A Tour of Sintra with New Friends

There we all were together with Ricardo, our tour guide, who started the day on the perfect note with one-minute introductions about ourselves to each other and then off we went in the van to begin our tour of beautiful Sintra in Portugal. Here we are together by the end of the tour at our almost final stop at Cabo da Roca (the furthest west point of mainland Europe):

The beauty of Sintra cannot be written in words: it’s a feeling, a mystical experience, and a wonder of amazing proportions if you have a guide such as Ricardo (top of the photo) who showed us and taught us a lot Portugal, the Portuguese, and the beauty of the magic gardens at Quinta da Regaleira. We wondered at the architectural marvel of Luigi Manini, learned about the various trees and plants in the magic garden, and became intrepid explorers feeling our way through pitch black tunnels together. The most amazing lunch at Refugio do Ciclista provided the perfect sustenance for the remainder of the day as we moved to the coast after our visit to the Palace of the Monteiro Millionaire. Here’s a line from the online description of the place:

“…the real attraction is to the rear with the enchanting gardens. The gardens of the Quinta da Regaleira were styled to represent ancient secret orders, with hidden tunnels and concealed symbolism.”

We laughed a lot and ended the trip with this little video we made on a hill in front of the beautiful Atlantic ocean with a 360• view of the area.

Here are a few of the photos from the day starting with the first stop in Sintra:

: A few buildings and church inf the town of Sintra

: Igreja de São Martinho de Sintra

I love bell towers and was enchanted by the sound emanating from a crack in the doors to this church:

Some of the many photos I took at Quinta do Regaleira:

And now for the tunnels and caves which begin with a deep well…

: The Well from the top down

: The Well from the bottom looking up

: Dana after descending 122 steps to the bottom

: Ricardo beckons us to enter some dark tunnels and “trust.”

: A tunnel with light after the darkness!

: A beautiful pond of water just outside one of the caves

: Look closely. See the reflection int the water?

: Looking into one of the caves filled with water from the outside in the gardens

Then to a marvelous lunch after touring the Quinta at a place chosen by Ricardo.

: Ricardo asks if we would all like to share and let him order: “Yes!”

: “Cool! Where are we?”

Now on to Cabo da Roca – the westernmost edge of mainland Europe:

And for our last stop at the ocean, Courtney and I request a stop to pick up some Port for the gang to sip at the edge of the continent, because, well, the wine at lunch was perfect and the imbibing needed to continue. Here we are together on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean as we made a fun video to share with our friends. (click to see video)

: The view from our perch on the hill

: More of that gorgeous sun gleaming on the Atlantic

: Chynna loving it!

: Jonathan loving it at the top with the 360• view!

: After a bottle of Port together. Matt: “Is this all that’s left?”

When we returned to Lisbon and Ricardo dropped us off, we participated in a snail hug (so cool) and the gang of us dug each other’s company so much that we decided to go off to a bar to continue the camaraderie. Ricardo had to go take care of his dogs. He was the most amazing tour guide and it was fantastic to hear of his love for botany. He taught us all so much!

: Courtney and Matt left a bit earlier

: After a bit more drinking…

And one last hilarious video taken sneakily by Chynna on Dana’s phone. I now have a new rapper name: Five-Feet Dana.

Nine Hours of Exploration with Being Lost as a Theme

I awoke with the feeling of longing today to know a father I was never given the chance to meet. I thought about the deep and profound secret my Mother kept in her heart of something so significant and wondered why she didn’t want me to know. I started to write a song in Spanish about sadness and wishing.

I then decided that I could not put off the inevitable and so today would begin with a mundane task: laundry. Even that proves to be a significant experience here since most seem to wash by hand and hang laundry outside their window on a line. There didn’t seem to be a way to do that in this pad, and I’ll be quite honest: I really am not into that. Call me shishi, but I like my clothes blown dry. So, I looked up various Lavandarias and found one just 3-blocks up from where I’m staying–pretty cool being that I could only find six in all of Lisbon. This one named Lavandaria do Aqueduto seemed fitting. Aqueducts carry water over obstacles, right? My clothes had been through Zurich, Madrid, and a couple of days in Lisbon already. It was an easy-peasy walk up the hill and I found 3 washers and two dryers in a very clean, small laundromat with instructions in English in a 4-point font below the Portuguese words and if you push the correct combination of buttons, voila! it includes a detergent in the washing machine which begins from a controller on the wall for all the machines. Snap! Since I had 30-min, I decided to head around the corner to a little cafe I had seen offering some quick “para levar” so that I could grab an espresso and a nibble. It was busy and the server was rushing about quite efficiently. When she came to ask what I wanted, I told her that she was impressive and efficient. She smiled and relaxed for a second:

“34-years of doing this makes it so. It’s better be fast. I started here working for my grandfather when I had 18 years; now when my father dies, it will be mine. “

Wow! Impressive! I did some quick inaccurate math:

“We are the same age. I am 56 and…”

She interrupted: “I have 52-years.”

Me: “Oh, yes. Of course. It is fantastic that the business passes to you after all of your hard work. What is your name?”

She gave me my order and took the Euros and tip.

“Gabriella. Thank you for talking me. Have a nice day.”

Here is her little spot in Lisbon where my Pastel de Nata and espresso sit in the middle. Mind you, there are thousands of Padarias and Pastelarias and Cafes everywhere you walk here. The reason I walked into this one is that I happened to be washing my clothes around the corner. 15-min in the dryer and I was on my way back to the pad.

By this point, it was 1:20p and I was ready to find some serious lunch. I’ve only been eating one meal out per day and want to stick to that since I have a little kitchenette here and have bought some essentials to keep at the temp homestead. I read about a cool place to eat lunch (even though it was already after 1p) that wasn’t due to close like most the others I found that end lunch service at 3p. This one was open until midnight with no break. It was across town and would promise an exploratory plunge into the world of busses and trams here in Lisbon – a new adventure! Excellent, I love this part of a new city! When I clicked to go to GoogleMaps to see an overview of the location, my tab fell on a Chrome MomentumDash screen that always provides a relaxing picture, a quote, and some other productivity points.

Oh, yes. I feel balanced alright here on vacation. Thank you for the message, computer!

