out more about him. I've tried to take a picture before seeing the price, but he ran up scaring me with his two teeth and a joint hanging somewhere in their vicinity so I ran off in shame.