Dia de mau tempo

Or, one of the most fascinating news stories ever

Yes, it's official - heavy rain made the headlines. 

I have twelve whole days to catch up on - time is unbelievable. On a related note, I'll be back in England in less than three weeks! Best to crack on with the blog while I've actually persuaded myself to start writing. 

In brief, the rest of the week when I last posted (Wednesday 12th) onwards was fairly standard office life, interspersed with interesting evenings including skyping a lot of people (hello people!), going running (only because the river was too rough to row on), and swimming. I was partly trying to save energy for the weekend, because I knew it was going to be super busy and fun.

Overexcited much?

After getting up pretty early (around 6) on Saturday morning, I met Carly at the metro for the start of our epic journey up to Porto. We had a fairly smooth journey, except an unexplained half-hour delay, on an Alfa Pendular (high-speed) train from Lisbon Oriente station to Porto Campanhã. After getting the metro into the centre of town, we left our bags at the Hotel do Norte (which turned out to be pretty good, considering the extremely reasonable price) and went off exploring. 

We made it!

We saw the first of many beautiful churches - could hardly miss this one, the Capela das Almas/Capela de Santa Catarina, since it was right opposite the hotel - before heading to the Mercado de Bolhão, which felt very Portuguese, with lots of proper fruit and veg stalls, and this gem.

So many sausages

And some more touristy merchandise.

We wandered around a bit further, dodging a shower in the Portuguese way, in a café, before meeting Clare and Bea, Oxford friends doing their year abroad thing in Porto. They were lovely enough to look after us throughout the weekend, between the two of them. We all went for lunch and Carly and I were introduced to the francesinha, a Porto speciality that we'd never eaten before (Carly because she'd never been to Porto before, and me because I hadn't eaten it on my previous visit, a day trip last summer). The four of us then went to a 'flea market' (actually a massive car boot sale) in a multi-storey car park, which was quite an experience! Clare got the star buy, a beautiful leather handbag for €0.50. Later on we walked through the city and down the Rua das Flores to the riverside, where we said goodbye to Clare, then the three who were left walked back up again, stopping for chestnuts from a street vendor. We ended up having a very long chat in another café before saying goodnight.

Autumn colours - this still hasn't happened in Lisbon

And more

After a good night's sleep, Carly and I began the day with another café trip for breakfast, before doing more of our touristy things. We walked up the Torre dos Clérigos - cue huge numbers of photos - and wandered more, seeing more of the aforementioned beautiful churches, as well as a pet market with loads of birds, some rabbits, and even the odd kitten!

The city looks great from this high up

Don't look down!

Spot the rowers.

We met Sandra, Carly's local friend, for lunch in yet another café, where Clare joined us. We walked across the lower tier of the impressive Dom Luís I bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia, where we had a guided tour of the Sandeman port lodge.

Known for being one of the more 'commercial' lodges, with its instantly recognisable trademark, the Don

We definitely benefited from having Clare, a port lodge expert after several months as a guide, on hand to add extra information. (For the record, Bea had also been working in the industry - maybe Oxford does give students a taste for port!) We enjoyed trying a white and a ruby, a great treat. Sandra said her goodbyes before yet another café break, after which we walked back to Porto, this time over the top tier of the bridge. 

The aforementioned bridge

A View from the Bridge

We visited the Cathedral, then picked up some supplies for the journey home (it really is normal to organise your life around food, promise...). After we'd said goodbye to Clare, we picked up our stuff, and headed to the station, arriving very early again, giving us time for writing postcards. The train journey was fine, but I discovered that tilting trains in the dark are really not much fun if you occasionally feel travel sick. No harm done! I got home in time to skype Stephen before getting some rest ready for the next working week.

Everything went pretty well in the office this week too - not much to report. One exception is that it got cold enough for the radiators to come on. This was extremely exciting as I'd been under the impression there was no central heating, and had pretty much taken to wearing a scarf and coat at my desk. Apparently a common complaint among British expats here is that they feel colder in Portugal than in the UK in winter, because proper heating isn't a priority - it's just too mild most of the year. I sympathise, although I expect many of you reading don't!

The only blue sky we saw in Porto. It lasted about 5 minutes.

