Lisboa, Primero Dia

You say Lisbon, they say Lisboa – it’s an exonym and there’s todays new word. Immediate impressions upon landing and entering the airport are friendly and welcoming. It’s amazing how nicely designed signage can affect your mood. How many times have I seen the ‘international’ symbols for man and woman and yet these stuck out. I love that kind of thing.

But, try as we might, we couldn’t find our way to customs. We wandered all around, queued up behind other lost tourists in the wrong places, and asked very nice locals. I guess it was obvious in the end, but seriously, there was not a single pointer in that sea of lovely signage that told us where to go for this important step.

Vocé fala inglês?

Feeling fancy from our months of learning the language, we tried to use a little to navigate to the meeting spot with our driver. I engaged a passing airport security person to help using a phrase I had rehearsed. I butchered it, fell back into Spanish (a big no-no), and then a kind of pigeon-english before they mercifully pointed us to it. This is going to be harder than I thought.

The driver spoke not a lick of the ‘glish – but we realized that there’s something secretive and fun about speaking openly and knowing no one can understand. It gave us space to review some phrases quietly and try them out. It felt such a triumph to learn our driver’s name was “Alysso” and to compliment him on his insane command of the tiny, single-lane old-town streets.

Nosso apartamento

Right in the heart of Baixa-Chiado is our 4th floor downtown apartment. We love its simple elegance. Though the bustle of downtown Lisbon courses right below, it’s nice and quiet up here. And there is the thing we need most, a bed!

When the circadian rhythm gets disturbed and your sleep time is unprofitable (3 nights in a row), you oscillate between heightened awareness and mental slow motion. Eventually, time becomes dilated, your brain a liquid with no equilibrium, and life a rubber-walled tunnel of events. Such was the initial state of our journey. It seems that no matter how much we eat, drink, exercise, argue (smartly, we got in our one travel skirmish right away and cleared it off the todo list), or watch TV on the plane, there is no actual sleep for the next 40 hours once we’ve left Davis. But now, with a lovely bed on offer, we collapse into a 5-hour reverie of unconsciousness – waking in time to meet António, our guide to ‘10 tastes of Lisbon‘.

António, colega gen-xer

António is our age, has kids, and loves music, food, and travel. He is the perfect host for our inaugural experience and speaks excellent English. Together we walk through four districts and sample delish white and green wines, wonderfully funky cheeses, bifana and the best chicken soup ever, chouriço, cuttlefish, pumpkin jam, and ginja – a locally famous cherry cordial. Along the way, we spoke of Lisboa, music, kids, poetry, and generational divides.

There is something transcendent about this experience. Yes, Antonio comes to us by way of a business transaction, but the instant personal connection makes it like a friend showing us around his neighborhood. His background of movie-making in a country without much industry to support it reminds me of when Stasia and I moved to Alaska. I showed up as a recent design school graduate to a place that had no need for one. Yet it’s these left turns that make us grow in unexpected ways.

He’s really into music and we are both amazed at his knowledge in this regard – it far exceeds my own. Stasia and I are inspired by his continued connection to art and culture, still attending concerts and learning about new music. He’s an old soul but young at heart. We are artists connecting and he gets Stasia’s website address and writes down the name of the band I played with in the halcyon days (MK Ultra).

He’s an absolute delight and we finish off the evening with a couple freshly baked pastel de nata and tiny shots of espresso. These little custard-filled pies with caramelized crusts are fantastic and we are warned not to get addicted.

Later that night, we try and get some shuteye.. and at 4am I am still wondering why I drank that last espresso. There will be no rest this vacation, but you can’t have everything. Somewhere around 6am, we finally drift off and sleep till noon the next day, waking up to a message from António. He loves Stasia’s paintings, especially the album covers he grew up with. Additionally, he tells me the MK Ultra album is on Spotify (I had no idea) and he’s added his favorite song from that album to his playlist. We have since been in contact with more art and music to share. This is what art and music are for after all.

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If you’re coming to Lisboa, we recommend Antonio heartily. Check out his bio and book a walkabout with our new friend.