Category: Portugal

For me, part of the fun of visiting other countries is speaking with the people, learning their customs, and eating their food. I prefer this interaction than looking at monuments or visiting old buildings. It’s all about the people.

I also like trying to speak the language. In Lisboa, so many people involved with tourism (cab drivers, hotel receptionists, restaurant workers) speak English. They are patient with me as I try my less-than-basic Portuguese, and then hand me an English menu or try to help me pronounce the words. I find that I can understand a good deal of conversations, especially if they are speaking slowly. Pronouncing the words, on the other hand, is more difficult. In the hotel, I use Google translate to help me learn the pronunciation. (I can now count and say the days of the week in Portuguese.) Yesterday, Dennis downloaded an app to his phone to help us translate; of course, that only works if we have WIFI,  which we may not have out in the countryside.

This morning Dennis went to the barber’s and looks very proper. Afterward, we went to the hospital by Metro to get the stitches out. It took us longer to find the hospital than it did to get attended to. The nurse, Esa, spoke perfect English. The doctor also looked at my toe and said to wait until the nail falls of naturally. After removing the stitches, they used steri-strips (like butterfly bandages) to finish the healing. I am to use them for three days. To make sure I don’t reopen the wound, we have decided to stay in Lisbon one more day.

In the afternoon we went to visit the Castelo de São Jorge, a Moorish castle overlooking Lisbon’s historic section. Lots of colorfully tiled facades, narrow streets, and friendly people, but very touristy.

What I learned:

• Tipping Etiquette is 10% (different from Spain)
• To order draft beer, you need to specify the size.
  • 1/2 pint (300 ml):  Uma fino, por favor. (NORTHERN PORTUGAL) or Uma imperial, por favor. (SOUTHERN PORTUGAL)
  • a mug of beer (500 ml): Uma caneca de cerveja, por favor.
  • a bottle of beer: Uma garrafa de cerveja
• Be vigilant: Uneven sidewalks, missing cobblestones, potholes, etc. are everywhere. Also, there are signs warning of pickpockets.
• The people are extremely helpful. Once we got into the Metro, we pulled out the map to try to determine which platform to stand on. One woman walked us over to the correct one. We have experienced this going out of their way to be helpful before. It is a characteristic that I hope to develop, following their example.
• Most cafes/pastelarias are open as early as 7:00 am and close around 7 or 8 P.M. Most restaurants in the Old Quarter are open by 7 P.M. and serve dinner until 11 P.M or later. Some of the FADO restaurants don’t light the barbeque until around 8:30.
• I only observed a few small shops shutting down for siesta (from 1 to 3 P.M.). Most remained open, but this is a large city.
• Portuguese celebrate the holiday on its date, not moving it to Monday as in the U.S. Holidays which might affect us:
  • Monday 10th June – Portugal Day
  • Monday 24th June – São João this unofficial holiday is observed widely in the north of the country, on the railways etc. but not everywhere in the south.
• Dinner hour depends on the restaurant. Most open around 7 or 7:30 P.M., but you may be alone in the dinning hall until 8 P.M. or more.
• WIFI is pronounced as in English and not wee-fee as in Spain.
• The couvert is a fee in restaurants to cover the cost of items brought to your table that you did not order, such as bread and butter or a small plate of olives. If you don’t want to pay the one- or two-Euro fee per person for these items, don’t eat them, or ask the waiter to remove them.

Slow start this morning. After an 11 A.M. brunch we toured the city. First we went to the ancient Se Cathedral. The insides reminded me of my childhood church, Our Lady of Sorrows in Hartford, CT. We stayed a while to listen to the choir.

From there we headed towards the shoreline and watched sailboats and other tourists. For the first time in weeks, I am warm, even seeking the shady side of the streets as we head towards the Church of Our Lady of Martyrs to get our credential stamped. On the way we pass many “Largos” or squares. Lisboa has seven hills and before long, we realized that after a month of biking, we need to develop different leg muscles, especially in the calves.

We found the Igreja dos Martires without difficulty.  I asked a sexton where to get the carimbo, the pilgrim’s stamp; he lead me to an unmarked door on the left side of the church as you face the altar. Inside and with difficulty, I explained what we needed and our credentials now bear the parish stamp. We have started our Camino Portuguese, though we still feel like tourist.

After treating ourselves to Ben & Jerry (of course, mine was the chocolate fudge brownie), Dennis took a nap. As I typed this blog and used Google translate to learn Portuguese, I can hear traditional music coming from the cathedral square, making me feel serene and happy to be in Lisboa.

We got to the bus station about an hour before departure time. Two Portugal-bound buses arrived and people speaking a variety of languages descended on them, trying to figure out which bus to take. Each bus driver told me, “Not this bus, other.” We and several others had no idea what to do. Our departure time was approaching and there was no one on the platform to assist us.

Someone who had gone to the ALSA (bus line) info office said that the bus to Lisboa would arrive shortly. The speaker turned out to be Neville,  a moderator on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela Forum. Dennis kept wondering why there was no communication with the passengers and why the authorities did not use the monitor on the wall which showed the various trains and routes to indicate  arrivals, departures, and platforms as is done in train stations and airports. Sometimes the obvious seems too easy.

Ten minutes before our scheduled departure time, the bus arrived and we departed the terminal about 15 minutes late. This long distance bus had reclining seats, movies, air-conditioning, but no toilet. When the driver pulled into the station announcing a 10-minute stop, most of the passengers ran off to the facilities–I was in the lead (hearing the William Tell Overture in my mind), not wanting to be left behind.

At our next pit stop, we could not find the toilets. As a last resort, I went to the information office. The person behind the desk pointed to a key on the wall and indicated the back of the building. The key fit the lock on a nondescript door; it must have been a private toilet. When I got out, there was a line of people who I recognized as fellow passengers waiting for to use the johns.

The following break was in Portugal. The signage there is not “Aseos” as is Spain but W/C. I recognized that from my time in France forty years ago. There were three toilets in the women’s and I was in the first group of users. When we got out, the three of us panicked–the bus was gone. No sign of Dennis, backpacks, nothing! At last, someone told us to wait, the bus had only left for washing and would return shortly. When it arrived, Dennis who had stayed on the bus, told me how he too had panicked when the bus start to leave. Should he get off the bus and leave our belongings or stay with them and hope to meet up with me later. Luckily, it all worked out.

We arrived in Lisboa about two hours later than scheduled, around 8 pm (and with the time shift after sitting on the bus for 10 hours). At the station, I felt overwhelmed with the strangeness of being in a country where I did not speak the language, know the customs, or even where to go next. There were no signs indicating how to get out of the terminal, the location of the taxis, nothing. I asked the person standing next to me where she was going and we shared a taxi to the center of the Old Quarter. We are staying in the pension São João da Praça. We huffed up four flights to our room, then went for supper to a restaurant around the corner called Almargem, which turned out to be one of the most traditional restaurants in Lisboa. I had sardines and Dennis had a fish stew.  It was a long day.

This morning we realized that from our room we see the Rio  Tejo (the Tagus River)  and hear the cathedral bells which is across the street. It is sunny and will be in the 80’s today…first time in over a month that I will be warm. Hooray!