Another piece of news is that a different company has offered me an internship for the spring, meaning I can stay in Lisbon, which has really improved the look of my year abroad plans (yay!). To briefly sum up the rest of the week - Monday evening brought a rowing session, and on Tuesday evening I watched some of the Portugal v. Argentina match on TV (can definitely claim I was getting in touch with local culture...). On Wednesday evening the weather was no good for rowing (I'm pretty sure that was the 'dia de mau tempo' in the headlines) so we were treated to an erg and core session, real winter training mode (and surprisingly enjoyable...). I was still feeling sporty on Thursday evening so went swimming and ended up doing, among other things, 1km continuous crawl... Stephen may joke that I'm preparing for a triathlon, but I don't think it'll happen too soon.

The start of the weekend, Friday night, brought more happiness as I went out for dinner with Bea, down from Porto to visit family friends, and Lizzie, another Oxford Portugueser who I've somehow not seen all autumn despite us being in the same city most of the time! We had some very delicious tapas and a good long chat. Getting home around midnight left me with about 5 1/2 hours' sleep before an extremely early start for Saturday's adventure. 

Clue: there were kittens! Okay, that's a rubbish clue. There were boats too.

I was heading to Avis, a lake in the Alentejo, with people from my rowing club, including Laura, a Dutch friend who has possibly The Best Job In The World as she is a rowing researcher! She'd asked me if I wanted to help out as an assistant on her experiment, which was super exciting. I'm not sure if her research is secret, but I don't think she'll mind me writing that it is to do with the effects of crew synchronisation on performance, and that it involves loads of exciting high-tech equipment. Everything seemed to go well, and we managed to squeeze in a quick paddle in a double scull as well - such a joy on a beautiful lake in the sunshine. It was great to be out in the countryside away from the hustle of the city for a while. 

A very small part of the lake.

A video! How cool is that?

Today I slept for ages, just making it to church in time, where I unexpectedly found Carly, who I thought was in the Algarve - turns out her trip's been postponed. After the service we enjoyed our normal cup of coffee in the church hall (so English) then, with some rain-related difficulties, caught a bus down to Alfama to visit the Museu do Fado. For anyone who doesn't know, fado is a traditional style of Portuguese music, and I would say it's worth googling. One fadista (singer), Carlos do Carmo, was awarded a Latin Grammy earlier this week... I think... I heard it on the Portuguese news... so it was a topical time to go to the museum. It was full of interesting displays, and we got to listen to loads and loads of recorded fado. We had a bite to eat before wandering back up to our respective homes.

Anway, that brings the blog up to date! As ever, thank you for reading.

Não, é uma coelha!

Or, this only makes sense in a very particular context (see below)

I can hardly believe I've got more than 10 days of fun and games to bring you all up to date on - time really does fly here. November has begun particularly happily as I've had lots of lovely visitors from England. Both my parents were here last weekend, and my mother stayed until Friday morning, and on Friday evening Stephen arrived to stay until Sunday lunchtime. A great way to prolong my 21st birthday celebrations!

Last weekend began well with another trip to the rowing club on Saturday. I had thought I'd be competing in a 6k head race (rowing time trial, for those unfamiliar with the lingo) in the morning but it turned out that not enough people from my group were interested, so it didn't happen. It's understandable really - we are the 'leisure' section! After a suitably relaxed training session I found my parents, who had come down to the river to watch, and we made our way by train to Cascais. Rather than me introducing them to my favourite places, it was a case of them showing me round, as I'm unfamiliar with Cascais. We saw lots of interesting things, including: 

A nice beach for a picnic

A bike hire shop WITH A TANDEM

The Mouth of Hell (Boca do Inferno) aka cool geographical feature

And a pleasant park with many peacocks!

That was my very lazy way of summarising Saturday afternoon, anyway. We also visited a very old fort (from memory, from the 16th century) which was full of interesting historical facts. Once back in Lisbon, we spent most of Saturday evening eating incredibly large amounts of delicious food in Stop do Bairro, an excellent restaurant in Campo de Ourique that has been a family favourite for many years. 

Sunday morning brought another meal at a family favourite - breakfast at A Tentadora, a lovely café in Campo de Ourique which I think I have mentioned before... perfect pastries. We then went on to church, which was good - quite funny for my parents to meet people they remember from 20+ years ago who now know me too. We had a fun afternoon, taking a trip on the tram (route 28) and visiting the Panteão - very similar to the Basílica de Estrela, and with equally good views. We went back to Estrela (area where the church is) to meet Rosa, one of my parent's old friends from when they lived here, which was great. We had a look round a wonderful market of interesting handmade objects, clothes, art, and so forth, before having a quick drink from the 'quiosque' (yes, that's the Portuguese way of writing kiosk!). She introduced me to a tea I'd never drunk before, called Lucia Lima - something new everyday.

