Belem; Trains, Trams, Ferries, and Ubers

Life is an adventure! Well, it is for us anyway. Part of what makes adventure is the possibility of things going wrong. Sometimes terribly wrong, but usually just odd little inconveniences.

Last Sunday we went to church—St. Andrews Church of Scotland. We got on the tram. I had it all mapped out on my app. I crack myself up. The tram didn't stop at the place we needed it to stop. It turns out you have to push a button telling the tram to stop. So we backtracked through alleys, streets, and stairs until we found it. 

It's a tiny little old church like the one my Grandpa used to preach in. It was a great sermon given by Pastor Norman in a Scottish brogue. He is very dramatic. A little four year-old girl trotted around during the entire sermon in spite of the stern glares by the older women. The hymns were terrible, so all you could hear were two brave souls singing and everyone else kind of murmuring along. Afterwards we were ushered down to the yard and rec-room for little English style sandwiches and guacamole and chips. Everyone was so nice. We'll be back.

I decided to explore some of the communities along the train (not the tram) route going past our home. I discovered a beach town called Carcavelos. We packed up our backpack and wore layers. Trying to figure out which train we wanted was tricky, but we'd been observing them coming and going, so we knew the trains went the opposite direction of highway lanes—they ran more like the British roads. That accomplished, we went over the foot-bridge and descended to our train. So far so good. When the train pulled in, we climbed aboard and looked for the scanner, but none could be found. We jumped back off before the doors could close and located the scanner. Twenty minutes later we scanned our passes and then hopped back on the train.

In Carcavelos, we disembarked and walked the mile to the beach… the perfect beach. All along the boardwalk were humble little restaurants and surfing schools. It was a bit chilly, but that didn't stop the surfers.

I loved the various groups of kids in their surfing classes. So cute. They had a kid's zip-line on the beach—that was a source of entertainment for sure. At one end of the beach is an ancient fort. We noticed the ferries carting people/cars to two towns across the river and thought that looked promising (more on that later). We stayed at the beach all day except at one point we came to a tunnel, so we followed it up to the town. We walked around a bit and headed back to the beach. When we finally decided to leave, we wandered through several neighborhoods en route and fell in love.

Back up to the train. We scanned our passes before getting on and happily watched the sunset from the windows. And then we passed our exit. The train didn't even slow down. Two exits later the train stopped. We got off and started walking back in hopes of finding a returning bus (hoping it would be the right bus). We succeeded and therefore spent the night in our home instead of wandering the streets of Portugal all night. It turns out that during high-volume rush hour, we needed to get off the train at some point and get back on another train—on the same exact tracks—that would stop at our place… seriously does this make sense to anyone?

This leads me to a subject dear to my heart. Food. We're having the hardest time adjusting to how early they eat in Belem. In Lisbon it was the normal European late nights, but here it's much earlier. By the time we got back from our journey it was about 8:00pm. We knew where we wanted to eat, but they were closed. So was the next place. We found an open restaurant (we were the last guests) and ate the worst meal so far. To warn you, I don't like starchy, carb-loaded foods. A normal Portuguese meal here will have both white rice and a pile of limp French fries taking up three quarters of the plate. Trust me, I'm very particular about what the other quarter of the dish is going to be. That’s one of the reasons I order the garlic shrimp so often because it comes alone… just shrimp. On this occasion I ended up with a tiny hamburger patty with a fried egg on top (normally my favorite, but this egg wasn't sunny-side up like it should've been). By the way, when they set bread, butter, olives, and cheese on the table, don’t eat it unless you want to pay for it.

The next day we went back to the pool to swim for exactly 45 minutes and then to the grocery store. I bought a package of diced beef, an onion, and olive oil. I'd read a recipe for this meat and was excited to try it. That was the very worst inedible beef I'd ever eaten. I managed to gnaw my way through about ten percent of it… I was thankful for my baked potato. It's a learning curve. The salmon I bought last week was the best I'd ever had (shrug). Today we got more salmon and chicken.

Thursday we decided to explore those two towns we'd watched the ferry stop at on the south side of the river. This time there were scattered clouds. No problem. We went to the ferry station and followed a girl on… past the cars pulling on. The first adorable little town was Brandao. We walked for about an hour. When we came back to the station we discovered that the ferry doesn't stop at Brandao every time it comes by. It would be over two hours before the next ferry to Trafaria! We'd already walked the entire town. 

We went into a restaurant and had a traditional lunch of garlic prawns and caldo verde (spinach soup). Then we went and stood staring fearfully at the dock because the ferry was sitting there, doing nothing. I asked two times to be sure the ferry was leaving at 3:00. Apparently it was the ferry staff's lunch break. We got on successfully and went to Trafaria. As soon as we arrived, I checked the return schedule :)

For some reason we began walking west right away. Probably because an enormous ugly factory looms over the pretty little town. We were rewarded with an absolutely stunning beach with a vast Atlantic view. 

