Até a próxima

Or, until next time

I'm now back at home in sunny England - and in fact have been for a couple of weeks now. Before 2014 comes to an end, I thought I would bring the blog up to date with my last week in Lisbon. Never fear - all being well, there will be more to come when I return to Lisbon in mid-January.

I last posted on Thursday the 4th. Friday was a normal day at work, followed by a meal out with the friendly people from my rowing squad at a restaurant in Santos, an area I haven't been to much. There was plenty of delicious food and it was nice to spend time with the rowers outside the club for a while.

Parque Eduardo VII

I was back with the rowers down at the club on Saturday for a final session. We managed to get the boat out despite the pontoon still being unusable, and had a good row in the sunshine followed by coffee at a nearby café. I had quite a relaxed afternoon and evening, which was nice. One reason it was so quiet was that Carly was feeling under the weather, so we put our plans on hold. On Sunday I went to church and read the lesson in Carly's place. From January I'll be on the rota in my own right, which makes me feel more part of the scene. It was the first service with a new locum, who in fact is right at home in Lisbon because he was the vicar at St George's for 10 years.

After the service I spent a long time looking round a craft fair in the Estrela garden, mainly looking for Christmas presents, before wandering around the nearby streets - very peaceful, and the beautiful weather helped. I met Carly, who was on her feet again, and we had an exciting trip to the police station to report that her phone had been stolen. We weren't the only people there for that reason - several other people came in about their phones while we were there. It definitely made me think a bit harder about looking after my valuables in the street - and in fact later on, as we were walking home, someone tried to snatch Carly's bag, driving home the point that you can't be too careful.

You can't argue with that view

After another relaxing evening, Monday brought deep joy in the form of a bank holiday. I met up with Carly and Feyikemi to go to the Christmas market in Campo Pequeno, which was again full of interesting stalls with a thousand and one things for sale. After a lot of wandering round, we left and went to a café near the Gulbenkian Foundation for lunch, which was very nice. Carly and I said goodbye to Feyikemi, then walked round the Gulbenkian gardens for a bit. I headed home for a while then went out again to have dinner with Sofia, who was home from Oxford for the vacation. Her whole family and a few other guests were also there, and it was a lovely occasion.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at work concluding my project - it seems to have gone pretty well. On Tuesday evening I had a last dinner at home with Luísa and Elena, and on Wednesday it was the office Christmas dinner, which was suitably foody - I almost lost count of the number of courses, all of which were delicious.

"Cutting-edge street art"

That just left Thursday, which passed remarkably quickly. I got up at a reasonable time and packed pretty much everything within two or three hours. I then met Carly for one final Portuguese meal, a farewell lunch at an excellent (and good value) restaurant near her flat. I had a few errands to get done, and to cut a long story short, ended up down by the river. To make sure I had plenty of time to get to the airport, I decided to get the metro, but there was a signalling failure and no metros were running. I couldn't find any buses either, or even a taxi, so just walked/ran (quite a long way) up to Marquês de Pombal, where I finally found a taxi. The driver was extremely helpful and kind, and agreed to wait by my flat while I grabbed my suitcases, before taking me to the airport. Of course, I actually ended up there with hours to spare; check-in was very quick, my bags were the right weight, and my flight was delayed. I made full use of the free wifi and skyped Stephen at length before the plane set off. Soon I was back in chilly England, and was met by my lovely family.

The rest of my holiday is strictly outside the remit of this blog, but all being well, I will be back in a couple of weeks with news of my return to Lisbon.

Feliz Ano Novo!