July 15. Christo Rei and Belem

Today Georgia and I worked in the morning, while Dan went to the collector’s gathering and Irina found a new square filled with fountains. Will have to check the last one out – Irina described the square as completely set with fountains in the ground.

We walked to the ferry/train station, Cais do Sodre, stopping on the way to listen to the wonderful trio of musicians and singers from Naples. They were so good that we got their disk. It is a good thing too because they don’t seem to have gotten to YouTube.

Ferry to Cacilhas took ten minutes. It is a great way to see city views from Tagus river. From Cacilhas we took bus number 101 bus and in another ten minutes were at the site of a copy of Christo Rei. I don’t remember the actual dimensions of the original statue in Rio but this one appeared smaller. It is interesting that Lisbon views from the bottom of the statue are better – you seem to be level with the city and are able to get in more detail than from the top of the elevator.

We were hoping to go to Belem next – and it was right there across the river, across April 25 bridge. But there was no public transport across the bridge. So we took the bus back and stopped by at  Cacilhas o Farol for a quick late lunch. It is a seafood eatery frequented primarily by the locals.

The food was very fresh and simple. I got octopus with sweet raw onions, fried garlic and cilantro. Dan and Georgia shared shrimps, calamari, and baby octopuses. They were all awesome. Irina suffered a bit through grilled sardines. I think those will be the last ones in her life. While they are a healthy choice and are fresh and all. But they are really the most boring of fish. At least Sangria Tinto made everything better. Kids made acquiantance with some Portuguese boys. Isabella initially turned away and complained to us that they are interfering with her eating French fries. Georgia was shy but made some contact and learned their names and ages. 

We walked 7km to Belem from Cais do Sodre station. Georgia walked more than half of the way. There is a great bike path along the water. Some areas have lively restaurants, others are still pretty unpopulated. There were scores of cyclers and runners on the way. The area got prettier as we got closer. We took obligatory picture with exhausted kids near the monument of discovery and headed down to the playground in the park.

Irina stayed there with the kids while we went to check out Belem bakery. The line stretched past the door. As we got closer we saw that the primary choice was Pasteles de Nata and croissants. Next we checked out Starbucks next door. It’s giant – with large two rooms on the second floor and a balcony. Hurray!! We’ll be back.

The day started and ended with

wonderful women musicians

The kids got a boost of energy at the playground and when aided by a croissant and Pasteles fully recharged. These were THE BEST Pasteles yet. They really can be called famous. It is a bit of a trip but we’ll try to bring some home.



Georgia found yogurt for Isabella

that finally works. Now we just

have to work through other 1/2

dozen brands in the fridge.



Kid are wonderful. Georgia is a very strong and patient walking companion. She also helps a lot with Isabella. She knows Isabella very well and tries to anticipate and satisfy her wants. Something that Isabella still has to appreciate. However Isabella is protective of me, or anyone she feel is being treated unfairly. Dan and Georgia  making a joke on me today. Isabella kept saying "That was not funny." Georgia and Isabella are already able to maintain a conversation with each other and can be very affectionate, for periods of time :)

July 14. Cascais and Estoril

This morning we took a commuter train from Cais be Sobre into Cascais  and Estoril. Another seat of Portuguese royalty. They’ve picked a lovely place on the Atlantic Ocean beach. Cascais has a maze of pedestrian streets. It is beautiful, clean, and well maintained but not in a kind of a tired manicured way. There is vending machine to sell barrier devices on the street. You can see undergarments drying in the apartment upstairs and restaurant downstairs (we did not go to that restaurant).

We spent some time on the time on the beach. Water is ice cold. Kids made some friends. There was a mom with two kids their age. She is Ecuadorian who grew up in Portugal, went to college in Italy and married a Canadian. She speaks fluent Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and English. And her older kid speaks three out these already.

For lunch we went to Bangkok Thai restaurant. A different combination of flavors. Awesomely good. We could not drag ourselves away. Russian family having lunch next to us ordered second helping of the soup. 

Then Isabella went to sleep and we walked past citadel to the city park. They have several playgrounds there and lots of shaded walkways. And pond with turtles. We watched bunball in the water: turtles pushed around bread bun that someone threw in the water. Looked really funny. Georgia fed doves, chickens, and ducks.