We had to walk a trail to get there. It was really pretty, but far off the beaten path. The first beach café we came to was closed for the low season. 

We began the trek down the beach to find someplace to sit with a beer and a glass of wine. We found one, and there we sat as we watched a storm sweep in. Suddenly our lovely sunny view was grey and rainy. And we still had over an hour's worth of walking ahead of us. We had raincoats, but still. It wasn't exactly how we wanted to spend the rest of our day. Joe saved the day and called an Uber. I'm amazed at this service. It's so nice to just type in where you want to go. They already know where you are, so you don't have to try to explain your location over the phone.

In five minutes the car came through the rain in the gravel parking lot and took us to the ferry station in time to catch a boat back to Belem. Crazy day.

The weather is volatile this time of year. When we flew in a couple of weeks ago, it felt like the captain was doing jumping jacks with the plane. When he landed, he had to slam on the brakes. I could hear things falling and several phones skidded past us. From our favorite restaurant I've discovered that there's never a time when there is no plane in the sky. Lisbon airport is a busy place. The weather has calmed down a bit this week. For awhile there I was completely baffled as to what to expect. Sometimes it would be sunny and a misty rain would be coming in on the wind. 

Now I just carry my raincoat with me everywhere. It's times like this that we find a sheltered corner, and I sit with my wine or port with my nose pointed towards the sun like a cat.

Belem; Our Place and Swimming

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!

Belem; Saudade

The day after we got here we decided to hoof it to the closest cell phone provider (MEO, last time we used Vodofone). It turned into an hour long walk, but we met with success. We got 2 months data for 64 Euros. The gal was kind enough to swap our sim cards for us, so we are now fully operation for texting and calling each other while here. For international communication I use either Whatsapp or Telegram, or email of course.

The next thing we did was hunt down the bus/metro/train/tram/trolley pass store. To go wherever you want on the metro or smaller inner-city trains costs only 1.47 E. To go to Cascais (thirty minutes) on the bigger local train is only 1.95 E. The one card works for everything local—not the high speed national trains. The first thing we did was find the trolly stop and wait behind an old-timer. He pushed a button to open the door, climbed aboard, and held his card against a scanner… so we did the same thing. This is how we learn the vast majority of things while we travel. Watch other people.

It's amazing how busy this waterfront is. Not just tourists but locals as well. Lots of joggers and speed walkers, young couples walking like their hips are attached. I lost count of how many parents were pushing strollers. It's interesting how often I see something with an element of danger. The riverbanks are actually paved with giant blocks of stone and the slope directly into the river. The bottom half of them are covered in slippery algae. If you went down that slope, you're not coming back up without a rescue team. It's a little better in front of Lisbon. There it's like big slanted steps, but still green and slippery. We were walking by yesterday and a man (old enough to know better) was at the edge of the water. He had his nice jeans rolled up to keep them dry as he stood barefoot on the green part taking selfies. Suddenly he went down hard. The phone bounced from his hand and skittered dangerously close to the river. I politely looked the other way once I could see the only thing hurt was his pride. Hopefully he was just doing a selfie and not talking to someone on Zoom!

Speaking of selfies, everywhere we travel people are getting that perfect selfie—including us. But, you have to admit, some people are obsessed with it. The other day we discovered a super nice restaurant on the riverfront called Sud Lisboa. It was gorgeous. Even the bathrooms were gorgeous, albeit a little confusing. Joe gave me instructions before I went, and I still couldn't figure it out without some trial-and-error. We like getting a glass of wine and beer at these fancy places. It's cheaper than the meal, and you get the experience. Two young ladies came in dressed like they were going disco dancing. They sat down and the selfies commenced… for the entire time we were there. The only time they weren't photographing themselves was when they were taking pictures of each other. Then a third gal came in and it all started over again... the pursed lips and the flick of the hair.

We have a favorite restaurant already. It's an Italian pizzeria. It's situated next to the big Belem sculpture. We like it because we can sit out on the deck overlooking the water. It doesn't hurt that they have a yummy wine called Casa Ermalinda Freitas Syrah. Both times we ate there we ordered the salmon, arugula, and cream cheese pizza. Man that was good!

Today we hiked uphill to the Restelo neighborhood to the public pool. We got all signed up and hopefully we'll start swimming tomorrow. It has six lanes and is a 25-meter pool. It's on a 45-minute incremental schedule, so we have to get there fifteen minutes early to change, then hop in the pool on time. It was so warm in the building, I can only hope it's not too warm in the water. We definitely checked out the bus schedules to get there, otherwise we'd be done with our workout before we even got in the pool!

There's a gorgeous museum of electricity near our place--MAAT. It is such a bizarre looking place! It looks like a giant manta ray or some other strange sea creature. Portugal is all about the sea. There're three or four marinas directly in front of our area.