The restaurant description pointed out the location as the LX Factory and I had also seen it as a destination point on GoogleMaps. I wondered about it and researched further. I found this:

In 1846, a fabric production plant (Companhia de Fiação e Tecidos Lisbonenses) was created in Alcântara, Lisbon. The industrial complex spanned over a total of 23.000 m2 and was one of the most important undertakings the city had so far seen. Fifty years later, the company decides to move and, in its place, a succession of businesses such as industrial typographies took advantage of the unique location and facilities. Forward to the late 20th century and the location was an abandoned, run-down and decrepit inner-city area that desperately needed a makeover. A private investor decides to take on the challenge of creating something new out of almost one hundred years of history and the rest, as they say, is indeed history. Today, the space is home to more than 200 businesses ranging from cafés, restaurants, design houses, show-rooms, shops, offices, commercial spaces to other projects that link directly to the space’s unique cultural and artistic standing.

I’m going to provide some shots of my own soon, but these photos here on TripAdvisor say it all!

So, all I had to do was get there.

What did we do without GoogleMaps? Well, I’ll tell you one thing GM doesn’t tell you is which side of the street to wait for a bus and so goes my next 1.5 hours for a trip that should have taken 23-minutes according to my i-spaceship. I walked over to the huge Assembly of the Republic building. Yes, this is where the central hub of the Portuguese government meets and it’s quite a building.

When I got to the top, I thought I could find the bus stop as the little blue dot on GMaps was showing that I was quite close. I looked down: Hmmm, somewhere likely down there. I’ll walk a bit and voila! The bus I wanted was just leaving, but alas, another one comes in 15-minutes. I waited, watched and listened to a bird in a cage hanging on a mini-patio just above the stop across the street. I looked down to see another bus of the number I needed to hop on going the other way. Shoot. Was I waiting on the right side of the street? I looked at GMaps and retraced my steps…Ayii. It looks like I need to wait over there! I crossed the street and looked at the map provided at the bus stop. Yikes. It’s busy! OK, yes, I see Calvário is one of the stops. OK, phew.

One came 10-minutes later and I hopped on and took a seat. We traveled a mile or so when I realized that nowhere does it state the stop name so how would I know when we reached Cavalária? I could go ask the bus driver. Or, I could check the blue dot on my phone! Uh-Oh, it shows I’m going further from LX Factory, not toward it. Damn. By now we were at the hundredth or so tall statue I have seen of men towering over squares and plazas–this one called the something de Pombra. So many famous men to put on pedestals! I hopped off the next stop and crossed the street to wait on the other side for the bus going the other way. OK, now I’ll be set. Two of the wrong number went by and then, finally! Here comes the 727, only it was going fast and wouldn’t stop! Um, Oh no: I’ve got to go to a different stop further up by the man on the pedestal! Jesus! Who is that poor woman with her bare breast and arms chained above her head below the man on the pedestal? No time to check. I had to keep searching for the stop. I walked another 1/2-hour as the streets here are very wide and filled with taxis and buses all going somewhere very quickly. I walked down another street trying to follow the damned blue dot but I seemed to be heading off course again. OK, look for the street name. They are on the sides of buildings on each corner and do not have their own post like we have. I looked up and guess what I found? Can you imagine? The word I heard 15-times or more in a cab in Madrid has re-entered from there to Portugal. I smiled. There is a HOTEL Tranquilidade. I was reminded to just enjoy the ride of being lost and to maintain my balance (a meme from the computer this morning). I walked another block and then circled back around the dude on the pedestal (again). This time, I heard American voices next to me. A mom, dad, and daughter were looking up and all around like I had been:

Dad: “Jesus. I’m tired of going in circles. I can’t find anything here.”

Me: “Hey, me too! I’ve been trying to find a bus going to a certain place and it’s taken me an hour!”

Mom: “It took us 45-minutes to find the post office we were told was just up the block.”

Me: “I’m going to the post office too, and…

Dad: “Well, you’re going the wrong way, it’s behind us 4-blocks!”

Me: “Oh, I’m going to a different one near where I plan to eat lunch…well, now it’s dinner, I guess.”

Mom: “You mean there is more than one? We were told that there was only one and it’s behind us.”

Me: “Oh, there are a lot of post offices all over, but just not near each other.”

Dad: “I wondered why this huge city would have only one post office. People. Sheesh.”

All of us together: “Where are you from?”

Them: “We’re from Idaho and our daughter here has been serving in the Peace Corps in Mozambique, so we figured this would be a great place to meet all together.”

More chatting between us about the weather here in Lisbon (they are loving it as it’s below zero back home), etc. We walked up to my bus stop saying a quick goodbye and have fun as I hopped up on the bus of the number I was looking for only this time I asked the driver before paying: “Calavária?” He then pointed across the street saying quickly in Portuguese that the bus to Calvário is on the other side. Well, 3rd time is a charm. Here I go. “Obrigado!” (Ooops, forgot the “a” again. I’m supposed to say “obrigada.”)

So there I was, 1.5-hours later going the right way to the Calvário stop where I would find (25-minutes later) both a post office (which turned out to be a post office, bank, and 4 shelves of books for sale all in one) with the entrance to the LX Factory just a 3-min walk from the post-bank-books to the restaurant whose name I had already forgotten. Damn. I was famished and thirsty.

When I arrived, I found a splendid playground well worth the wait! I stopped at the first super fun/artsy restaurant I found (not the original one I had looked up hours earlier, but who knew at that point?) and sat outside near a fab heat lamp and ordered a beer. WOOF, they brought me a beer! Someone knew I was thirsty! Reward! Now here’s a pedestal I’d like to see with some females on it! Where are all the statues of the mulhers importantes in Portugal? I ordered the Praça burger (house special) that was heavenly with lots of different sautéed veggies on it (candied onions, mushrooms, zucchini, carrots) and pesto sauce along with their house-made chips that were a delight. YUM! ( I could not finish that beer after eating the meal but I got 3/4 through it.)

THEN I WALKED AROUND. WHAT A PLACE!