So many pictures

I never get tired of views like this 

We had a relaxed evening including dinner at the hotel where my parents were staying, before I went home to rest up a bit before a new working week. We reconvened bright and early the next morning for breakfast before my father had to head for the airport - duty (aka business) calls...

The rest of my week was more or less typical during the working hours, but more interesting before and afterwards, including pastry-based breakfasts with my mother, and exciting meals out in the evening. [P.S. (added 23-11-14) When I wrote this, I forgot to mention that my mother also took me to the cinema to see Os Maias, a film based on the famous novel by Eça de Queirós. It was very Portuguese! And good fun.] One of these [meals out] was at a Madeiran restaurant, another at an Italian, and on Wednesday - my birthday - we were invited to my godfather's house, for a joint birthday celebration. A bit of context - he is Portuguese, and was a colleague of my father's. I was born after my parents had moved back to England, and they decided to make him my godfather partly because we share a birthday.

Birthday cake! (see below)

Anyway, he lives in Carnaxide, quite a way out of central Lisbon. To cut a very long story short, there was a slight misunderstanding with a taxi driver which meant getting there took us twice as long (and twice as many taxis) as we would have hoped... Anyway, we arrived in one piece, and had a lovely evening with the godfather and his family - wife, three daughters, their families, a selection of his wife's siblings (she is one of nine!) and various others, including Ozzy, the dog. It was a lovely occasion, with lots of birthday cake with candles like sparklers, and much general excitement, not only on the part of the little ones present.

On Thursday there was another special dinner, this time with my friend Carly and my mother. We found a good restaurant quite near where we all live/were staying, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Carly mentioned it in her blog here, in case anyone can't get enough of English people blogging about life in Lisbon!

I had another early breakfast on Friday to say goodbye to my mãe (mother) before she flew out too. This meant I could get into work a bit early, and then leave a bit early, so I was able to take my work things home and still comfortably get to the airport in time to meet Stephen after his flight. The wonders of international travel - spending time with family one week, and boyfriend the next, even though we live in different countries.

Cultural activities included

We had a great weekend (well, 40-odd hours) - managed to fit in an awful lot considering the time-frame. On Saturday we visited the Gulbenkian Foundation, or more specifically, its park and museum. There are various other bits we didn't see, like a modern art gallery and a special exhibition. But the standard museum was full of more than enough fascinating artefacts to keep us occupied! We'd intended to then head for a miradouro on the other side of the city, but having dived into the nearest pastelaria for lunch when it began to pour with rain, we 're-evaluated' and instead went to pester Carly at her flat - no, really she kindly invited us in, and we all had a good chat. Stephen and I then went to wander in the shops of the Baixa, including Pollux, a department store that we found bizarrely interesting. I've found it bizarrely interesting from a young age, in fact, but we can ignore that. We found some dinner (not the most inspiring meal ever) before going back to our hotel for a quiet evening in, with champagne, courtesy of my parents, and a board game, courtesy of Sophie, a dear friend in Oxford. Can't complain!

Expert photography by Stephen, of course

Sunday brought a trip to the Estufa Fria, which I mentioned very briefly here. Essentially it's a very, very big set of greenhouses full of interesting plants - technically only half is the Estufa Fria, the other half is the Estufa Quente (cold and warm greenhouses respectively). We had a lovely wander round before the inevitably emotional trip to the airport.

Books, so many books. Also Christmas decorations.

I did my best to distract myself for the rest of Sunday afternoon, hanging around the Oriente/Parque das Nações area. I had a look round this fabulous book fair, resisting the temptation to buy out-of-date linguistics textbooks in Portuguese, then sat by the river, and watched life go by.

The picture below sums up one of my most hilarious experiences so far (you'll need to read this paragraph for the explanation of the title). I was sitting on a bench with an older Portuguese couple, and our attention was drawn to a man who appeared to be walking his pet rabbit on a lead. The Portuguese couple discussed at some length whether it was really a rabbit, or actually a dog. At several points the man walked over, looked at the animal, then returned to the bench, noting that it really did look like a rabbit. Eventually he went up to the pet's owner, and asked 'É um coelho?' (Is it a [male/unspecified] rabbit?) to which the indignant response was 'Não, é uma coelha!' (No, it's a [female] rabbit!). Oh, the joys of a language with grammatical genders... To be honest this response was slightly predictable given the rabbit was wearing a pink ribbon between its ears; sadly this isn't visible in my photo.