Then the park guard told us not to feed them. With a half a dozen of other people feeding birds when we arrived, I suppose the birds already had their fill. Then we walked around some more. Visited the beautiful O’Neill palace and climbed to the roof to watch the views, visited St. Marta lighthouse, the most interesting museum mostly outdoors in a stunning white boxy design. Unfortunately lighthouse is accessible only between 11am and 12 noon.

Then Isabella woke up and we went down the boardwalk towards Estoril. There are lots of restaurants and bathrooms along the way. There was also a large shallow cement pool  filled with seawater and sand for kids to play in. The water was warmer than ice-cold. Kids splashed around and then we went on. Estoril two stops away from Cascais. We were afraid that we won’t be able to get into the train if everyone decides get on the train in Cascais with this being Saturday. So we walked back recharging the kids at another Italian Indian eatery along the way. I tried to find any history for why this combination has evolved here. We already saw about 5 places like that. But I could not find any info.

Isabella has been a little bully. Yesterday Georgia made a joke of her. Actually really repeated something I said earlier. Isabella frowned on her and said she will splash her with water. It sounded really funny and we all laughed. Then she said she will throw a plate at Georgia.

This morning Georgia was helping Isabella pick out some clothes to put on today and Isabella said “I’ll get your fingers pinched.” Isabella tried a bit more today in the same spirit and we gave her a timeout on her stroller while we were having some coffee and cake. She let the whole square know how upset she was. Ultimately she came around, apologized, and was wonderful. 

It was a very nice day. We decided that Irina will go back to Cascais with the kids during the week. It is very child-friendly and easy to navigate on the stroller. And only 40 minutes away.

July 13. Sintra

Today we had our morning coffee and early desert at Starbucks Rossio and then went to Sintra. We saw Castle of the Moors and Pena National Palace. Castle of the Moors area is pretty old – there was an 1000 year old church on its territory that one of Spain’s rulers who built Pena Summer palace had helped to turn into “romantic ruins.” What’s left of the Moors Castle is predominantly lots of stairs and protective walls with one scenic view upon another. There is massive amount of work under way to rebuild it. Georgia did a great job walking all day. Isabella had to be carried around the castle – maybe she is afraid of heights. Some places were scary – the barriers are very low in some places and the drop is substantial.

There was a funny moment. As we were leaving, we were playing a make believe game with Isabella to get her to keep up with Georgia. Isabella imagined that she “caught, fried, spiced, and ate Georgia.”  Near the exit Isabella finally caught up with Georgia. She lurched on Georgia but missed, and landed in some dust on the ground. Isabella did not get hurt but got very upset. So she screamed her heart out. There were some fine acoustics where we were. The guard actually thought there was a major problem going on, came over and wanted to help.



Pena Palace



We visited Pena in April. Pena is the local Disneyland. The builders had lumped one style upon the other in the fantastic combination of colors, structures, visuals. You probably can’t do too many historical movies on site because you won’t get a straight shot in one style. This time we saw the beautiful stained glass inside the chapel that we missed last time. All the colors were fresh like they’ve used synthetic dyes. It is about 200 years old. Too bad we could not take a picture of this. It probably would not do it justice.

This time around we decided skip the inside of the Palace. Most of décor there is not terrifically interesting. It looks like they had to fill their summer home with anything in so they’ve raided their storage and unloaded all the cheap travel souvenirs and knick knacks on the royal scale. Then again there was no Home Design magazine back then. Probably all those things meant something to them. And I am not an expert on antiques.

As we walked to the train station we stopped by in one of the parks with statues of fantastic animals. Kids enjoyed climbing these. There was also a little Japanese pavilion. I liked the walkway there – the tile bits were placed diagonally and looked like the tail of the snake. The inside had all the necessary elements – bonsai trees, little brook, bridge.. but it was littered with old leaves and bonsai trees stood on ugly cement cubes. That could be done better.

View of Moors Castle from Pena

After we got home we worked and then went to Cafe No Chiado downstairs. It is maintained by the National Centre de Culture. Most of the audience seems young family+ and probably people from the theater circuit and their friends. The food is terrific. Lots of interesting dishes.

During our evening walk we listened through a few opera, chorus, and orchestra numbers at the open air theater that has been set up next door at our arrival. All the seats were full. And it was 9:30pm. Some of the musicians were dressed in tuxedos, others, including the conductor, wore t-shirts. At one point the music rapidly ended and musician got up and started leaving. Turns out they were practicing for their real performance at 10pm.