First I walked into the restaurant I had eaten at A Praça do Lisboa to use the loo and found the interior delightful. And since I heard a band while I ate not far off playing covers from the 80’s and 90’s, I had to find them first to check them out: The outside area was crowded with people sitting at tables talking and drinking beer and wine but the odd thing I noticed was when the band finished one of the songs, I was the only one clapping. Oh. They don’t clap for musicians here? Odd… I walked on. I found an amazing mural of David Bowie looking like he is shushing someone furtively and captured a pic of a store that I thought was cool.

And then I came upon this! My favorite new bookstore in one glance: Ler Devagar Bookstore (check this out):

I looked around some more to walk off the meal noticing that a lot more people were arriving as this is obviously a thriving scene for a Friday night that is not the ordinary fare in Lisbon. Just as I found myself outside of the LX Factory at night wondering where to catch the bus and really not wanting to try to find a stop, I saw a man leaning against a TukTuk. He extended his hand toward the vehicle saying, “Where would you like to go? Have you tried a TukTuk?” I had seen these all over town and wondered about them. They are literally a 3-wheel motorcycle with a plastic tent around them to keep you warm at night and likely out of the rain if the weather turns. I was hesitant. He explained that he could take me anywhere I’d like to go for 10-Euros which is far less than the normal price as he must put the TukTuk away in the garage in the next one-and-a-half hours. He could also show me some special places. Well, they are a licensed group. I know they are safe, and I really didn’t want to try the bus fiasco again. So, I hopped in. He zipped me all in as if we were camping with him in the front and me in the 2-seater bench in the rear with seatbelts. “My name is Carlos. What is yours?” We chatted for a bit about San Francisco because he cackled when I said I was from SF: “San Francisco! It’s the same as Lisboa! Bridges! Hills! Lots of people!” But then added, “But America has gone crazy, no? What has happened to the brains of the people?” I explained that one of the reasons I was here on this trip was to find a new place to live (someday) and that Portugal is one of my top choices. He told me he knows people here who have homes to rent and sell. He will give me names. At one point he asked, “Are you in a rush? If not, I have a great pastelaria to show you!”

I was game. Let’s go! We stopped and had a Pastel de Nata (much more delicious than the one I had in the morning) which were made by the hour in the place he brought me to. I bought us both one and added an espresso to sip. The third bite in, he said, “Oh! You must meet my friend Claudia who owns a shop near where you are staying. Let’s go pay her a visit and then I take you home. She owns some properties.” I was still delighting in the custard pastry and one last sip of espresso. He was right. It was a treat! We then scooted a few more streets over (he was a deft driver at one point squeezing between a car and a truck in a space I thought far too narrow to get through with no problem.) He parked quickly and we hopped out. The shop was so beautiful, lit by amber light containing numerous wonderful old things everywhere. I stopped at a journal made of a vinyl record for the front and back cover. Oh, universe! What have you done? I looked at Carlos: “I am a huge fan of vinyl records, Carlos. How did you know?” As I looked at him smiling, I saw high above his head a wall covered with actual records that were artistically cut into various scenes: one of a silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock seated in a Director’s chair with an old movie camera next to him , several of iconic images of Lisbon, and one that caught my attention quickly– the silhouette of a saxophonist and guitarist jamming together. I told Claudia that I have vinyl records covering the walls of my office at school. She said not missing a beat, “It seems you need one more to place with the others.” Indeed!

That’s Carlos Bonito and me with Claudia in the back. She doesn’t like being in pictures. Claudia searched through a drawer filled with artistic cuts of vinyl records to find me the one I wanted most: the saxophonist and guitarist. She kept looking and then pulled one out and held it to her heart in a dramatic way. I thought she found the one I wanted, but instead showed me a nicely scripted word carved into the top of the vinyl “saudade.” Claudia explained the deep meaning of “saudade” while still clinging the record to her bosom and flipping it towards me once or twice. She said that it has no true translation in any language but it means something like this: a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. (I found this online as she couldn’t quite find the words to express the depth of the meaning of the word.) It seemed the perfect bookend to the thoughts I had when I awoke this morning that felt so long ago. I bought both Saudade and the sax/guitar duo off the wall because she had nothing in the back stock. What a day and night in Lisbon!

: Sax & Guitar Jam on Telefunken

The Little Things

Lisbon is the quietest city I have ever slept in. Wait, rewind: it’s the quietest PLACE I have ever slept in. Put on some headphones and listen:

Earlier, around 2 p.m. when I arrived, it sounded like this outside in the little pedestrian/bicycle-sized street where I’m staying:

Quaint, no? A neighbor sweeps across the way while listening to music. Ahhhh. In fact, as I type right now, I hear sweeping outside my front door. Someone is cleaning up the mini-street we all live on (I am but a guest, of course). People clearly take pride in their surroundings here and throughout Europe. I remember when visiting Brussels a few years ago that I was told there is an ordinance to keep the front of your home/building where you live clean otherwise you receive a ticket. (Wow.)

Marta

A young woman walked up the alley street just after I arrived at the front door to my pad for 10-days.

“Olá! I am Marta.”

I had expected to find Ana and Viktor (yes, another Viktor) answer the door when I knocked, but instead, an affable Marta came to show me the place and tell me all about Lisbon. Her English was excellent. She carried an umbrella that she pronounced she had brought for me (though it seemed odd on a perfectly sunny day – in fact, every day here has been beautiful, though chilly).

“Thank you, Marta. I appreciate it. I didn’t want to travel all this way with an umbrella and I have read it rains a lot in the winter.”

Marta squinched her nose while looking up as if to remember something.

“Actually, not too much. We had rain just before Christmas and it hasn’t rained since. I’m not sure if there will be more while you’re here. But, here you are.”

She leaned the umbrella against the wall near the front door. Well cool, because I’ve been digging this lovely weather and had imagined walking around a lot here with an umbrella. This makes things much easier and excellent for taking photographs.

Marta pulled out a map she had brought and started to tell me all of the cool places to check out. She whipped out a pen and started circling things nearby and then drew a line to the open space in the Tagus River to write notes for me. By the time she had finished, there were so many great tips, I couldn’t tell where I was on the map in relation to all the cool places. She told me how to get a ticket to use all of the types of transportation and told me of the amazing 7 hills of Lisbon where I must try to go to get the best views of different parts of the city. (I had already witnessed one when I arrived: spectacular!) There are several “funiculars” which are giant elevators that take you from the bottom of a very steep hill to the top and offer amazing views. These are not only tourist attractions, she mentioned, but the locals use them as well because climbing all these hills becomes quite difficult. (What a clever idea: can you imagine a few “lifts” in SF to take you from one neighborhood to the other just up the steep hill?) She mentioned a train to Sintra and one to Cascais which are also must-see places outside of Lisbon that take just shy of an hour to arrive. When I heard the word lighthouse at Cascais, I was sold.

Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum – Cascais

Pena Palace – Sintra

I will plan the days to travel outside of Lisbon, but first, I must go to a train station and purchase a pass to ride everything like a local.

What’s Around Me?

After Marta left, I headed out on a walk about the neighborhood to figure out my surroundings and to find a mercado to buy some groceries. I wanted to relax in for the evening and not head out to a restaurant and a bar in Alfama featuring Fado music. That would be saved for another night. I walked around and found a number of places to buy cheese, meats, wine, fruit, vegetables and with each turn of a street, I found myself needing to look around for landmarks as it would be very easy to get lost. Nothing is laid out in a grid in this part of town. There are a number of winding narrow streets that lead to choices of two or three more that split off.

The street is wide here and then narrows just ahead. It’s entirely narrow where I’m staying.

After buying several items at various shops, I then found a completely organic food shop that I marked in my mind to return to after buying some bread and fruit there. (I know that GoogleMaps works perfectly well and I had to resort to it more than once to ensure I was walking in the correct direction to return to the pad, but I just don’t like to rely on it because, for me, the joy of being on vacation is getting lost and finding your way back, old-school.)

What Is This Place I Rented?

It’s a “sky view loft” apartment or flat (I’m not sure what to call it, actually.)

A view from the loft above the living room and kitchen where the bed is. Thankfully, the bed is not directly below this.

– it’s hard to say what type of dwelling it is because it’s not really a part of a group of residences as in an apartment though it all seems to be one building, each with its own front entrance and colored differently. They are no more than 2-stories and remind me of the tiny houses you’d find in SF bordering another house with no space in between. There is no backyard. In fact, upon further inspection, it seems that the neighbors are all on the opposite side of this little alley because the spaces on either side next door to this cute, little, fixed-up loft space are abandoned. No WONDER it’s so quiet!

On the left side, many are abandoned. Mine is halfway up. The right side is where I hear the living…

On to Coffee

It tastes delicious everywhere you go and even via the little coffeemaker here and one I had in my hotel room. The problem for me is the size: I’m a big cup of java in the morning kinda girl and I usually nurse my cup for about an hour, reheating from time to time. Here, the coffees are “short” (about 3 – 5 sips and you’re done) or tall (double that). Everyone is into those single-serve, pod coffee makers: yikes. Alas, I found a French Press on a shelf here: I’ll be in search of some ground coffee today.

Cleaning Clothes

On the walk up to the pad, I saw a LOT of laundry hanging outside of windows of the various flats/apartments (whatever one calls them here) and see that washing at home is the way to go. At one point walking up a narrow street, I felt a couple of drips on my head and jacket and looked up to find clothes-pinned socks hanging on a rope above me 25-feet in the air. At first, I cringed, but then realized they had been washed, so whatever. There is not a way for me to wash clothes in this pad, so I’m in search of a Lavandería which will prove to be an interesting chore today. Thank goodness for Google. How else would I know where to go? And from the pictures, I see washers, but will I have to haul wet clothes back to the pad to hang, um, somewhere?

It’s these little things that I love about traveling to other countries: how do they do the simple things we do at home that we are accustomed to. Yes, I’m going to do some big things while here too like sight-seeing, trying the local food, taking the train to Cascais on one of the days so that I can be at the Atlantic Ocean and a lighthouse, but some of the fun of travel is just seeing how people who live there LIVE.

Day One of 2019 – Lisboa-style

It seemed fitting to spend my first two days in modern Lisbon which is very different from the area where I’m heading to in the next hour. To ring in the new year, I wanted to spend time looking at fresh perspectives in architecture and it sure did not disappoint here in the Parque das Nações (Park of Nations) at the Tivoli Oriente for 2 nights. It’s an upscale hotel that would cost far more in a major U.S. city and was the first place where I had an excellent sleep. It’s dead quiet in the hotel at night which I attribute to a well-constructed building. It was full, yes, and I could not hear a peep from any neighbors the entire time. I have been sleeping oddly since arrival with a cat nap here and there and not at the times of usual sleep. I’ll fall out around 5 or 6p and wake up at midnight which is off my norm of being a morning person since I fall back asleep for a few hours around 4 or 5 am.

Here are a few amazing bits of the architecture on the Tagus River right in the area I stayed:

This is a train station. Not the main station, just one of many here in Lisbon. Wow!

I took a long walk along the Tagus where I had seen the fireworks the night before on NYE.

The walk along the riverfront shows wonders such as these on one side and the river and bridges on the other. It’s beautiful and clean. Even the morning after a HUGE party with a few thousand people just the night before, the place was already being cleaned up by workers in yellow jackets who used BROOMs (yes, brooms, no blowers) to clean up every piece of confetti and other debris. It should be noted that people here also pick up after themselves. There were no piles of trash left behind as I see back home at every event.

This is a shot from the hotel I stayed in from the top floor at the Skybar. The promenade on the riverfront is to the far right of this shot and stretches for miles around the riverfront all the way into the older part of Lisbon where I’m traveling today. It’s fitting that I welcomed the new year with a modern twist as that is what this year brings me teaching modern technology in the use of interconnected audio. But for the next 10-days, I’ll be contemplating a deeply personal time that I’ve experienced over the past several months that I had to push aside at the time in order to make it through the workload I have had. It’s time to grieve some losses and sink into meditative thought about my family and our history as it’s not what I thought it was…

The thick fog enhances today’s change of scenery and pace.

Fado music with your expressive and melancholy soul, take me away!

The Last Day of 2018

It was not without intrigue that I spent this last day in Madrid followed by a flight to Lisbon. I had planned to take a train from Madrid to Lisbon, but after the first few days of moving about A LOT, I decided to skip the scenic route and planned a last-minute flight that only cost 52-Euro. SOLD. I booked it on the 30th and went about finding someone who might want my train ticket since it was too late to refund. I went to a couple of different cafes which are also full-service bars here. I have not found a cafe without a full bar operating all day and night (for the hours it’s open and some are open 24h).