The famous coelha

Soon afterwards Carly arrived, and we went to the railway station to purchase tickets for our trip to Porto next weekend. Very exciting! We did some shopping (only window shopping in my case) in the Vasco da Gama centre, which is huge, and had a quick juice on the balcony, with great views out towards the river, before getting the metro home. It was only as we were on the way back at around 6pm that I realised I'd completely forgotten to have lunch... busy times... I did manage to remember to eat food once I got home, and otherwise spent a relaxing evening in the flat, including some time on skype.

Apparently this sculpture is really spiky

Yesterday (Monday) was a standard day at the office, followed by an erg (rowing machine session) at the rowing club - as it was far too rainy and windy to go out on the water - then dinner and an early night. Today (Tuesday) was a little bit different. For a start, Lilit (one of my best colleague-friends) and I had lunch outside by the Miradouro São Pedro de Alcântara, in the sunshine, which was a particular treat for November. Not only that, but today was Dia de São Martinho, which meant this evening we had a little office party with the traditional chestnuts (cooked two ways - roasted, and boiled with erva doce, which I think is aniseed) and jeropiga, a sweet wine. Great fun!

 As ever, thank you for reading. Do leave a comment if you're so inclined :-)

Aproveita da água, tá calminha

Or, rowing speak

Hello dear readers! I feel like I have a lot to catch up on, and not very much time - I'm soon heading off to the airport to meet my parents, who are visiting me here. That's just the first of a few exciting visits (sneak peek into future blog posts...): next weekend Stephen's coming over, and the following one I will hopefully be in Porto, visiting other Oxford year-abroaders, and taking Lisbon friends with me.

So, what have I been up to in the last ten days? Mainly more of the same - work, rowing, swimming, and some extra fun things in the evenings and weekends. I guess my diary-style blog is keeping people interested (over 60 of you, thanks everyone!) but at some stage I might start writing something more interesting. Who knows? Not this week, at least!

People, I met Fernando Pessoa in a café!

I caught up with a few people on skype/google hangouts including the massive achievement of reuniting all four members of the Thomas family from around the world. Okay, I was the only one not in England, but still, it sounds impressive. Seeing as the other three members of the family have all had birthdays in the last 2 1/2 weeks, it was nice to have us all together.

I had a surprise invitation to dinner at Sofia's family's house last Friday, which was really good fun - they're so hospitable and kind to me. It was funny to hear Sofia's news from Merton via her parents, and compare it to what I'd heard from Ed (my brother) and my friends at Merton. Freshers' Week took its toll, by all accounts...

That was just the start of a great weekend. I spent Saturday morning rowing, then met Carly and Camila on the beach at Carcavelos for a relaxing afternoon and early evening. Can't think of many better ways to spend time in October! By the time I got home I was ready for a chilled couple of hours before bed. 

Enjoying that late-October sunshine

Sunday brought more excitement - church, then lunch at the Padaria Portuguesa (a chain of amazing bakery/cake shops) and some sight-seeing. Five of us were there for lunch (Carly, Feyikemi, Chris, Susana and me) but everyone else had things to do afterwards so just it was just Carly and me 'pretending' to be (aka shamelessly being) tourists. 

I have about a million photos from the Basílica... here's a taster

I loved going up to the roof of the Basílica de Estrela - amazing views across the city and down into the church itself from the dome! I had to do a bit of shopping (read: last-minute present-buying) so ended up dragging Carly round the whole of the Baixa, up Avenida de Liberdade, and round El Corte Ingles... For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of Lisbon, that means A Long Way. I tried to make up for it by providing coffee and a cake, which seems to have worked as we're still on speaking terms!

Definitely worth climbing all those stairs

Monday and Wednesday brought more rowing (in the dark! shock horror!), as well as finally doing my sports medical exam, which was a bit of a joke really. The extremely thorough form was filled in very quickly by the two doctors, who mainly relied on asking me, 'Are you healthy?' and getting me to report my own height and weight - not the most accurate method seeing as I haven't weighed myself in at least two months... It seems typical of the Portuguese attitude to bureaucracy, more on that at a later date (maybe). Still, I passed, meaning that I'm now able to carry on rowing and can benefit from some insurance. So that's good, I suppose.

