One of those weekends

Woke up yesterday quite early and opened the door to the hallway and noticed something was different. It was too dark and there were a pair of white sneakers by the door… Hmmm Don’t recognise this, but walked through the hallway anyway and noticed the door to the living room was closed. Figured out then that we had guests spending the night here.

Got back to my room and slept a bit more and then got hungry and went to the kitchen to meet my flatmate who said her Dutch friends were spending the night here as they missed their train home. Fair enough, they’re adorable so the next minute they wake up and I enter the room and say: What the fuck are you doing in my house?! David replies: oh fuck not youuuu!!
Haha this is how we treat guests in this house. Well only this couple hahaha. We ended up having one of those long, chatty breakfasts and talked about future party plans to mention some. My flatmate and I wanted to have a Midsummer party in some friend’s backyard but now those friends woun’t be living in that house so need to rearrange plans. Then David and Laura left and me and my flatmate walked down town. It was strange weather, warm but still a bit chilly. Once down town, it was packed with people! Amazing! I guess tourist season has started… We took it tranquillo and did some shopping and then got nuts hungry and went to Largo do Carmo, where some guys were playing really nice African music. Had some food and live music before hitting back home. Oh yeah we had pizzas at Indian restaurant, two swedes in Portugal… If that’s not multiculti I don’t know what is 😉

Stopped by in Amoreiras and catched ticket to a movie which was hilarious! It was us and a bunch of elder couples. This is a sight you don’t see often in Sweden. Elder people hanging out in weekends, having dinners out, catching movies etc. haven’t seen much of that at home. Well on the other hand, people don’t hang out so much at home either. Probably too cold 😉

I on the other hand jumped happily home after the movies yesterday. I’m sooooo happy to be here and tomorrow I start yet another new chapter of my life, or maybe even a new book; First day at the new job =)

Portugal’s future might be brighter

Yesterday Portugal’s prime minister finally resigned. I say finally because people here don’t like him. They actually hate him. I haven’t been following the politics that well but in this country you hear about it nevertheless and honestly, I’ve never seen a public figure giving a speech in the morning saying one thing, then when he appears again in the news in the evening, he claims he never said what he said that same morning.

It’s actually an amusement watching when the government have these meetings. Socrates, the prime minister talks, and the rest of the room sits and laughs of him. I’m serious, this is how this country is ruled. Sorry was ruled. Everyone is hoping for changes now. There’s not anyone who’s actually ready to take over or who is strong enough but the current leader of the opposition party will probably be the one.

I spoke to a friend about this last night and I asked if there’s any chance Socrates can pay for what he has caused this country (poor people are getting poorer and rich richer and Socrates has 20 chauffeurs so go figure) and my friend says he has been free f charge when it comes to corruption as he has been the prime minister but now when he no longer is, the opposition will probably get to him. I’m glad there’s a bit of justice in this story.

Want to tell you something else about this. The VAT here for food is about 20%, unless it’s not basic food such as bread, milk etc. So what the government has done lately is to lower the VAT for golfing (?!) to 6% but have increase some VAT when it comes to some food. Ehm do you see any good coming out of this? I certainly don’t. The guys who play golf will have the money to still do it even if you increase the VAT to 100% but the poor people who count every dime they have, suffer harder with increased food VAT. The justification about this decrease for golfing was that it should be better for the tourism… Well tourism brings money, but maybe only a small part of the tourists actually play golf. I certainly don’t.

Here are news about the resignation in (randomly picked online):

Portuguese

English

Swedish

From conversations with friends and people chatting in the metro, in restaurants, on the streets etc, I can conclude that people don’t think it can get worse than Socrates. Hopefully there’ll be elections coming up soon. So times are exciting here in Portugal!

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.

Biggest Loser

Evidently I make many mistakes that gives away my non-portuguese passport. As mentioned in the about section I drink galoes any time of the day, which isn’t that common here.
I also have problems pronouncing words with double “r” in the middle of a word and especially if that word includes a single “r”… Long story.. Oh and as a Swede, not much of a need for me to use masculine/feminine articles to words. Apparently, Police here is a feminine word.

I apparently also don’t eat as much as a Portuguese does. I’m not used to eat a lot of meat (several times a day) and not so often! Wow, I had forgotten about the delicious breakfasts, the three corse lunches, afternoon coffee and then something called “lanch” which is like a snack here (usually a sandwich, tostas, torradas etc) and then three corse dinners… o madre deus. Don’t get me wrong, this is GOOD! But it’s just a lot! Haha It’s always great food which makes you eat most of it but I’ve been doing that for a week and my stomach is just not used to it yet. I’m used to all kind of vegetables and huge salads which of there isn’t much of here… But hey, they say you should grasp the culture as it is in a country and I’m definitely doing my best!

Also, I am not Portuguese as in my way to get around here. I walk. Portuguese don’t if they don’t have to and by have to can be that there car is on fire… No I’m exaggerating of course but looking on the streets, there’s usually just one person in each car and there are loads of cars in the street. Does bother my environmental brain a bit but I do what I can. I walk. Everywhere. If I can and I have time I like to enjoy the beautiful houses full of azulejos (the tiles i are usually hand painted with amazing colours and designs. Check it out here or here for example. I’ll be soon uploading my own photos) and hear the sound of the city and also smell the coffee everywhere. In this city, walking is a great thing because of the many hills. I don’t mind eating this good as I’m getting a pretty nice ass with it walking all these hills up and down! Woohoo!

How big is the pig??

Went to a really nice dinner last night. At a restaurant I actually didn’t know but it was close to the British old flat. Missed them out on the balcony…. Well anyway, while the rest of the company was having seafood (that I would never have been able to eat as I have no clue how to clean whatever it was…) I ordered meat! My dear half vegetarian belly had a small heart attack seeing the piece of meat on my plate. The costeleta da novilha, a bone with loads of meat (no not a T-bone, don’t remember the name of it in English) was as big as south america and of course to that you don’t get just rice but also french fries. Should you not go from the restaurant feeling hungry that is 😉

The company even commented on this huge piece of meat, I thought maybe it was normal but apparently it wasn’t. And they said i can take as long time as I’d like. Sure… I didn’t speak for a loooong time and I manage to eat a quite good bit of it. The comments I got was, well there is Viking blood in you!*thumbs up* and a forced smile… At least I’m not as cold as most people were on the street!

But cold indoors is a completely different post. Next time.

Até já! (= see you soon)