A verdadeira primavera

Or, spring - the real thing

This is a slightly unusual (and short) post, because it's only about three days - last Saturday, yesterday, and today, the reason being that in the intervening period I was out of Portugal, enjoying a holiday with my family. Anyway, this isn't the place for describing that, so I will get on with the real deal.

Representing Tethys in Lisbon

Last Saturday, the 21st March, as I mentioned in my previous diary-type post, was set aside for a huge rowing adventure being organised within the Leisure section of ANL, my rowing club here in Lisbon. The aim was to row to Vila Franca de Xira and back - a distance of more than 60km in total. In the end, we 'only' did 47km... still quite enough for me!

Getting out the boats

After arriving at the club at 9, we got out all our equipment and set off in three coxed four yoles and a motor boat (or as the rowers would have it, a launch...). We pushed off at about 9.45 and were faced with a pretty fierce headwind and generally unfavourable conditions, which meant progress was a lot slower than expected. We kept on going until about 1.15 then decided to land at some handy pontoons at Póvoa de Santa Iria, where we had a big picnic lunch and rested a bit, then headed back to the club. Fortunately in that direction the wind was behind us, and the water felt a lot calmer. And the sun even came out as we were getting back. It was nearly 6pm by the time we arrived - quite a journey. I think it was the furthest I've ever rowed in a day, even accounting for the fact that I coxed about 5km of the way. A good achievement!

Going past the Expo site - with me on bow side!

All the boats going past the Praça do Comércio/Terreiro do Paço

Since I was, er, rowing, I don't have any photographs of my own, so the ones above were sent around by some other members of the group (Ana and Filipe).

There is now a ~magic time lapse~ and we can start again with yesterday, aka Saturday 28th March. I was back at the boat club for a much smaller rowing session in the morning - probably only around 15km - which was fun. Lots of sun cream was required! The weather was so beautiful that I followed the rowing with a trip to the beach at Cascais with Carly. We took a picnic and enjoyed an afternoon of soaking up the sun, paddling in the 'refreshing' water, exploring the sinking sand, and chatting a lot. Back in Lisbon, we both went home for a while, then I went over to her flat so we could have dinner together. Still lots of catching up to do!

Carly in the sinking sand - fortunately she escaped

Why not go to the beach in March?

Then this morning we met up again for more food - a light breakfast at the kiosk in the Jardim das Amoreiras - followed by church. It was Palm Sunday so the church was decorated with genuine palm branches. It was also the current locum's last week here, and there was a new member of the congregation - a less-than-3-weeks-old tiny baby! So the service was full of interest. Carly and I hung around for a while afterwards, chatting to Feyikemi and others, before having a relaxed few hours wandering round Lisbon. 

First coffee of the day

We had a particularly exciting time this afternoon as one of Carly's students had given her free tickets to a Portuguese 'revista' - like a combination of a musical and a cabaret - called Portugal à Gargalhadas, at the Teatro Politeama. The two of us went with Doosuur. It was great fun - absolutely hilarious in some parts, and incomprehensible in others. I'm really glad to have had the opportunity to go. It would never have occurred to me to book tickets and go of my own accord, but I feel like it was a genuinely Portuguese experience, and taught me a lot about the Portuguese sense of humour, among other things...

Third (?) coffee of the day

We followed the theatre trip with dinner in a very friendly restaurant in Rato - cheap and delicious to boot. Then it was time for me to go home and get ready for going back to work tomorrow, and write this. There's never a dull moment.

Spring at St George's

Thanks for reading!