I was in sheer bliss and utterly pooped after my visit to the Hammam Al Ándalus – an Arab bath of otherworldly proportions. It’s all a hazy mist in my mind now, but memory serves that it consists of tiled rooms filled with very special warm water baths lit by candles throughout. I received a fantastic 1/2-hour massage and was then released back into the water. ReBirth!

At one point about 15-minutes into the slow water movement between spaces, music began to play from everywhere that suddenly made me think of The Passion of the Christ soundtrack. It was a super dramatic and contemplative kind of perfect with filtered light streaming in from above in certain places and the candles.

When I left the baths, I stopped to watch throngs of people hanging out in another plaza near the Tirso de Molina Metro Station drinking Mahous, laughing together, and watching each other. I caught a flower vendor in his makeshift stand on the street:

After that, I took a nap back in my room and woke up just shy of midnight. Ooops. I have yet to acclimate to the time difference. Oy. This will be fun on the other end when I return the day before school begins. What was I saying? I got caught up in the reverie of the Hammam vibe. Oh, yes! I went out to seek someone to use the train ticket I had to Lisbon leaving at 9:30 this morning so they could see the famous fireworks there over the Tagus River. After several tries, I found a willing participant who has an old girlfriend in Lisbon and dialed her up on the spot asking if she would like a visitor with whom to ring in the New Year. And just like that: he walked off whistling with my train ticket for the morning even though it was already morning at this point 1:30 a.m.

My daylight part of today (the last day of 2018) included a long walk to find a Correo (post office) from which to mail some postcards and a visit to the Prado only to find a line a mile long. Since I wanted to be on my way to the airport around 3p, that wasn’t feasible so I’ll catch it on my day and evening back through Madrid on the 11th. I found lots of cool things like I had just noticed that every major street has a quote painted in the pedestrian walkway like this:

NO MORE RUSH THAN ETERNITY ~Rosa Wild

So, is everyone catching the vibe here? Major works of art adorn the walls in all the Metro Stations with famous literary quotes and biographical information about the artist as well. Here, you’ll find no BS ads about Big Data, Cloud Services, nor ads for new tech products. It’s all about LEARNING. Can you dig it?

My phone has a new name: Priscila Marco

I wasn’t in a rush and was calm as a cucumber in my ride to the airport. I could have taken a metro or bus, but decided on a cab as I exited my Madrid hotel since I spotted them lined up on the main boulevard of The Plaza de Emperador Carlos V. I guess my phone wanted to stay in Madrid because I left it in the back of the cab as I walked off to check my bag at TAP Portugal Airlines waving gracias to the driver. Halfway to the baggage check after requesting location information from a nice Info Desk Clerk, I realized my loss as my heart raced in a panic. No No NO NO! I went back to the info booth and she told me to try the Taxi Office 2 floors down between lounges 5 and 6. I couldn’t find the office so I went out to the line of taxi drivers and started to inquire with the receipt I had from the payment. One pointed out his license (not car license, but taxi license) where he could be located by his company as their phone # was also on the receipt. Well, I had no phone. They suggested I go into the info booth on that first floor called zero (different than the previous info booth upstairs). The young woman was kind enough to call for me and try the #s. The company told her they would call him to tell him he has my phone. I stood there for 20-minutes as she reported finally: “They say he doesn’t pick up.” Oh, snap! She gave me back the receipt and said to keep trying and then offered: “I’ll keep trying and you go put your bag and come back.” I had a couple of hours to kill. Here’s the much longer story cut short: I went back and forth twice (each time taking quite a while because everything is so far apart in an airport, right?) and this is just one terminal of the largest airport I have ever seen. She then said that her kiosk would close at 5p. I returned to the first Information Desk and the woman there offered to help by calling on her phone. Her 3rd try, she jumped and squealed as she listened to someone say to her and she repeated to me translating:

“We found him. He has it. He will call you at this number.”

She grabbed my arm and we jumped up and down together like two little schoolgirls. OH MY LORD! In a city of 3.8 million people and a ton of taxi drivers, we found mine! We then waited for 30-minutes, but no call. I videotaped her and the other Info Clerk as he crooned, “It’s now or never…” to the camera (hers) and we all had some fun. By this time, dejected feelings were coming over both of us since much time had passed. Could we come this far only to fail? She called the company again and they said that he was going to call after his client that he was driving somewhere. We laughed when I said,

“Well, I hope it’s not a ride to Sevilla!”

Alas, she told me to go have a coffee or something and she will come when he calls her. We also started to make a plan B in case I had to split for my flight and he brought the phone to her. I walked back by her helping someone as I made my way to the restroom. Just as I finished in el baño I heard,

“Dina! Dina! Are you in there? He comes!”

I came out and we jumped some more! Incredible! She was equally thrilled to help me as I was to retrieve my phone. He was 20-minutes away. This was cutting it close to my boarding time. OOOH, excitement! Marco finally showed up, gave me the phone and I paid him 40-Euro (more than the cab ride to the airport) because I wanted him to know that doing the right thing pays off. He was a sweetheart! And he and Priscila exchanged contact information because she needed a ride home after her shift and she promised she would send airport business his way. What a gift! She was so sweet. She walked me to the security area and said to call her to go have a coffee when I return in 12-days. This is my angel Priscila. Now my phone will hereinafter be called Priscila Marco! She’s now an FB friend as I type this. What a world we live in!

Can you believe I got my phone back? (I think I connected with the spirit world in the Hammam.) When you want to contact me: text or call my Priscila Marco!

Does anyone remember me leaving my laptop on a plane 3-1/2 years ago when it went to Ireland and I went to Iceland? I got the laptop back a week later after a wonder woman like Priscila who worked for Delta in Shannon, Ireland emailed me. She found me on the web because I had put a return address mailing sticker on the back of my laptop. It was the only way she could find me. Y’all know I’m not a space-cadet so what is it with these two major oopsies that I normally never do. I’m always the one who has it together!