A beautiful sculpture is very close to our pad. It's shaped like a ship going out to sea. The man on the bow holding a ship is probably Vasco da Gama. He was the famous explorer who discovered the spice route to India around Cape Hope. Sea voyages, especially in the fourteen hundreds, were extremely dangerous—only 55 of the 170 seamen survived. Portugal was/is also a major fishing country. Because of this, the Portuguese culture is deeply nostalgic. 

The Fado music represents this yearning for the sailors and fishermen to return, though they frequently didn't. A word is used here to describe this feeling—Saudade. I found two different definitions for this word and I feel it's important to know them before traveling here to Portugal… otherwise you'll miss the true experience.

Saudade: A vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, a turning towards the past or towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness.

Saudade: A profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that might be forever lost. The recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or people that once brought joy, pleasure, and a well-being but now make one experience the pain of separation. A deep emotional state of nostalgia for what once was but will likely never be again.

I'm curious what your reaction to this will be? Does it make you sad or do you like it and why?

Arrival in Belem, Lisbon

Hang on to your magic carpet! We're heading off on another adventure to Portugal. This time we're going for two months. Can you imagine that? Two months. That seems both incredibly long and much too short. This time we're staying the entire time, almost, in Lisbon. We want to get to know two totally different neighborhoods in Lisbon. I chose Belem and Avenidas Novas. Belem is a riverfront neighborhood. It's famous for its pastries and its fancy homes. We rented a house on the river overlooking a big park for one month. On Feb 13th we'll transfer ourselves to a community up in the hills north of the city center… Avenidas Novas—the New Avenues. It was built recently, like a hundred years ago. This is where we stayed last time, and we loved it. There's tons of parks and cafes. We are staying with a couple of guys who rent out a room to Airbnb. They're both really in to working out, so Joe's hopeful to go to a gym with them.

Our goal this trip is to see if this is someplace we could live. We are going to find a pool to swim laps and a church in each neighborhood. We've got a couple of places picked out, so we'll see. We're going to go on two mini vacations while we're there. The first month we are going over to Cascais—about a thirty-minute train ride west from Belem. Cascais is very popular with the ex-pat crowd. We thought we should go see what that's like. The next mini vacation is Setubal. That's about an hour south of Lisbon. Setubal is a large fishing city. It's very popular with Portuguese vacationers.

Right now we're somewhere over America I think. Flying TapAir is its own kind of adventure. We've learned to bring food because they don't feed you much. I froze a couple of baggies of turkey and threw them in my carry-on. Good thing because my meal was perfect for a carb lover. I did get some beef, mashed potatoes, and string-beans. Joe ate my bread and dessert for me… so sacrificial. I also learned from our last flight on TapAir that they don't serve wine between the meals (dinner and breakfast for a 10.5 hour flight). This time I asked for a second glass of wine and just let it sit there until I felt like drinking it… pretty smart huh? 

Breakfast was this big roll loaded with meat and cheese;) Another thing I find incredibly odd is this plane doesn't have personal fans above the seats. The air seems to be moving in general, but I tend to run pretty warm and keep my fan directly on me the entire flight. I brought a hand-held fan this time, thank goodness. I have to admit that I don't feel as dried out as usual though.

Two months is too long to leave our cat to my neighbors care, so we have someone staying at our house this time to pet and feed Loca. I'm sure she will be completely spoiled by the time we get home and probably weigh twice as much! Oh well, at least she'll be happy.

Good morning peeps, we dragged our butts through yesterday. Not sure why, but neither of us slept on the plane—at all. The first thing we did when we got through customs (short and sweet this time) was get coffees and split a tiny pastry. Lisbon has a pretty snazzy airport. Anyway, we went downstairs to fetch my suitcase and walked out to the taxi stand. A good-looking young man drove us to Belem and gave us a rundown on everything including his career plans to be a personal trainer. When he stopped in front of our home, after twenty-minutes, he showed us the charge… 21.75 Euros. But then he says, "Twenty is enough." We argued with him and he ended up accepting 21 E. Not an argument we normally have with a cab driver!

Our place is on the third and fourth floors facing a cobblestone alley going to the park, which faces the river. An adorable elderly lady came downstairs from her apartment and waved us up the steep steps. She's our neighbor. Our first plan of action was getting groceries. Easier said than done. The actual grocery store is uphill and we were exhausted, plus it was sprinkling. We got our stuff back to the house and forced ourselves to go out. I was afraid I'd take a nap and not wake up until one in the morning.

The big park in front of our place is separated from the river's edge by a huge fence and a train track. The beautiful Belem monument was tantalizingly close. We finally found a tunnel going to the riverside. We wandered along the riverfront for a couple of hours and found an amazing castle. It was so beautiful and unexpected.

We stopped to have a glass of wine and a beer because my legs were getting wobbly with fatigue. Joe said it was the first time he'd ever seen me falling asleep at a restaurant! We finished the night with burgers and fries and slept like babies until about four in the morning. Not a bad first day.