We went up to St. Lucia viewpoint and looked at the city. It would seem that we visited all the main highpoints around us and there is not much more to see. We took the stairs down to Alfama and somehow wandered into the inner courtyard between the buildings. There were some older ladies chatting on their balconies. In the middle there was a booth with a ceramic painting studio. The artist sat inside drawing on some tiles. She had some blues recording playing. The whole backyard lit up only by the ceramic shop and reflections of her tiled work outside her studio on the ground and walls outside and the music felt surreal.

We kept wandering around. Most of the streets were dark sleeping. It is a complete maze of streets and stairs. We went up and down and across the narrow passages. Occasionally we would hear the sounds of Fado and would come into pocket of light and sound and activity. Dark eyed Portuguese beauties of the middle age in black dresses. There was a memorable image in one of those oasises: old Portuguese man, short, withered , smiling, very tipsy, trying to put a cigarette in his mouth. His wife sitting on a chair behind him swapped in black shawl, also smiling and looking very happy.

July 12. Huckleberry Finn Day

Started the day over at Starbucks Restoradores with Georgia starting to do a bit more math. Starbucks coffee is softer and less bitter tasting here. Before lunch we went through a four of pharmacies looking for hand sanitizer – we used up all our mini bottles. No one had it.

Had a great lunch over at NaturalLiving restaurant. They are not afraid to use their herbs. Great spot for lunch – lots of healthy sandwiches, cream of broccoli soup with basil, and a fantastic drink made out of coffee, lemonade and ice. The combination does not sound right, much like Indian Italian but it is very refreshing and energizing. Have to try it at home. Location – bright nook between the walls of some very old building tucked away in the backyard could not be better. As I type, I can see that this description can conjure up multiple visuals. I guess someone will have to come over to check it out for themselves.

Irina and kids were at Estrella playground in the afternoon. As they started to head home it appeared that there was famous #28 tram strike. A huge end-of-day crowd waited and nothing was happening. Eventually Irina walked home with them. It took 45 minutes. Georgia walked all the way back downhill and uphill. Isabella did too except the last few blocks.

To close the last meal of the day and of our fridge J Dan made marvelous dishes by combining our leftovers: salmon pasta with tandoori chicken, Indian rice with hotdogs and salami and eggs. There is something to say about mixing different flavors. Georgia enjoyed it especially.

When we went for our evening stroll I saw an older man run up to our Garrett street and told Dan what great shape he was in. A few seconds later older woman in even better form joined him. That was actually the tail end of Lisbon Nike Run Club. There was a whole crowd of runners resting ahead. Some had red t-shirts on with the info. So cool! Based on what I can make out of their route, I had a long way before I can do it in one shot. But maybe I’ll join them next Thursday night for a half of it. We celebrated by taking some Pasteles de Nata home.

I’ve tried to run our blog through Google translator to translate it to Russian so Dan’s grandma could read it. It was hilarious. Whoever can check it out, especially the post on technology. Speaking of Lithuania, they had a really bad flash flood yesterday – check out the video in this article, this is Pilies, the main street of Vilnius old town.

July 11. Mastering the equipment

We resolved three technical challenges today: getting dishwasher and washing machine to work. And drying the stuff here. In our travels we found that European hardware manufacturers sometimes make their creations serve dual purpose to stimulate and challenge your brain, and that typically is the primary function. After some random button punching we did what any elevated ape would and scrounged around kitchen drawers to ultimately get rewarded wit the manual.

Washing machine was not as easy. How do you interpret the image of the sun? Or half the sun for that matter. We saw that buttons with numbers were on a separate set of dials so it was not the temperature. “May sun shine upon your laundry?” “Warm rays of the sun will gently bleach your socks.”

In any case the first round worked like an infinite loop. We started the load at night and it kept going through the morning next day until we shut down the machine. Since then we tried multiple approaches eventually divining the algorithm. Add as little detergent as possible since you don’t know how long it will rinse for and rotate the main cycle level as long as necessary while pressing the power button on and off until it “takes.” Afterwards rotate the same level seeking to hit somewhere where the image implies rotation to maybe get a wringing cycle. If that does not work, wringing by hand in the kitchen sink works as well.