View of the Tejo from near the rowing club on Saturday - speaks for itself!

On Thursday I had another meal out: dinner with Carly and Feyikemi. This is in addition to having lunch out every day of the week... including the famous monthly work sushi outing, strategically timed slightly after payday. Anyway, dinner was particularly good, and I took Carly's advice of going for fish, cooked in the amazingly simple and delicious Portuguese way - grilled with lots of garlic. No regrets there. (Also, still no food photos. It disappeared very quickly - although I think Carly might have some pictures...)

For anyone wondering, the rowing speak above means (approximately) 'make the most of the water, it's nice and calm'. It actually was! Once it gets dark, the river tends to get a lot calmer. I'm sure there are reasons why, but I don't know... can anyone enlighten me? You'd still notice the waves if you came across them on the Isis, but compared to some of the sea-like conditions we've had, it's a complete luxury. With a warm breeze, some Portuguese banter (I occasionally understand the jokes...) and the perfect view of the bridge apparently lit by fairy lights, it makes for a great way to spend an evening.

Excellent boathouse decorations from the ANL

Anyway, apologies for the generally rushed nature of this post, but I have to leave now! I'll write again soon. :-)

Tempo de praia

Or, beach weather

It's not that I'm obsessed with the meteorological situation, but hearing about it being 8ºC in Oxford a few days before it got to 28ºC here was definitely one interesting feature of the last couple of weeks. We've recently had loads of sunshine and enough warmth to make me wonder why on earth I got out my winter coat at the beginning of October... it's been relegated to the back of my wardrobe again now!

Blue sky - no complaints

Of course, the only logical course of action was to make the most of the weekend, since I spent the previous one mainly sleeping, and most of the week sitting at my desk in the office. On Saturday we had a great rowing session with about four times the number of people who are normally there, although the ratio of 1 woman: 4 men remained constant, which meant I went out in a women's four (after a tank session). It was a fun way to spend the morning.

In the afternoon I went over to Carly's, with a stop at everyone's favourite supermarket, Minipreço, to pick up some provisions. Carly was hosting an amazing multinational bring-something-to-eat dinner and I vaguely helped her make a traditional bread-and-butter-pudding (her dish) and also cooked some vegetables (mine). Although vegetables are clearly not specific to the UK, I would argue that eating large quantities of vegetables is apparently a foreign concept to the Portuguese, with the exception of soup, and therefore it was a completely appropriate contribution. (Also I miss vegetables. Chips for lunch every day does not count.) The party went on all evening and I met lots of fun people from various corners of the world, and was sad to go home at about midnight (although also sleepy, which was why I decided not to continue to the bars of Bairro Alto with some more experienced party-goers).

The same, but different: St George's, the Church of England's outpost in Lisbon

Sunday brought another trip to church in Estrela, followed by a lovely visit to the beach, again with Carly. We got the train from Cais do Sodré, and had a brief peek in the modernised market as well -- it has all kinds of shops and restaurants, and seemed somewhere worth coming back to.

Carly in the market

For this beach excursion we went to Carcavelos - although the stretch of sand is much longer than at Estoril, it was also much more crowded, possibly because everyone was taking advantage of the unexpected heat, and possibly because it's well-known as the place to go for surfing. The waves were pretty impressive so the reputation is understandable! Carly and I enjoyed swimming, successfully avoiding collisions with surfboards, picnicked, and generally soaked up the rays (factor 50 sun cream permitting).

Golden sand, big waves, and lots of surfers!

And a beautiful walk back home through Lisbon at night (apologies for the bad photo)

Otherwise, life has gone on as normal - lots of hours in the office, lunches at the tasca, dinners with Luísa and Elena, and various rowing and swimming adventures. I even ended up going running once - out of character, but we were a person short at the rowing club, so there was no alternative... I also had the added excitement of going out for coffee with two Oxford tutors (separately) - funny that they should both be in Lisbon, but logical considering they work on Portuguese language and literature... I've also enjoyed catching up with friends and family - the wonders of skype, google hangouts, facebook and email mean that, even far from home, it's hard to be too lonely.

