Are you curious about our home? It's in the center of this photo. I found it on Airbnb. We rented it for a month (utilities included of course plus a weekly cleaning and linen replacement) for $1,420. It's located in a prime spot between a main thoroughfare and three parks. The parks are on the river-side of our house along with about ten restaurants, including McDonalds. Our place is above the restaurants. We're on the third and fourth floor (the bedroom is a loft). It's a little quirky like all adapted homes.
I'll start with the doorway from the street. It's so narrow, Joe has to go sideways to fit his shoulders. The stairwell is steep with shallow steps—my feet are about an inch too long.
The living-room has two windows overlooking an alley connecting the busy street (which has the Pasteis de Belem—pastries, the Jeronimo Monastery, and the Presidential Palace—more on that later) and the huge park with the restaurants. From our windows we hang our clothes to dry and check the quality of the fish going to the restaurant below us. One of the things I wish was different is the way the WiFi assumes you speak the language of the country you're visiting. I understand the adds being in Portuguese, but all of my internet searches are in Portuguese even though I typed my search in English. It helps to put the word English in the search-line.
Our kitchen is cute with an oven needing a high IQ to open, well higher than mine anyway. Joe has mastered the stovetop. The sink is so little that it's hard to rinse things off without getting water everywhere. On the upside we have a DeLonghi espresso machine and a kettle for Joe to heat up water at 220 volts. It's hot within a minute. As always we make eggs and ham every morning to get our day started with protein… okay, I admit it… Joe makes breakfast. His complaint is the metal spatula with teflon pans. We went and bought a plastic spatula. It has a really unusual microwave. It seems to be a convection oven, a regular oven, and a microwave. I've made a couple of dinners here. The salmon turned out great… I brought spices from home.
The stairs going up to our loft are also not very deep. We always come down a little sideways. The bed is a queen-size and very, very comfortable. Unfortunately, it's noisy. It squeaks every time you roll over. I wear earplugs for that reason and of course for the tram on one side and the train on the other side.
The bathroom and shower room were definitely an afterthought. At least they're upstairs where the bed is. The bathroom's light-switch is outside and behind the door. Odd. The shower is possibly the smallest shower I've ever been in. It was hard to shave my legs and I had to get out to dry myself! But it is good and hot with great water pressure. The clothes washer is in the shower room and is amazingly small. It spins nice though. I've joined all the ladies in hanging my underwear out for the whole world to see. I never thought I'd do that.
We were in for a bit of a shock last weekend. Our sleepy little neighborhood was inundated with tourists from all over the world. First let me tell you we are right in the middle of a collection of historical sites. I already told you about the giant sculpture for Vasco da Gama, the Belem Torre (castle) and the MAAT (electricity museum). Also within sight of our place is the famous Pasteis de Belem bakery. They make these amazing little egg tarts originating from the Jeronimo Monastery next door. The monks created this pastry in the 1700s. The sugar refinery across the street from us bought the recipe in 1837. Only three people know the recipe (all three people are related and they have the recipe memorized—they are not allowed to all three be in one place at one time). All these fantastic stories equal hour-long lines stretching down the sidewalk blocking all the other shops all weekend. We went mid-week and walked right up to the counter and ordered one—delicious! They make various versions of this everywhere in Portugal, but this is truly the best.
Next up, is of course, the Jeronimo Monastery. This place is amazing. It was built in the 1500s. We plan to go visit, so I'll tell you more later, but the lines on the weekends are unbelievable.
The least interesting attraction is the Presidential Palace (also started in the 1500s). This has such a long and complicated history, I'll leave it to you research. I'll just say it followed the turbulent history of royalty, dictators and now presidents. Some presidents live there, some live elsewhere. The current one does not. Every day the front is guarded by two guys in fancy uniforms who stand in little booths for hours. Of course people take pictures of them. Up the side street is an entrance with two posts at the gate. On each post is a military tank… I'm guessing those appeared during the socialist dictator era? Across the main street, on our side, is the museum of coaches. Another monstrosity of a building is the convention center. So you can see this is a hub of activity, especially on the weekends.
For all of my swim-buddies out there, we have been swimming at the community pool. Talk about rigid guidelines! You get to be in the water for exactly 45 minutes. You can arrive whenever you want, but you can't get past the turnstiles to the locker rooms (turnstiles like at the metro where you have to swipe your prepaid card to get through). At exactly 15 minutes before the 45-minute timeframe the turnstiles are activated. We all rush through like horses at the races to go to the locker rooms. Fifteen minutes later we're waiting at the edge of the pool for the clock to strike… then in we go. Most of the people are going to the water aerobics class. Joe and I shared a lane together. Then you have exactly 20 minutes to shower and change. Then back to the turnstiles to get out. I don't know what's more of a workout, the swim or the anxiety of trying to time everything right!
Lol at the pool!
ReplyDeleteIt is entertaining for sure.
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