Dryer was next. We had some challenges in Lithuania too. Eventually we figured that drier is not a machine in these parts. It is a stationary contraption of thin metal bars that unfold to create multiple drying surfaces. Apartment owners usually take their dryers with them when they go. It is like your toothbrush, you take it everywhere and don’t give a second thought to who will need to brush after you leave. So for now all the underwear is hanging on all the available chairs in the apartment. Ultimately we will invest into some rope to stretch it across our elegant living room. Let’s ready to move on to the better things. Namely food.      

We were extra good today on that account.

For lunch we went to incongruous combination of Indian Italian called “Ganghi” in Bairro Alto. They have two full menus featuring very good selection of both Indian and Italian. Inside décor and staff are more predominantly Indian. They take slow service to the next level. We had to have most of it taken out and eaten at home. However the food was seriously awesome. Five stars. Somehow they were able to impart the hint of Italian/Mediterranean cuisine to Indian dishes. Maybe it was the mixing of spices. Or how they prepared it. Don’t know what they did but the flavor was unmistakable and the combination incredible. If we come back to any one restaurant it would be it.

Next we went to Mezo Giorno pizza for dinner. Super-fresh mozzarella cheese folded in the shape of a poopsicle was nice as an appetizer. And then there was another Portuguese spot in Bairro Alto whose name we will have to look back up again but it was not worth the visit scenic that it was. We tried Niza cheese, which is sometimes offered by other Portuguese eateries. Definitely worth a try – very different and nice. We chased it all with a pastry and coffee at Starbucks at 11pm. 

Some random notes about living here. It is nice to live right next to the theater at night when they perform but today they outdid themselves during practice! Especially the violin. I’ve started to block it out in the afternoon but poor Dan kept hearing every false start. Mental reminder to crush any attempts of kids to take violin lessons.

Back on food,  eggs and milk here are sold non-refrigerated. There are rows and rows of them in the hypermarket. It is kind of weird, how long can you keep it non-refrigerated until it goes bad?

Had a nice run today, apparently locals get a lot of joy from watching me. There was lots of cheering on, someone even shouted “Run, Forrest, run”. I ran along Avenida da Libertade where cops and business travelers are posted at every block so did not feel that any onlookers would join.

Finally, shoes with traction is the best way to go in Lisbon. It is horrifying to watch some ladies negotiate slippery tiles and uneven grade in platform spikes at night. People with foot braces, casts, bandages or missing limbs altogether are also pretty apparent.

July 10. Discovering a whole new neighborhood

Today was a very nice day. In the morning Irina and kids took tram 15 to Belem. We woke up late again so there was no time to get there and look for Belem Starbucks to get situated for the day.

In Belem they saw carriage museum and visited tropical botanical garden. There are several botanical gardens in the city. The one we looked for during our last visit is near Politechnic university. It looked fairly big on the map. We looked for the entrance by going around the neighborhood in concentric circles. By the time the circle equaled the city block we found it and decided to give up. The one is Belem is much larger. Kids and Irina had a great time. On the way back they stopped at the bathroom in Praca de Commercio. See an image with more info about that. 

Life is full of toilet paper choices

We got out to the food court again for lunch but this time around made all the wrong choices. For the future reference, shawarma place, soup restaurant in the end, and sandwich place next to it all suck. I actually marveled ability to make pumpkin soup loaded with veggies and completely devoid of any flavor or smell. This is some kind of special cooking chemistry. Somehow these restaurants managed to transform warming up of precooked packaged fast food in a microwave into a 10 minute process at each place .

Speaking of the food, I got a smoked sausage looking thing at the supermarket yesterday. Tried it today. It tasted a bit like smoked innards of male fish. Salty, doughy, and smelly. I could not finish my piece. Turns out it was Farinheira. Since the origin of this can be placed, I think I’ll try again tomorrow. Maybe it is acquired taste. 

At the end of the day, Dan went to the Vodaphone store to get us some Sim cards for our phones. Georgia, Isabella, and I went to feed and chase pigeons on Praca Figuiera. It is one of the prettiest squares. Ground mosaics are done like optical illusions – it feels like you are walking on the waves. I keep wanting to walk on the crests not to get “wet.” There are also lovely fountains there. As I was setting up the stroller, Isabella dropped her shorts and underwear and prepared to climb over for a swim. People around were very amused.

On the way home we stopped over at Santini for ice-cream. As much as décor would have you believe this was a part of city history since the times immemorial, it actually opened up locally only in 2010. It is very good though. Georgia liked it even better than Amorini.

