Friday

Woke up with a cold today, not such fun really but even though I couldn’t breath properly, my eyes witness the sun breaking through the curtain. Lovely! I love waking up feeling the sun, hearing the birds singing outside our house and then knowing that I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. Fixing a great breakfast with fresh vegetables and enjoying the breakfast in bed. Now that’s life 🙂

Yesterday I was supposed to go to Cinemateca which is like a cultural movie cinema/museum where they show old classics and ethnic movies. We were supposed to see a french movie by Jean-Luc Godard but they were cancelled. The roads have been blocked by Portuguese truck drivers due to increased gas price etc. Not really in to the news to be honest but it was hard finding basil at least haha. Anyways, next up was an interesting portuguese movie, which we didn’t saw either as the tickets were sold out. Incredible.

Nevertheless, N took us to one of the coolest places I’ve been to lately. It’s an old renovated and carefully painted flat in the absolute city centre, but very well hidden. It’s actually a flat full of amazing vintage stuff such as old cameras, bags, clothes and furnitures. We were there early to grab a beer before going Indian underground so it was kind of empty, but I was fascinated by the really nice stuff and also the paintings on the walls. This place has a lot to offer and I’m right now indecisive to reveal this unknown place or not as it might be too good to shout out. Once a place gets cracked with tourists it kind of looses its charm. And sorry no I’m not a tourist anymore! ;-P

We looked forward to the Indian Underground. I’ll explain what Underground is. In a certain neighbourhood in Lisbon, there are some illegal ethnic restaurants. These have amazingly good food for almost no cash at all. Actually there’s a chinese underground that is so popular that you have to call in advance to book a table! And yes it’s still illegal! But these places can also bring some amusements as you usually dine in someone’s livingroom. So it’s no restaurant at all, it’s a flat where people actually live. I’ve been to a chinese underground and you had to knock in a special way to get in and once indoors there was a room, supposedly the living room, with plastic tables and chairs and one menu. Most of the dishes were written in chinese so we just took a shot and tried stuff. Don’t think I paid more than 3€ for a delicious dinner (we were a group of people so loads of dishes to share and explore). To our disappointment the Indian Underground as of yesterday wasn’t an underground. It had a sign and a public phone number so nothing illegal about that (except for the very dark and mysterious street where it was hiding). I’ll do my best to discover an Indian Underground soon.

I’m looking forward to tonight. My flatmate is taking me to a Fado restaurant on the other side of the Tejo river. I’ve heard much about this place but never had the chance to go. They have good food and the Fado is nice so let’s see tonight. My flatmate is a star by the way. She discovered the other day that there’s a bus going almost outside our door and to her job, but she hasn’t been taking it. She has been walking 15min to the metro and then it takes like 5min to her job. However, she reminded herself yesterday about this bus and took it today. Surprise, surprise the bus takes from our door to her job 15min 🙂 Better late than ever right?

Off for a nap in order to get the most out of this Friday night! So long soldiers!

How Pingo Doce ran out of meat…

I’ve been out of Lisbon for too long. Really, I need some time to catch up with pace of life here. Moving from a place (and country for that matter) where nothing happens, to a place where everything happens. At once usually. Just to simplify things.

Last night we had a moving in party my dear flatmate and I. Action cleaning started as soon as I woke up at 7 am!! Crazy but yeah it happened and then I went to Pingo Doce (local supermarkets) to get meat because that was the last thing we haven’t got yet. We need to shop in turns just to be able to bring everything home. Got no car or bus or metro passing by close our house so I was really impressed when E (my flatmate) came home with a big box of like 12 beers. Carrying it herself, iiiimpressive!

Anyways, after the house was shining, I went to Pingo Doce to get meat because we were having a real Swedish party and was making tacos of course! 🙂 So sun was shining, but still a bit chilly (now I mean south European chilly) got in to a completely crowded Pingo Doce and found that I had to get meat by the butcher and that was good because how much meat do you get for 15 persons? Nad then I don’t mean easy peasy like 15 hamburgers, I needed minced meat for 15 people so I was delighted when it was my turn and I asked for minced meat for 15 persons. The young guy looked very choked and asked if I was sure, because that would be to take everything he had left. Yeah if that covers food for 15 persons then give it to me. So how many kilos you need he asked? Well give me 3-4 that would do. He had to go out in a small room to get a bigger bag for the meat and emptied the box where the meat was. 3,7kg. Excellent I said with a big smile and the guy still looked suspicious at me while giving me the bag.