It’s now 10:27 p.m. or 22:07 and 1.5-hours over here until Le Réveillon, São Silvestre, and Passagem de Ano – they all refer to Feliz Año Nuevo = Happy New Year! I’m going to send off this long missive and head into the Lisbon nightlife and fireworks happening in various parts of town. If I can connect, I’ll try to do a Facebook Live from one of the places.

Tchau! (for now)

30-December, Rounding the Corner to 2019

I have exactly 18-minutes to complete this in order to have a post for each day that I have been here thus far. There is MUCH to tell you about as it’s been a very full 24-hours since 29-12-18. (An aside: why don’t we use the same numbering for dates? It makes much more sense to put the day first, followed by the month, and then the year!)

OK, the wonderful neighborhood Malasañas where I was to stay with Paloma y Viktor was a bust! Not because they aren’t awesome and have a super cool pad there, but because Paloma decided to have the room I was to stay in painted ceiling to floor on all walls 48-hours before my arrival! Oh my LORD! The floor to ceiling in these Madrid flats must be 30-feet, I kid you not. The room swelled with noxious paint fumes! The sweet Viktor assured me that he had been burning incense to make it go away. Oh, no. I tried to do my best to think fast. I laid my things down and had to take a walk. I had to think. I could not think in that little room with the smell of paint and no windows. (Um, yes. no windows.) This was after I had an enchanting chat for an hour with Viktor as I described before. I got to know him a bit and during the time in the flat realized that I could not sleep in those fumes. So, I walked around, drank a beer, took some photos… They serve you potato chips with every beer you order and the beer of Madrid is Mahou. Say it a few times:

Ma-hoo. Ma-hoo. It’s cute!

So, I wandered about the very colorfully artistic and musical Malasañas area where the streets are quite narrow and filled with people. In fact, I’ve come to discover that all streets in every neighborhood in Madrid are filled with people all day and night until around 3a or so. People wander in packs: elders, young lovers, families with children, droves of them wander about or sit in sidewalk bars, restaurants, and cafes laughing and really enjoying conversations with each other. People alone at tables are on their phones reading, but those in groups are ENGAGED with each other in conversation!

10-minutes left til the last day of 2018 that I am fully ready to say “Adios!” to as in “kick it to the curb!”

So, I made a decision at one of my stops: I’m going to search for a hotel to stay in around this neighborhood cuz I dig it. I looked up a few and noted their locations. I wasn’t about to start making calls, but rather just made a note of their addresses and figured I’d go pack an overnight bag in my backpack and head to the streets in search of lodging where I could breathe. I was not going to ask for a refund because the AirBnB was very inexpensive and Viktor is an enterprising young man who has a dream of success in business and one thing I know about AirBnB is that your success is in good reviews. This was a dumb mistake to paint – an accident of bad judgment by his mother who believed the lies of a professional painter telling them the smell would be gone in 48-hours (just in time for their guest from San Francisco!). So, I planned to suck it up and just let it go so that they don’t get a bad review and have AirBnB overlords ask about the refund.

I picked a cool place about 20-minutes from their flat after walking through a lot of new streets (there are so many!) only to find they were fully booked. Damn. OK, on to the next and the next and the next. Finally, I stopped for another beer and sat outside (the weather is chilly but perfect and clear and delightful) and surfed my phone on Expedia for the “One Room Left” at two places just missing them! Who knew this huge city would be so full of people that all the hotels are booked?

I finally found one at Mediodia on the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V and just two train stops up from where I was. Their trains are fantastic–a whole story on the Metro forthcoming. The stop was Estacion des Artes. I loved it! Famous artworks and literary quotes adorn the walls of the station (ok, well every station it turns out, but I first noticed it here) and as I walked up from the deep underground I came to yet another vibrant place filled with people doing exactly what I found in the previous neighborhood only the street at this stop was much larger with taxis and busses careening around the plaza at full speed just feet from the train station. The hotel was close.

HAPPY LAST DAY OF 2018 PEOPLE! It’ just switched!

OK, I’ll wrap up to go out and have a little something on my last morning in Madrid since I leave later today for Lisbon!

: An artful sign creation on the window of the museum

: The reflection of the sign on the sidewalk tile

I have so many more stories to recount on the following topics:

How my Spanish here is unacceptable because I speak the language of Mexico and just can’t seem to remember the “th” sound for the “c” as in “grathias” (gracias) or “estathion” (estácion), so that whenever I use the “cee” sound I can almost see a visible cringe on the faces of the people I’m speaking to as if my voice just made a scratch to a chalkboard. I’m trying to remember to use it but it’s particularly difficult when there are esses mixed in with cees in long words. Caramba! (that’s C with a hard-k sound).
When you order two small plates of food, they think it’s crass that you might want them at the same time. I mean, come on, if I order a salad and a side of patatas, I clearly want to eat them at the same time, right? Who wants to eat potatoes alone? For some meals, I just want something light like two appetizers which is fine with them but they want to deliver one after the other and so I waited and waited, wondering where the potatoes were as I gently nibbled the salad (this was my 29/12/18 meal while figuring out where I would stay) I finally asked and the waiter told me it comes next. Oh, please. I want them together. The delicate salad with dressing needs the potatoes to soften the vinegar…The entire staff thought I was a nutball.
When you order brunch at the fantastic restaurant connected to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Nebus, I think it’s called, where the giant red art space of the restaurant filled with light meets fantastic music from a DJ spinning live mixes of my favorite downtempo electronica and they bring you a meal for an entire family all at once. The brunch comes served as if you were sharing with a table for 4! It was a delectable meal of salmon and avocado toast (at least I thought that’s all I ordered) but was accompanied with 4 croissants, an entire serving of granola-topped yogurt, a bowl of fruit, and a side of a pancake smothered with Belgian chocolate, thick whipped cream, and strawberries along with a mimosa and coffee. WHOA! And the MUSIC and the DJ: his music story wove a sonic journey through time that I could not help grooving to as I ate.

