February Is Always Good

Museum de Orient, Thai paper puppets

Museum de Orient Shaman attire

Museum de Orient Shaman attire

Birthday sushi

A night at the Gay Bar (don't click this link if you offend easily. I think it is funny)

J looking stoic

My main man J

Tejo River from Noobai Cafe notice the 25th de Abril Bridge and the Cristo-Rei

Front room looking in, see the wood framing?

Our bedroom a sea of blue tiles

Kitchen

Front room

Hallway looking towards the front

The month of Pisces was well suited, we are settled, we have a new apartment, we're working, traveling, generally things are great. February was an action packed month, lots to speak about. However I will do this in two blogs. This post is only to wet your pallets and suck you back in. We have hit our stride here in Lisboa and have created a nice network of friends, restaurants, hang out places, and best of all markets. At times I feel a bit naked because I have been leaving my camera at home sometimes - this is a very strange feeling. Nonetheless I still have it with me most days and here is what we have been up to.

The Apartment is grand. We share it with three fellow Fulbrighters; Patricio, Tini, and Corn Fed. It is an old building in the Santos neighborhood two blocks from the river and across the street from the French Embassy. We are lucky the apartment has some old relics dating the building back to the 18th century. In our bedroom and the kitchen the back wall is covered in azulejos, traditional Portuguese tiles. The room is vibrant with a beautiful blue tint and hue all over. In the front room there are a wooden frames that were widely used in the rebuilding of Lisboa after the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The frames were created support the frames of the buildings in case of another quake. The place has a nice homey feel to it with lots of space to lounge.

February is also a great month since it is my birth month. On my birthday, Mel and I spent a nice day to ourselves by checking out the Museum de Orient and then going to get some of the best sushi I have ever had in my life. Go figure I have to go to Portugal for good sushi. The restaurant was opened up by the former personal chef to the Japanese Ambassador. We were trying to guess why he stayed when the Ambassador finished his time. That was answered very easily when we saw the chef and his assistant. The assistant had a distinct Japanese look to him mixed with some Portuguese features, he was the chef's son. Well that answered that. The sushi was vibrant, fresh and delicious.

The month was ended with a spectacular trip to a distant land - Marrakesh, Morocco. Okay, I know that is not so distant from here in Lisbon, but in our dreams it is another land and an entirely new continent, 4 down 3 to go. I will fill ya'll in about Marrakesh very soon. Probably when I am not feeling so lazy.

Back In the Lisboa

Sunset in Lisboa over Bairro Alto

Warrior statue

The palace from the statue

Palace Pena

Palace Pena

Palace Pena

Palace Pena

Sintra, Palace Pena entrance

Ericeira

Ericeira, a beach near Mafra

Crocodile Bill aka me

Mel looking as beautiful as ever

View of the city from an overlook

Football is everywhere, apparently even on stairs

A night trolley in Lisboa

This is an animation I made it may not work

When Mel and I got back to Lisbon, we were still haphazardly living out of our backpacks for another month. We were not slated to go back to Covilhá for a while. On the kindness of a fellow Fulbrighter, we crashed on a couch for another week. He and his wife (who was not there, she was back in the states teaching for her last semester of her PhD) live in a historically Arabic neighborhood, the Alfama. It is closed off from the main streets situated right behind the Sé de Lisboa (or Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa), a beautiful Romanesque and Gothic style parish cathedral dating back to 11th century. When every we wanted to go there we had to walk. Along with us there were two other borders in the Alfama, some friends visiting from the States. We were all like a merry band of bohemians straight out of La Bohiem; living, eating, drinking, touring, and creating together.

Our time in the Alfama came to a close and we packed our bags and headed to another nest in Lisbon, this time in the neighborhood of Bairro Alto with yet another duo of Fulbrighters. Bairro Alto, for you DCers, is like a cool hip Adams Morgan. With its narrow streets, no real car lanes, and plethora of hipster shops and bars; Bairro Alto was the place to be. During the day it was open and clean, but when night rolled around the crowds flooded the Bairro (as stated in an earlier post, the Portuguese word for neighborhood). The apartment was situated on the fifth floor (no elevator) and the sound from the narrow streets funneled up the buildings making it sound as if the party was in our house. It made going to sleep at a decent hour a challenge. After a few days there Mel headed back to Covilhá without me - I had a job to attend to!

Before Mel and I left for our Roman/Grecian holiday, I had interviewed with an English language school in the "beach" town of Mafra (it is less than 10k form the coast, you can almost smell the salted air). Mafra is a tourist destination because of its beautiful Palácio de Mafra (Mafra Palace). The tiny school in the tiny town had hired me and I had to go up for the opening day. When I arrived my bosses seemed rather happy that I had made it, "Great you are here! You are going to be the mascot for the day - Crocodile Bill." I responded with an indifferent shoulder shrug, "okay, sure." I donned a giant Crocodile costume. I have to tell you, I now have a new found respect for those people at Disneyland, those costumes are hot and semi uncomfortable. Luckly I had my recently purchased buff with me, this multifunctional head wear, was simultaneously keeping my hair out of my eyes and hindering the Croc head from chafing my chin away. All the while, it was a blast to have this thing on. There were kids running ever which way (some away from me because they were scared) and I was handing out balloons, shaking hands, giving and getting hugs, and walking the streets of Mafra making a spectacle of myself. It was great! I spent at least five hours in the costume and it was draining. I headed back to Lisbon on the hour bus ride drifting in and out of sleep.

