Back from Lisbon

I just got back from Lisbon, where I spent four days with my language teacher Ana Paula who submitted me to a “linguistic immersion” – Portuguese only ..! She can be a pretty cruel person.
(But it seems that this is the way to go if one wants to learn a foreign language. And I have been cruel to her too, in the not so distant past ..truth be told.)

Lisbon is fabulous on a hot and bright summer day…

looks like advertising for something, but not clear for what

…especially when the city is full of smart-looking sailors from India, who were visiting.  The seafood is amazing and very cheap, the beer is always really cold and the churches are large and impressive. The coast is only 20 minutes away and the Atlantic Ocean is wild and very stormy – swimming is not really recommended.

The service industry is a disaster.
The most famous coffee house in town served orange juice with live larvae swimming in it, and no one saw the need to be embarrassed or offer apologies. They did, however, smile and offer to make another one. We declined.

After exploring Lisbon, we drove out to Sintra which was an Arab stronghold in the 8th century. The “Castelo” is built on the top of a mountain and it integrates Stonehenge-like boulders into its structure:  Allah alone knows how these monster stones were cut to precision, moved into the most unlikely positions and how they refused to fall down in 1200 years.

The national portuguese music style, Fado, is deep and romantic and among the most melancholic music styles I have ever heard.
The background is Portugal as a major nation of navigators – and a shared experience of generations of women longing for their men and husbands out at sea.
Including all those men lost to the sea, who would never came back.

To get an impression, listen in here

- stay tuned -
the skipper