The restaurant interior

The DJ – look at those speakers!
The a-m-a-z-i-n-g visit to Hammam Al Ándalus this past afternoon (yesterday now but feels like the same day to me) and the wonders of the water, the massage, the music, the steam, the candlelit corridors. Whoa. I would never have known about this place if it weren’t for the two artists I met at a gathering with Craig, Caroline and Oliver who invited me out on 24/12/18, just days before my trip, with whom I had been discussing Remedios Varo (fantastic, Spanish surrealist painter) who left Spain with her husband Max Ernst for Mexico City along with a host of other artists in the 1930s. At one point, one of the artists interjected “Oh, you must find the Arab Baths there in Madrid. It’s a marvelous experience.” Woof. She was right. This is one of those “must-do” on your trip here, people. It’s just a 3-min walk from the Tirso de Molina Metro Station.

People love their Mahou beer and flowers as the streets are filled with both everywhere you go in every Plaza and on every corner.

Another brightly painted street that narrows leaving just enough room for pedestrians and motorcycles – the vehicle of choice for residents of Madrid.

I have taken great pains to NOT photograph people and thus most of my shots of Madrid all aim high toward the rooftops and sky. There are so many people EVERYWHERE you go!

ArrivAL Madrid

It has not been 24-hours since my arrival to this gigantic city and I’m already filled with experiences with people and places! I must take a moment to capture it before I move on to the next.

Landing in Madrid

This airport is far larger than any I have been to in a long time. We seemed to taxi around Madrid-Barajas for 15-minutes before arriving at our gate. It’s HUGE! Disembarking and finding my luggage in the area for “equipaje” was easy and without occurrence (just the way I like it). Since I had been traveling for nearly 20-hours (with the 5-hour layover in Zurich), I decided to take a taxi to the quick overnight in a hotel before heading to the AirBnB room I rented for two nights. It was already close to midnight. As I was leaving the airport to catch a cab, I found that I could not locate the address of the hotel which I was positive I had put in my calendar notes in my i-spaceship weeks before. I found my other parts of the itinerary, but not the hotel address. No problem, I’ll look it up on Google: no connection to WiFi even though it showed a connection and I had forgotten to turn on my cellular data. By this time, I was ushered into a cab driven by Rafael who did not appreciate that I did not have an address ready. When I told him, “Hotel Actafor” and that I was looking up the address (in my not recently spoken Spanish which likely means I didn’t get it totally right), he admonished me explaining that Madrid is huge and he can’t possibly know where this small hotel is. He pulled over as I kept looking up the information and he was shouting in Spanish into his phone “Hotel Alta For” and I kept repeating “no, Actafor, no Altafor” and he would shout it again. His phone would return with Hotel Alta Luce each time. He barked at the phone and me again. Rafael did not speak English which was fine because I was thrown headfirst into the deep end. Several minutes went by, before I found it two days later in my calendar as “Hotel Acta Madfor” (oops) and we were on our way.

Rafael reminded me of a man who may have been a fisherman or a boxer in his former career. He shouted questions and conversational topics in Spanish at the front window, intending for me to answer the myriad questions that he had for me quickly. I tried to translate in my mind as fast as I could before answering. I imagined the 3/4-circular shout mouth of Calvin in the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon every time he spoke:

Preguntas de Rafael (Questions)

Is this my first time in Madrid?

Why would I choose a hotel so far from the airport?

Why Lisbon?

What do I wish to see while in Madrid?

What’s going on in the United States? Why have the people gone crazy?

Each of these was peppered with the word “tranquilidad” which I took to mean “cool” because it was used so often. I’m psyched to hear someone shout “tranquility” constantly, but I’m sure it has a “cool” or “calm” significance as a slang term. Maybe it’s a way for him to remind himself not to shout? Anyway, it was about a 20-minute ride and he pointed out lots of sites along the way encouraging me to visit them during my stay. Then we got to chatting about politics. He was curious as to what happened to the American minds and why we are so enamored with a crazy man who is only interested in his own wealth. Yeah. Well, you can imagine how I answered. He was totally sweet and helped me to figure out how to take the train Princípe Pío, just across from the hotel, to my destination the next day. I gave him a nice tip telling him how helpful he was and that I appreciated it. He responded that I am tranquilidad.

Hotel Acta Madfor

The hotel seemed to be in a very active area with lots of restaurants open and people milling about even though it was after midnight. It has a tiny entrance between several other doorways leading to restaurants, shops, and such. For $65, it was well worth the late check-in and close proximity to the train station. It’s also near some amazing areas to walk around which I did this very chilly morning. The sun is shining and the skies are deep blue.

Across from the hotel near the Princípe Pío Metro.

A watch repairman at work in the center of a major shopping area at Princípe Pío.

Malasañas

Right around the corner from where I’m staying for the next 2 nights.

Meeting Viktor y Paloma

I chose an easy space in a great neighborhood to rent for a couple of days en route to Lisbon when I was planning all of this back in October. A room in a flat would be just fine and the right price. All of my communication had been with Paloma, but Viktor greeted me when I arrived and showed me around the apt. Viktor is a very sweet, smart, enterprising young man finishing his final year in High School. He speaks very good English and we struck up conversation instantly. He noticed my microphone earrings and commented on them when I explained what I do for a living. He seemed very excited by this and we spoke about music for a long time. He showed me some Youtube videos of his friends who are becoming somewhat famous in the Spanish rap scene garnering 10’s of thousands of streams of their home-recorded songs that I found to be quite good. He helped to record one of the videos on a rooftop here in Madrid. Impressive! Before I left to go wander around the neighborhood, I let Viktor borrow my headphones to try out as he’s in the market of buying some for himself. He was quick to refuse, but I insisted since he really wants to buy a bluetooth headset which I’m trying to discourage him from.

Anyway, we have a new friendship. I lost myself in the neighborhood for a few hours and then returned to write this, meeting Paloma (his Mom) who helped me with my Spanish for a bit. She informed me that saying “tranquilidad” is not common and she finds that some people find a word that they wear as an amulet. It’s a pause in between sentences (for Rafael) and as we both laughed about it, she said, “Don’t start saying the word all the time as people will look at you with curiosity.” haha

I’m heading back out to complete my first 24-hours in Madrid.