Thank you for reading :-)

Partiu a perna, e agora tem duas canadianas

Or, the punchline to my favourite (and only) Portuguese joke

Another week has flown by - yesterday I reached the milestone of one month at work, which is hard to believe. There's still not that much to tell you about from the office - the people are friendly, the work is interesting. On Thursday I had the excitement of a trip to the Salão Imobiliário de Lisboa (think Ideal Homes but more Portuguese) to chat to some estate agents, which was entertaining, and it was fun to go round with Chris, our press officer, wearing 'Professional' lanyards.

Just a little snapshot of SIL

Otherwise, lots more desk-based web research - I sometimes feel like I'm reading and digesting a measurable percentage of the internet every day, which is clearly not the case.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff, i.e. weekends and evenings! Last weekend was fabulous. On Saturday I went down to the rowing club and finally sorted out my registration (everything except the Sport Medical Examination which I'm currently ignoring in the hope that the club will forget about it...). Then I got the train to Estoril (on the coast west of Lisbon) where I met Carly, who had adopted a group of tourists in Lisbon for the half-marathon. We had a lovely afternoon on the beach - swimming, eating ice cream and generally enjoying the sunshine, feeling smug that it was October and still beach weather. Then we went back into Lisbon and made our way to the Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, a perfect place to watch the sunset.

Photo credit to Carly :-)

On Sunday I just made it to church on time, having left about 15 minutes before the harvest festival service was meant to begin, and under normal circumstances it's at least a 25 minute walk... yes, I ran some of the way (obviously falling back into my Merton habit of arriving at Chapel slightly out of breath at 5.44 for the 5.45 service). And after the service there was the unexpected pleasure of a free lunch (provided by Feyikemi and friends) which was delicious - also got talking to the new locum vicar and his wife, who were both very nice. Carly and I then did a bit of sightseeing by tram, and ended up at Outjazz in the Tapada de Necessidades, which was really fun - essentially a very relaxed outdoor concert-festival type thing. We had dinner at her flat too afterwards.

On a slightly crowded tram... and at Outjazz
Photo credits to Carly again.

Monday and Wednesday evenings I went down to the rowing club to refine my boaty Portuguese vocabulary, if not my rowing technique - Filipe, the cox/coach, remarked that when the river is choppy, which it definitely was on Wednesday, you don't learn, you 'desaprende' (unlearn). It's still super fun though, and there's never a dull moment, what with the constant amazing landmarks (sadly impossible to photograph while rowing!), and sharing the river with car-ferries and container-ships, amongst other vessels.

Tuesday and Thursday were more relaxed, and on Friday I went swimming, which was fun, before having a great family conversation on Google hangouts - good to see my brother enjoying life in Oxford. I sadly had to miss out on Saturday's rowing session after feeling ill in the night and when I woke up, and spent a lot of the day resting. I did make it to the Casa Fernando Pessoa, though, which was fun for a quick look around! I was also very pleased to see the huge flag at the top of the Parque Eduardo VII has been reinstated - not sure why it has been missing for the last few weeks. 

Not much of a sense of scale - believe me, it's enormous.

Oh yes, now let me explain the joke.

It's about 'um menino que não tinha namorada' (a boy who didn't have a girlfriend). The punchline means 'he broke his leg, and now he has two Canadian-f.pl. (i.e. two Canadian girlfriends) OR two crutches'. I'm very proud of knowing this joke, even if it's pretty atrocious.

Extra photos of pretty bits of Lisbon

Thank you for reading!

Tem pão de ló?

Or, the search for the most elusive pastry yet

In case anyone has been worried by the recent lack of posts, let me reassure you - everything is absolutely fine. I have just been a bit busier, keeping track of Stephen who came to visit for a week (Wednesday 24th - Wednesday 1st).

Forget port and vinho verde, these are the best Portuguese drinks - Ucal and Compal

If any of you are keeping track... I last posted nearly two weeks ago, on Sunday morning, so I will briefly inform anyone who's interested what I've been up to from that point onwards!

I spent the rest of Sunday at church and made some lovely new friends, including Carly and Feyikemi (names which will reappear!). The three of us went for lunch, which extended into the afternoon, and walked through the Parque Eduardo VII back towards our homes. In the evening I had the pleasure of dinner with the fabulous Sofia (soon to be a Merton student) and her family - they were so kind, and I had a great time.