Georgia needed glue for her scrap book. We asked lady at the information desk where we could buy it. Had to do a dramatic re-enactment of the glue since she did not speak English. She understood and laughed, and said the Portuguese word for glue is “cola” and then showed us how to find the store. We went there and everyone screamed “COLA!!” scaring the poor store owner.   

We walked a bit past our street in search of the supermarket to get some water and accidentally stumbled onto Bairro Alto. We knew it was somewhere close but we thought it is North from where we live. Actually it is West and North. This is the BEST neighborhood. We were in Lisbon twice already and did not notice it. Lovely grid-like streets loaded with interesting restaurants, Fado clubs, and boutiques and shops. If we thought we had no chance to eat everything before, we now know it for sure. It is nice to discover it not on the last day here.

We walked around a bit with the kids but they were tired, so we headed back home. On the way we stopped at an interesting candy store: Dream Pills. It is really cute but there is something weird about the concept.

After Irina came home we went to back Bairro Alto. We walked around a lot looking, listening, smelling. Then we headed to Black Swan. 4 stars at least and highly recommended for the lovely décor and service. We had rabbit on toast, octopus carpaccio and port. Octopus was 4.5 stars, rabbit was 3.5. They had other interesting dishes. It would be worth another visit, but we must move on J.

As we passed the square in front of Chiado station we saw a girl with a sign “Funky Monkey Pub Crawl.” We came over and she explained that for 15 euro she takes people to three pubs every night but Sunday and then to the dance club. You get 2 free shots in first pub, unlimited in the second, and one in the third plus some dancing. Even Dan was receptive to the idea, on some other night. 

July 9. Running, Working, and Planning

Instead of planned 6am I woke up at 8. So there was no reason for Dan to join me on a run to protect me from the alcoholics and Lazy Beggers (here is more about them). I ran to Estrella park to check it out for the kids to go to with Irina. There are few enough playgrounds in town and finding one is a special treat.

Running to Estrella is probably an exaggeration. Within three minutes of getting out of apartment to follow the route of the famous tram 28 I reached a 60 degree drop down the narrow walkway covered with slippery tile. It would be easier to run on the road if not for the train. So I walked. Within 5 minutes the drop had reversed. As much as I wanted to run, my body just said are you kidding me? And I walked up as well for another 5 minutes. There was a Portuguese older man at the top who gave support to my red face and panting with some claps.

 

Granadilla

Estella park is very nice – complete with excellent children’s and adult’s playgrounds, shady meadows and ducks and ponds. 

After Georgia did her reading and math, we threw everyone out of the house and did some work. For lunch we rejoined everyone at the Starbuck’s mall and had some salmon pasta and lasagna at Capri in the food court. Incidentally Capri is owned by Walk the Wok – one of our favorite Asian eats in Vilnius. It was excellent and they even gave us a real Zip-quality plastic box to go.



In the evening we went up Avenida do Liberdad to find another playground and to have dinner at the Bocca restaurant, critically acclaimed by Michelin just this year. Final block to the playground near Anjos was another one of those 60 degree walk ups again. We decided to skip. Bocca was a disappointment too – it seems to be out of business. We were really hoping for their desert specialty: celery ice cream with caramelized pumkin, cream of carrots, and another vegetable I cannot remember.

The view looks a bit like Rio

At least we managed to find a playground in the Park Edwardo VII. It is behind tennis courts. And it comes with watchman who locked the door right in front of us at 7:30pm even though the sign said it is open until 8pm. At least we know it exists.

Finally, we arrived to El Courte Ingles mall and headed to Maison do Tapas in the food court. Can I say 4.5 stars? 4.5 is because I know that I had that glass of warmish red immediately upon arrival and my judgment may have been impaired. But everything – crispy bread with manchego, soft lightly grilled octopus, thin rare pork chops wrapped ham, seared tuna, and other stuff tasted absolutely amazing.

 

Kids dove for it, which too was unusual since normally they subsist on pasta and French fries, especially Isabella. And they were sober for sure. So it must have been that good. We finished at 9pm and walked over to the hypermarket for do some grocery shopping. Kids must be doing some private endurance training because at 11 we crowded into Haagen-Daas downstairs from our apartment to give them ice-cream promised in a moment of weakness. At last, they were asleep at midnight and we could do some planning for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be really neat – we are planning to work out of Belem. 

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.

Welcome Back Faithful Fans of our Gastronomic Exploits!!

Hello from Lisbon!!