Since I now had a job and Mel was only going to be teaching once a week on Friday's we decided to look for apartments in Lisbon. We were discussing our options with some friends when it came up that they too were in the market for a new place. The had come across a wonderful place that was great, but just to big (four rooms when they only needed two). With some talking we all decided to move in together, it worked out perfectly. We now had just over a week until we moved in to the new place. So only a few more days of living out of the backpack - it was now bordering on five weeks.

With our place in check and not much else to do Mel and I decided on a pleasantly beautiful and sunny day, to day trip it back up to Sintra. This time we were not going to be competing against the wind, rain, and fog. Plus there was the added bonus of having a car courteous of PM. For this Sintra excursion we had Pena Palace in our sights. The palace was the summer home of King Carlos the I and his family, the last royals from the monarchs of Portugal. The palace looked like something out of a fairy tale. It was an eclectic mix of architectural styles from Neo-Gothic to Neo-Manueline to Islamic to Neo-Renaissance. A beautiful hodgepodge of colors and angles. The palace sits inside a national park where there were some trails and other monuments to explore. We took off down one of the trails and headed towards a statue of a Portuguese warrior, I had spotted from the palace. It was erected on top of a granite rock formation a few meters ahead of us looking over the castle. Always looking for a challenge we attempted the seemingly climbable rocks. Mel took the lead and was about half way up when I heard her say, "oh shit!" I though she had reached a spot that she could not figure out how to get past. Instead she apparently had ripped her jeans down the middle attempting to cross a wide section. Not one to give up she said "oh well," and continued on up. We made it as far as we could and saw some amazing views of the palace and Sintra. When we turned around we were made privy to a spectacularly clear view of the greater Lisbon area and the coast. We could see for miles. It was an amazing sight to behold. This trip to Sintra was a complete opposite of our previous one. Before we headed back we ended our trip with some queijadas, a local Sintra pastry, a cousin of the pasteis de belem (which we get regularly in Lisboa). Here is a translated recipe if you so please. They were delicious.

We made our way back to Lisbon with change in the air...

Grecian Holiday

This was used to tell time and judge the winds in Ancient times called the Tower of the Winds

One of the many stray (spayed and neutered) dogs of Athens

Temple of Venus on the Acropolis

Graffiti from 1927 on the Acropolis

The Parthenon

The Temple of Zeus

The Parthenon

The winds on the Acropolis

Some of the great graffiti in Athens

Coastal town on the way to Athens

Coastal town on the way to Athens

Theater in Epidavros

Theater in Epidavros

Poros fishing boat

Poros

Sheep herder crossing the road on the way to Poros

Fortress in Nafplio

Nafplio

Fishing boat in Nafplio

The "good part" of the road on the way to Ermioni

Food of the Gods - Souvlaki

Borf lives!

Saw some DC graffiti, Borf

Acropolis at night from the "secret spot"

Yeah, I am totally awesome at keeping updated with my blog. I am hard at work everyday coming up with ideas to post and new pictures to show to the world - not so much.

So last time I left you it was New Years Eve in Roma. The Roman new year was chock full of explosions. Fireworks and firecrackers are everywhere popping, booming, and blasting in our ears. It reminded me of my New Years spent in NOLA at the Mid-City Christmas Tree Bonfire. Pandemonium was abounding every which way you looked. The skies over Roma were painted with different color explosions and a thick haze, covering the area in a cloud of smoke practically chocking our lungs. We spent our night drinking eight bottles of Martini Rossi Spamonti with our couchsurfing hostess and a fellow surfer. After the smoke clouds cleared we made our way to the Colosseum to watch the crowds. Reveling in our own clouded haze of bubbly drunkenness we waded through the congested streets like salmon swimming up stream. We returned to the apartment for a few hours of shut-eye before we headed to the airport to depart for Greece.

The short flight to Greece was beautiful, flying over countless Greek Isles each one greener than the next with the bluest crispest sea surrounding each. When we landed we rented a car and with our trusty GPS we took off for Athens. Once on the road the GPS kept telling us to get off the highway and go onto tiny side roads and back ally streets to get to our destination. I figured it knew a better way to go then me so we followed it, passing farms and dirt roads on the way. Upon arrival to our Couchsurfer hosts house he commenced to stuff us with sandwiches, homemade Christmas cookies from his mother, and the food of the gods - souvlaki (one of my top five foods). That night, he and his friend carted us around Athens, taking us to local bars and "secret" spots to see the Acropolis - spots the guidebooks never mention. We had a blast, all the while ingesting two more souvlaki's from street vendors. By this point I was stuffed and oddly only craving more souvlaki.

