Tempo de despedidas

Or, time for goodbyes

This is a very belated post to round off my series of Lisbon diary entries. It's a whole week since I left Lisbon and returned to sunny England, meaning that I have just over a week left to catch up on, from the 7th to the 15th April.

The Praça do Município

Since it was my last week in Lisbon for the time being, I tried to pack in a lot of fun things! This also involved seeing goodbye to lots of the lovely people I'd met in the city. I carried on working until Tuesday 14th, the day before I flew home, and in many respects it was business as usual until that evening. Gym classes, canteen lunches, translations, preparing briefings, and birthday cake for colleagues - all the normal things! I'm really sad to have left the firm; it was a great experience to work there and I really feel that I learnt a lot throughout my three months, as well as making friends.

Friday brought a particularly special lunch as I went to eat with some of my ex-colleagues from my old job. It was nice to see them and catch up on their news and developments at the company.

With the Indonesian class, and our teacher Meiriana

Through the rest of the week I carried on with my normal outside-work activities: rowing on Saturday and Monday (I missed Wednesday because it was pouring with rain!), Indonesian classes on Tuesdays, and church on Sunday. On Saturday evening I also went out for dinner with the rowers at an 'Adega' - literally a winecellar, but in this case a traditional restaurant. It was great to spend time with them, and I even managed (under a lot of pressure) to make a short speech in Portuguese...

I spent quite a lot of the weekend wandering around Lisbon with Carly. We went to Campo de Ourique on Saturday, had a look round the market (the fancy Mercado de Campo de Ourique) and sat in the main square, relaxing and chatting.

Mercado de Campo de Ourique

Lots of fresh fruit, as well as the more restauranty stalls

Can't argue with a house that colour (seen in Campo de Ourique)

Then on Sunday we met up again for breakfast at our favourite kiosk in the Jardim das Amoreiras, which was excellent, as always. After church Carly, Jesse and I made friends with a couple, Nao and Tom, who were on holiday from England with their toddler. We took them to the much-loved café A Tentadora (where Carly and I had also gone the previous day) for lunch, then all got the tram down to the Praça de Camões, where we said goodbye. The three of us wandered around Chiado for a while and went to sit by the river and chat for a while, then headed home. I had a relaxing evening, knowing the next few days would be busy.

Last breakfast out!

Feeling philosophical by the river with Carly

And with Jesse

After a final rowing session on Monday evening, I went out for dinner with Carly, Feyikemi, Doosuur, Janice and Kinsey. It was great to see them all again and enjoy more delicious food - this time, pork with piri-piri sauce (yes, like Nando's, except no chicken, and much more authentic and yummy...). Then on Tuesday, after the Indonesian class, I was invited for dinner at Sarah's flat, also with Janice. It was lovely to hang out together and Janice and I appreciated the cooking lesson as well!

Inevitably, Wednesday arrived and lots of packing ensued in the morning - fortunately it didn't take too long. Then I met Jesse and Carly for a final lunch, trying not to be too sad about leaving my friends! At least there was caldo verde (a favourite Portuguese soup), a classic main course of meat + chips + rice + salad and a huge slice of melon to cheer me up.

At our final lunch together

I popped in to see my godfather in his office, before heading back to my flat (via one final café stop) and gathering up my last few things. In the 30 minutes I was at home the weather took a turn dramatically for the worse, meaning that when I set off on the 3-minute walk to the taxi rank, I got completely soaked through, and so did a lot of my luggage (including things in bags within my suitcase...). Fortunately, I was able to change into dry clothes at the airport... and then another dramatic event occurred, as I found out I was on the same flight as the GB openweight men's rowing squad, who were coming home from training camp. What a coincidence! It managed to take my mind off the sad part of leaving my Lisbon life.

Boarding the plane, with some rowers

And not long later, I was back in the UK and reunited with my family.

Saying goodbye to Lisbon

The blog will return later with Portuguese adventures of a different kind, on a different continent. Watch this space! And thank you, as ever, to my lovely readers.