A new working week - there's not much to report from the office, although I feel you should know that I'm developing a good 'interny' position for myself in the hierarchy, including doing photocopying, picking up shirts from the dry cleaners, buying stationery (three trips so far), carrying coffee in to clients, and making 'proper English tea' for the boss (only one cup... I guess I did something wrong?). I am doing real work too, though, promise! I'm continuing to make the most of my free time. On Monday evening I went down to the river for a rowing session which was really fun - I went out in a quad with some middle-aged men, definitely a new experience but a positive one. Then on Tuesday evening I was invited to Feyikemi's birthday party at a fancy seafood restaurant in the Baixa - it was great to meet more people and see a different zone of Lisbon. I made it home successfully on the metro ready for a good night's sleep.

Then Wednesday brought all sorts of excitement in the form of Stephen's visit to Lisbon. He arrived just before midnight, and despite leaving loads of time, I nearly failed to make it to the airport - the metro workers were going on strike for Thursday. Without knowing it, I ended up on the last train before everything was shut soon after 11pm - the man literally locked up the gate to the platform after me. Still, once I'd met my guest at the arrivals zone, we managed to get back into central Lisbon by taxi. Stephen was staying at the Pousada de Juventude (youth hostel), not too far from where I live, but I stayed there too that night to avoid waking up everyone in the flat, also meaning we could have breakfast together in the morning.

Rainbow! (if you look closely)

The weekdays fell into a pleasant pattern of Stephen meeting me outside my flat to walk to work, then meeting up again for lunch, bought from a pastelaria (pastry/cake shop... and more) and eaten in a convenient shady spot, and in the evening going for a wander and finding dinner somewhere. He seemed to find enough to do during the day time - lots of walking up and down hills, I'm told, as well as discovering the Botanical Garden's museum which had an exciting maths exhibition... each to their own. On Thursday evening we both went to dinner with some of my colleagues, who were just starting a night out, which was suitably amusing.

In the middle of the week-long visit, we had a very adventurous weekend, finding our way to the beautiful town of Sintra, which is about 45 minutes' train ride away from Lisbon, and far more peaceful and green than the city centre. The town is full of historic buildings - castles and palaces in particular, since its cooler micro-climate has attracted important people there in the summer for centuries. We definitely did our fair share of touristing while we were there. We looked round the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, full of amazing ceilings and furniture, among other things, and climbed up the hills to see the Moorish Castle and the Palácio de Pena, a ridiculously pink and yellow fairytale palace (although didn't venture inside those two).

If you've read the previous sentence, you'll probably be able to work out what this is.

A particular highlight was the Quinta da Regaleira, which is a house and gardens designed in an extremely eccentric Romantic way, with all kinds of towers, caves, waterfalls, secret underground passages, a 'reverse tower'/deep well, and much more.

The poço (well) - pretty cool!

I didn't quite feel a sense of 'philosophical discovery of the tensions between good and evil', as promised by the leaflet, but I loved the way there was always something new around the corner.

At Regaleira, complete with excellent tree ferns

No account of a trip involving me could be complete without a report on food, so I'll note here that we also sampled the local delicacies, including some different pastries, like travesseiros and queijadas, and went round loads of pastelarias looking for some 'pão de ló', which look suspiciously like Yorkshire puddings but, as we eventually found out when we tracked them down in Lisbon, tastes nothing like them! Our chocolate one disappeared so quickly that it didn't even get photographed. (Having said that, none of my Portuguese food has been photographed yet... probably because it's all so delicious...)

The week passed very quickly and soon Stephen had to return to sunny England. Although to be fair, Portugal has been much sunnier and warmer for the last couple of weeks - apparently it got to 30 degrees yesterday, for example. I'm not complaining! We had had a lovely time, and inevitably felt a bit sad that it was coming to an end. Still, rumour has it that a surprise birthday visit will be occurring in November...

Extra photo just because

After Stephen left, I spent Wednesday evening at home relaxing and chatting to my family, and Thursday evening doing lengths at the swimming pool. I managed to hold a proper conversation with someone in my lane (or rather, the lane - when there are classes happening, there is one 'leisure' lane open with signs for both 'fast lane' and 'slow lane'). He was bemused to find out that I'd only been in Lisbon for a month and already spoke Portuguese, until I said I'd studied the language for two years beforehand... I had another small moment of triumph earlier in the week when a waitress told me that, although I have an accent, there are lots of returned emigrants who speak with an accent like mine - though I'm not entirely convinced!

I'm now looking forward to a trip to the beach with Carly tomorrow - taking advantage of the amazing October sun and warmth. So, on this warm Friday evening, I wish you all the best, and must thank you for reading. Until next time!