After only one day in the city we jumped in the car and headed off for the Peloponnese the western peninsula of the country, for a few days of exploring. Our destination for the first night Ermioni, a small sleepy fishing village in the south east. We left in mid-afternoon for a four hour drive straight down the coast. The drive was beautiful as we passed by coastal villages, hundreds of feet below us at the bottom of cliffs. The ocean with the setting sunset up a romantic scene and picturesque vistas for us to enjoy during the drive. After sunset we still had a few hours left until we reached our destination. However, this is when things began to get difficult. First of all the Greek coastal roads are extremely windy, curvy, with varying peaks and hills, so in other words, a very nauseating unlit drive. We were following the GPS to a T when we arrived in a small town about 50 kilometers away from Ermioni. It told us to take a right then a left up this small hill, then another left into an alley all the while we are getting away from the main road. Our next turn was onto an alley which turned into a dirt road. We looked at each other and kind of gave one another a shoulder shrug -"lets keep going, it knows where it is," I said, referring to the GPS . This is where things got bad, "turn right," Melissa told me. We both looked down a craggy, rock laden, hole pocked "road" descending at practically a 50º angle. "Okay lets do it," I hesitatingly said. We slowly descend the hill scraping and bumping the bottom of the car, hearing sounds you do not like to hear when you are driving. "This has to be a shortcut which leads us to a paved road soon," I said. Melissa just looked at me with skepticism. "Come on the GPS knows where we are," I reminded her. She shot another look of skepticism towards me. Wrong - the roads just kept getting worse and worse until we are driving through olive groves, on the Farm roads. No lights, no signs, no people, no nothing. The car was making horrible sounds and I was hopping we didn't get a sudden flat tire in the middle of nowhere. We were both agitated and scared, but we kept going. Finally we saw lights of a town way ahead. We came upon a paved rode and took it, against the discretion of the GPS. We were done with the unpaved roads and just continued until we came across signs of civilization. After only a few kilometers on the paved road we ended up in Ermioni alive and well. Upon inspection of the GPS we came to find out that I had set it on "off road" status, which explained the confusion. After arriving we found our hotel dropped our things off and took a stroll around the town. The quaint little village was just that, nice and charming.

After our one day in picturesque Ermioni, we headed west to the town of Nafplio, the first capital of modern Greece. Here we saw some wonderful sights and had a time walking around the town and got some great pictures. There was an old hilltop fortress and an island fortress warding off ancient invaders. We then headed back east to our island getaway, Poros. A small island only 200 meters from the mainland. We still needed a ferry to get there so I considered it a getaway. It was a small island inhabited by friendly people and friendlier dogs. Melissa and I quickly made friends with one of the local pooches. We only spent a day on Poros and took in some of the island. It was rainy and there was not much to see. Other than that it was very nice. As with everywhere else the people were great.

For our last day on the Peloponnese we headed back north following the coast up to Epidavros, an ancient city which is home to the oldest surviving theater in the world, dating back before the 4th century BC. It was an amazing site which boasted perfect acoustics from the center of the stage. Apparently those Greeks knew what they were doing. We wandered through ruins, centuries old and took in the surrounding area. When we left we realized we were hungry. We drove into the town and stopped in a place that had a sign that read souvlaki and pizza. What a perfect ploy to get the two of us in. It ended up being the best Souvlaki I have ever had in my life. It was utterly amazing. The flavors just popped and the pork just melted in my mouth. It was heaven in a pita. Speaking with the owner and a few of his friends we were made privy to some homemade retsina, a sap wine made from trees on his property. He said the recipe was generations old handed down from father to son for hundreds of years. It was interesting at best, very herbaceous and floral, but not much else. Not even close to the deliciousness of the souvlaki.

Our travels took us back up to Athens for two more days of Greek life. This time we had the opportunity to explore the touristic side of Athens - Acropolis here we come. Climbing the hill to the top of the Acropolis we were greeted by a pervasive 10 mile an hour wind that sent sand, dirt, hats, and hair whipping every which way. It made the climb slightly challenging. Finally at the top we followed the paths to the Parthenon and stoop on steps that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle once stood. The ideas of modern thinking were developed at this very spot. It was an amazing feeling. We were looking at buildings that have been around for thousands of years and held so much history. The view from the Acropolis gave us a 360º view of Athens and filled us with joy and appreciation for what we were standing on.

The last two days of our trip were once again spent couchsurfing. We meet up with another local who showed us yet another side of Athens. Again not missing out on its food. We continued to stuff our gullets with the sweet sweet nectar, souvlaki and other traditional foods. It was a trip to remember. We had spent two weeks traveling through some of the most important sites if the ancient world, the cradles of democracy and free thought. The power of the trip will always stick with me and always make me want to eat my way through history.