More soon…

A Brief Interruption From “Air”

Flight music. Travel music. No, not the pablum of music offered by the in-flight choices, but rather that which I keep close to my ears from my i-spaceship. My favorite genre to listen to when I travel is downtempo electronica. It provides the perfect cinematic beat, melody, and sound effects to accompany the visuals. The music of the French band “Air” and also American musician, DJ, author, photographer “Moby”, intrigue me the most. Since 1998, Air has captured my aural interest to the point where several of their albums are in my “go-to-chill” list when I need to relax and unwind from a long-day/eve of teaching; and so it goes when I need to drift away from the hustle-bustle of travel. After I finally reach my seat, set up my Sony MDR-7506 closed-ear headphones, a book, and anything else I might need in the next several hours with barely any room to move, I can relax.

Moby’s 2016 release of music, Porcelain, captivated my inner ear for a good hour.

For my audio friends and current/former students who enjoy reading how a recording was made, check this one out on Reverb as Nicolas Godin discusses the gear used on the recording of Moon Safari which I listened to twice on the 11-hour flight to Zurich.

Flight to Zurich

With plenty of time at SFO followed by a lovely Lyft ride with Ivan from Bulgaria, I easily made it through the TSA checkpoint to have just enough time for a long walk through SFO International and a bowl of soup before boarding.

OK, I had a martini too. You know me. Long flight, the wish to sleep, and changing time zones are all just excuses. I’m a sucker for a nice airport bar with so many people, languages, and varying levels of time awareness. Some rush about in a frantic pace to catch a flight while others (like me) take it slowly, leaving plenty of time to chill before boarding. Are the people I see from elsewhere yet adjusted to the time zone? Does everyone know that California will permanently switch to Pacific Daylight Savings time?

Whoa, economy even on Swiss Air is a tightly packed cattle car. I tried to do a “bid upgrade” as suggested by my pal Teri when I inquired about receiving an email from the airline beckoning me to bid. I was told it’s a great idea and it’s worth bidding an extra hundred or two for a super long flight. I assumed that one could bid what one wishes, but there was a hitch: on the Swiss Air website, there is a little slider to cast your bid and the starting bid is $900! What? I tried again, squinting at the screen. There was nowhere to type anything, just use the slider and the teensiest move to the right began at $900 and went up to $2600. Are you kidding me? If I’ve already paid for a full flight, why would I begin a bid at $900? That’s the price of a new mic or a killer compressor that will last me a lifetime…this is one 11-hour flight!

Well, now that I’m in Zurich and my body feels like it’s been twisted into a pretzel, I can see why the wealthy do this. The first and business class seats on the plane were awesome allowing those passengers to lay back fully flat in very wide seats with a large divider between two seats holding a small desk, lamp, and a cubby for one’s things. That looks amazing.

Instead, we were ushered two sections back beyond the wings of the plane to economy where the seats could barely fit me, let alone anyone with more weight on them than I. The seat in front of me was so close, that I could not bend down to reach my backpack I had scooched on the floor beneath the seat in front of me. I lucked out that I had a little girl in front who did not know how to adjust the seat back. I saw what happened to the middle seat passenger, (a sweet chap named Joey) when the passenger in front of him adjusted her seat back to fully recline. The seat was inches from his nose and she was basically in his lap. We were, however, surrounded by young children. One screamed like a velociraptor throughout several segments of the flight including departure and landing. A most horrific sound emanated from his wee mouth. I can still hear it as I sit here in Zurich on a layover to Madrid. About 3/4 of the way through the flight, I had to admit that my friend Caroline is correct: transatlantic flights are like flying in a Petri dish.

My row mates were wonderful! Gertrude, from Tel-Aviv, (in the aisle seat) and Joey, from Louisiana, though living in SF and San Jose (sandwiched between us), were great conversationalists. Gertrude has been around and enjoys taking many holidays in her retirement years. She explained the lovely attributes of her home city while also pointing out that she has lived in numerous European cities throughout her life. This is why her accent was mixed. I loved the sound!

I realize this is the reason I escape from time to time in solo travel; it’s the best way to take a real break from work and one’s home. We all become stuck in our daily routines at home, but when you travel, you leave it all to chance and your (hopefully good) planning. Anything can happen and one must be totally focused on the surroundings at all times which makes this such a fantastic escape. Each thing that we take for granted at home is fresh and different than what we know.

Hey, we flew over Greenland!

Not much time here but to peruse the airport. I breathed in some fresh Swiss air up on the passenger observation deck.

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Alas, I await my connection to Madrid.

The TIME of Departure

It’s December 25th, 2018 and two days before I fly off to southern Europe first by way of Zurich. I’m giving myself a necessary break from everything over here in the states to take in a breath of living from somewhere else.

Taking up the Swiss on their precision for everything.

Some Thoughts Regarding SFO Airport

Well, it’s difficult to feel completely safe on my outbound flight since the important airport personnel will have been working unpaid for several days at SFO as the Trump Shutdown continues to wreak havoc and grave danger on our nation. I can only breathe in and hope that the TSA Agents, Aviation Safety Inspectors, and Air Traffic Controllers continue their due diligence to keep everything together as a team for every flight. So, just in case, I’m bringing this:

I’ll be arriving in a precision-run airport 11-hours later and will breathe a sigh of relief as we touch down at Zurich International Airport:

Here’s a bit about the airport from the “architects’ POV.”

Looks like there is plenty to “oooh and aaah” at there as I wait for my connection to Madrid.

Before Leaving

The best part about the days before leaving is the “what to pack?” questions that must be met with the reality of the size of the suitcase you wish to take. In this case, I’ve decided to go much smaller in order to make the travel between cities easier. There will be snow in Zurich and likely some rain in Madrid and Lisbon, so having a smaller bag will make me happier there though I may be leaving behind something I’d like to have with me. So, the packing makes the trip begin days before one heads out to the airport. I’m a “get it done way in advance” kinda girl. No rushing around the day of a trip for me; I’m packed a couple of days before so that I can be supa chill on the departure day. This really helps the “before leaving” part of one’s journey.

Why Start the Travel Blog Now?

I will be wrapped up in details leading up to and during the travel to my final destination in flight to Madrid at the end of this week, so I thought I’d set up the new theme and intro blog now. I’ll be filling everything in pretty regularly after Friday 12/18/18 or as I must get used to the European way of noting dates: 18/12/18.

I’ll be in Madrid for a couple of days before I hop a train for Lisbon on 31/12/18. I’ll post pictures of my discoveries.

Dana J