Olá Lisboa

Or, hello Lisbon

And hello dear readers! Time for an update on my first week back in Lisbon.

Fancy architecture, the Portuguese flag, and a tourist tram: the Praça do Comércio

I arrived at about 9.30 on Monday morning (big 'thank you' to my mother for taking me to the airport at a very antisocial hour) and, half an hour and one taxi ride later, was settling back in to my room at Luísa's flat. With that task complete, I set out to Campo de Ourique, where I met the lovely Laura, previously mentioned in these pages as a rowing researcher, for lunch at Tentadora, that highly favoured café. The lunch was excellent, and we followed it up with a trip on the 28 tram and a wander round the Alfama area. We had been intending to visit the castle, but didn't quite manage it in the end. After enjoying a hot chocolate and saying our goodbyes - Laura's now left Lisbon - I wandered back and had a relaxing evening, chatting to the wonderful Luísa and Elena (what would I do without them?) and preparing myself for my first day in my new job.  

Enjoying the view with Laura

For those who are interested, I'm working in a law firm, mainly doing translation, writing/editing, and some research-based tasks. I began at 9.30 on Tuesday, and had a great first day, meeting dozens of colleagues - it's a big office - and starting my first few mini-projects. The rest of the week carried on excellently. I really settled in well, with a good mixture of things to do, and neither too little nor too much work, which was reassuring. Everyone has been really friendly so far and I'm enjoying the office culture, which includes an excellent canteen and free gym classes (if you didn't already know, food and sport are both close to my heart). One highlight was probably the lunch of 'pescadinhas do rabo na boca', fish fried with their tails in their mouths. Definitely out of the ordinary and yummy too.

An aside: one of the more amusing moments I had (and I really hope this doesn't offend anyone) was discovering the 'ebola advice' poster next to the coffee machine, which contains the wonderful line 'stay away from corpses'. Very sensible, but given that the poster was specially produced for the law firm (with its logo etc.) you would have thought it wasn't really necessary..? 

After putting in the hours at the office, I took the opportunity to relax at home in the evenings, although did manage to sneak in an extra (delicious) dinner with Carly on Thursday. It was great to catch up on each other's news and enjoy the wonders of Portuguese cuisine again. 

And so, to the weekend. On Saturday I went down to the rowing club - again, lovely to see everyone - and had a fantastic outing in the 4+ yole. I was overjoyed to see that the pontoon has been fixed; apparently Father Christmas was kind to the club (yes, one of my crew-mates really told me that). As the weather was still pleasant (i.e. warm-ish, not raining), I walked all the way to the Praca do Comércio then up to Rato and home, a long and not very direct route but good for seeing Lisbon, which was the main aim. 

Looking back towards the bridge and rowing club - quite a long way

I headed out again later to have coffee in Campo de Ourique with Nicki, a long lost friend who I hadn't seen for about 3 years. It was really fun to catch up and we'll be seeing each other again soon, at book club on Thursday - both of us are ambitiously trying to read a 360+ page novel by then, we'll see how that one goes. By the time I got home it had begun raining, and I was pretty tired, so stayed in and got on with reading the book.

Today (Sunday) I didn't venture outside until church - always a pleasure to be back there. Afterwards, Carly, Feyikemi and I went for a Padaria Portuguesa lunch, then Carly and I made the short bus trip to Belém where we visited the Museu dos Coches - an entire museum given over to royal coaches and carriages. Despite its niche appeal, it was very interesting, and we both learnt a lot. After a quick café visit, we headed home. I've spent the evening writing this, and skyping various people back in England, including a manic call with about 10 Oxford friends (hello you lot!), and good chats with my parents and Stephen. 

Friends, soup, pastries and fresh fruit juice - what more could you want?

A small selection of the coaches, with a very happy Carly

All in all, it's been an excellent week. Bring on the next!

Thanks for reading, everyone.