 

At the Newark airport

This year we will stay in Lisbon, Portugal, for 5 weeks and will make our best effort to consume the best that this country has to offer. We have our work cut out for us. It was our first day here and as we walked the streets of the many different neighborhoods in this beautiful city, we keep running into more and more places we have to come back to to explore. And I cannot even imagine the options weekend daytrips will bring. Dan and I plan run every other day to be able eat more. That’s how committed we are to this very important cause. If anyone has any suggestions for the places to try – please let us know.

Here is some background. I don't remember anymore how we picked Portugal as our choice for this year, but we are liking our decision already. The flight was short but tiring though. The kids are bigger and stronger and were resisting falling asleep even though we had a full row to ourselves and Dan found a few more seats elsewhere. We wanted them to get some sleep because we arrived at 6am Portugal time (1am at home) and could not get into our apartment until 2pm. That’s a long time without sleep even for some rugged kids not to mention adults :).



After we got into the city we wandered the streets in a bit of a haze, stopping in different watering holes to fill up on coffee and Pasteles de Nata.

We saw a beautiful Portuguese aircraft carrier in the port and a 3-mast sailboat. There will be regatta here in about a week. Perhaps they are starting to pull in. Isabella called it a day at 10:30. By 11:30 we went to Brown’s coffee and Georgia fell asleep on the sofa. I took a nap too pretending to be reading a book on my ipad. Finally, we were able to go to the apartment!



Chocolate Salami
one of earth's little miracles



In early April Dan and I went to Lisbon to find an apartment. We don’t trust photos and addresses – see our summer experience in 2010 for that soppy tale. It was a good call. We worked with 4 agents and everyone promised apartment in the city center and the pictures looked lovely. However, when we got here and walked around we discovered that the city actually has many centers… and with the economy not exactly flourishing here, the city does not have the resources to take care of all of it. So you would see  a beautiful tiled building bounded by 2 broken down abandoned buildings, and an alcoholic sleeping (or worse) in the front. And no other people on account of that being the “dead part of the city center” or maybe that alcoholic. When you are traveling with kids there are additional considerations in addition to safety, like will the stroller fit into a staircase as wide as my butt and how will it get it up to the fourth floor every day.

That's not the view outside
the apartment

There was just one apartment that fit all the required criteria and then some: it was in Chiado by Rua Garrett. Elevator to the 3^rd floor, secure parking spot inside the building, beautiful furnishings, windows all around, near all the action but if you don’t want to hear the noise, all you have to do is close windows and turn on A/C. We got to see a theater performance right outside our window. Can’t say enough how much we like it. The interesting thing is it is about 3 times more expensive than any Lithuanian apartments we stayed at but costs the same as other apartments offered by other agents. So looking at it first hand really helps. Baixa is considered equally good place to stay but after 9pm it is all dead other than some tourist trap restaurants. Hurray!!

We took the kids to the hypermarket on the St. Sebastian station. I think Portuguese do a lot to make subway travel kid/handicapped friendly and by far exceed anything one would get on the NYC subway but still it is not enough. You have to take stairs to the escalator, and then you have the option to taking the elevator to the platform does not really cut it in terms of the full service. At that point it is somewhat irrelevant. Given that some of the best places for kids are several stops away on the train we may need to get Isabella used to traveling without her stroller.

At the hypermarket it was difficult to concentrate on getting the items we needed because everything looked amazing and there was a lot to choose from. We got some Granadilla, it is a relative of passion fruit but is bigger and sweeter tasting. After sternly reminding ourselves to focus on the basic needs, we got some regular breakfast staples and pre-cooked takeout chicken, rice and cod stew. Beat our coffee bill for today and everyone liked everything. Reminder, this is not a copout – we just needed to grab something quick while kids were not fully awake. I did not have high hopes for the cod based on my last experience in one of the tourist traps. I resigned to focus on sea specialties regardless given that Portugal has the highest fish consumption in Europe per capita and I wanted to do my share of that in 5 weeks. But to my surprise the supermarket cod was very good. Even the plainest of foods can bloom if they are accompanied by sweet caramelized onions and sourdough croutons drenched in olive oil.

After that Dan went to the airport to meet Irina and get our bags from storage. Kids and I walked around Chiado and Bairro Alto, marveling at all the beautiful places. Will upload pictures tomorrow. Ruins of Convento do Carmo and views from atop of Santa Justa elevator are some of the most memorable in the city.