Got home and was so bloody tired I had to take a nap. Then we started cooking and you know two girls, one bathroom, shifts is what makes this work! I started with the first part of the meat (as we for sure don’t have stuff big enough to cook for 15 people) E was getting ready then we switched and then the first guests arrived. Most fun with the night was actually the fact that people thought it was really, really strange to take your shoes off in the house. We made everyone take them off and we have a bunch of nice pink slippers, so we really take care of our guests don’t worry.

Surprisingly, tacos was a hit! Everyone loved it so now we know what works! However there were several tutoring needed to show how to fill and then close the tortilla. Nevertheless no one got scared fixing it 🙂

I then had a free spot in the car to Bairro Alto (the old district where all the bars are and people stand outside drinking) while the guys were squeezed in, in the back like some dogs lol. Not much worrying about cops here actually, not until you reach Bairro  and we jumped out like we’ve never been 8 people in the car. First stop a shots bar, had a “gay” shot as the guys called it: meaning the pure alcohol is mixed with something to make it easier to drink. Then we hit “their” bar. This is the bar were my flatmate met all her friends and they in turn had met. I was told it was “my night” and was then introduced to the DJ, had more shots and then drinks. Was really freaking fab!  The DJ even played a swedish song, for me, and guess what… It was this one weeeheeeee..

Alla som inte dansar är våldtäcksmän

Some drinks later, some chats, later, some kisses later (yes you kiss people when you’re introduced to someone here, however French kisses not included at this point 😉 ) the bar closed and we went to a Cuban bar hahah. Oh mercy of God. As soon as you enter that place apparently your ass is public property… Good moves over there and even better asses, what to say, these guys here know how to dance.

It was a bloody good first party for me, no need to say more than looking forward to more of this. Just have to get used to this little detail. You probably know what it is, or you’re swedish and you don’t 😉 But what I’m talking about is the time. And I’m not talking jet lag I’m talking how and when people go out here at night. I’ll make a post of it, but you can just say that if you’re lucky, the night ends when swedes eat breakfast.

Saturdays

While Swedes are getting drunk and excited for the elections for the Eurovision Song Contest (or mad because it’s almost lasting a year these days), Portuguese are watching…. wait for it…. wait for it…. football!! Yes! =) Went to a lovely dinner hosted by my lovely friend P and his wife I together with their friends. On the tv there was of curse football on, a lovely meal was about to get ready, friendly portuguese and then me, who had a block out in my brain of speaking portuguese. I was more quite than I’ve been for a long time. But after some food and really good wine I got things going. Completely grammatically wrong, but I was at least talking =)

About the wine, I am afraid to get wine to dinners because I don’t know much about wine while most Portuguese are experts! So what do i do? When i go to the supermarket, some of them have like special elections of wines and there you can find great stuff! Bought one who got a french price for best red wine 2010 – excellent way to seem brilliant on a dinner 😉 Also another trick is to check the prices. Really good wines start around 5 €. In Swedish terms that is really good wine, not just any wine and would probably go for the price around 9€ in Sweden.

Anyways, I manage the night without speaking much english and I’m really thankful for the nice patient people at the dinner. But I can assure you that portuguese is best spoken after a glass of wine 😉

So Porto won that night and the rivals Benfica and Sporting met on Monday last week when I arrived here. Was a huge mess at the stadium with loads of fights and stuff. I am certainly not a fan of football but in this country, you breathe it in just as it was a part of fresh air. So I’m learning.

I already went twice to the Sporting stadium, once to see them play against Inter-Milan (me and P talked the whole game which ended 0-0 or 1-0…. haha) and I saw this famous guy called Figo. I was taught already then to remember his name 😉

While Sweden is busy preparing for the bad song that will be played at the Eurovision song contest in May (or whenever) I am sooooo glad I emigrated and don’t have to hear about it! Even then football is way better! And how do I know that it’ll be a bad song competing? Because the good songs fall out and the best swedish artist don’t even want to be mentioned in the same sentence..

So long soldiers!