My time in Lisboa

I have left Lisbon. I am happy with how it went, couldn’t have picked a better city to start in coming from San Fran. Lisbon is remarkably similar. Its by the bay and ocean. It has rolling hills. Plenty of parks. Small townhouse style duplexs and apartment buildings( kinda like North beach in SF). It even has a big red bridge. This was really a beautiful city.
Impressively, my first day, even after the long overnight flight, I managed to scale Castello St. Jorge. The below video is from there, but I must warn you, I am quite incoherent in it and very tired. However I think it conveys my feelings at that point –desheveled.



The next day I got a late start and ended up breezing thru Belem, a cultural/historic area of Lisbon. That night I failed to find a bar I was told to go to.
The real treat of the trip was pretty simple: riding a bike around the waterfront area. The waterfront, as Im calling it had nice gardens, rolling greens, cafes, a little air lift thing, pretty much all you could want to find at a waterfront. It was right in front of the Vasco De Gama which had a lot of shops. Cruisin around on a beach cruiser with the great weather and sea breeze was perfect.
Some Brief Observations
- I fit in. There is a surprising amount of dark, mostly african, people here.
- Riding my bike by the beach, I saw a few dead portuguese Man-o-War jellyfish..They were pretty big.. At least 18inch diameter.
- There was cursing on the radio, in English. Listening to some Kanye and Jay-Z at a café, the songs were completely unedited. I guess they don’t need to bleep out curse words in other languages.
- Finally, I am shocked at the sheer amount of people that speak really good english. Its amazing, and really lucky for us native speakers, that English has really become the world’s second language. There were times that I would ask “Falla Portugese” to someone and they would say “Of course” as if its only natural to be fluent in two languages. Its amazing that so many people in Europe, so far, are basically bilingual. I guess it is a gift and curse that we do not need to focus on other languages in the US

They're Filmin Midgets!

The littlest things can amuse you when traveling. Sitting in a terminal in London Heathrow, awaiting a flight to Lisbon, overhearing the simplest phrases bring a smile to my face. The two little girls talking about the toilet or “lou” sound as if they are having a proper discussion on politics.. I dunno why the British accent makes everything sound so sophisticated.

Flying in with British Airways, it all became real. Flying over London, seeing the Thames, watching people actually drive on the wrong side of the road; it’s like I imagined but really different at the same time. I guess I can’t really tell yet tho. Never judge a city by its airport. LHR is stupid big tho and ridiculously drawn out. So much so that they recommend two hours for connecting flights! Why? Because you need to go back thru security, ride a bus to a new terminal, walk 10 mins to the cluster of gates 20-30, find your gate number (24), find your sub-gate (24D), then get on a bus to take you to your plane.

At least BA is a nice airline. Free drinks, free meals, and courteous people who give you eyeshades, toothbrush and even socks to walk around the plane in. Some fat-cats even have beds on that plane. Passing out while watching the Wire was good enough for me, even if I only got a few hours of sleep.

Of course I’m keeping the socks

Birth Days

My birthday was a few days ago. I had a really good time with the family, but it was interesting to see how other people spent my bday.

Its funny that a date, 8/23 in this case, can really stand out in your mind as a unique day, a day you do something special, one that you treat different than all the rest; but its just another day to about 6 billion people. Looking at people mow their lawn or run errands I would think, "Is that really how you are going to spend my birthday?".

I guess those unaware of the party really cant enjoy it..

The next time you are doing something monotonous, just think, this is someone's birthday and you are wasting it being bored..Cheer up and celebrate! Everyday should feel like a party

As I thought..

As I thought, I am not very good at writing regularly in a blog. Its tough, I mean how often do you get the urge to sit down and reflect on the past couple days..how often do you go thru with actually doing it. And even when you do..its a blog, not a journal, you dont want to just brain-dump every little thing in your head, who knows who could see it. You also dont want to bore your potential audience, as im doing now. But not for long, big changes ahead..

As I thought, it is hot as balls in VA! You can stand outside for maybe 5.6 seconds at high noon and you will need to change your socks.. im sweatin hard out here. Even the dog can only play ball outside for about a minute. May not sound like a big deal, but if you know this dog, her quitting ball is like

As I thought, posting on any type of schedule is impossible..i wrote this about 5 days ago, not even in VA anymore.

Im sure ill get better at this once im out of the country.

I havent really written much of a blog before so not real sure what to write about.. which kinda reflects my days now..dunno what to do. A few weeks ago, it was easy: Go to bartending class-happy hour, plan some leg of my trip around the world, or maybe jog in place in a waist-high pool with some elderly folks. Those were the glory days. But now im a certified bartender, most of the trip stuff is planned, and Im surprisingly sore from these gym classes. What to do now..

Luckily today, the power has gone out. This cut off from the world -TV & WiFi- has inspired me to get out and explore the city a bit. The cut off from lighting has also made the morning rituals a bit difficult. Try going #2 by candlelight. I guess the candle serves a dual purpose in that situation..