Ria took us to the airport in the morning (Oran had to go to work) and, after eating breakfast with her there, we said our goodbyes and set off. A funny tidbit is how strict security is there! There was a grouchy security lady that was telling us to take out all the liquids from our bags. Apparently, in Zurich, this even includes toothpaste and sunscreen! In the end, they even took away our Nivea foot cream! A few hours later, on a plane filled with a surprising number of babies and young children, we landed in Lisbon, Portugal. After taking the closest train to our Air B&B, we walked to our apartment; seeing fruit and shops and people along the way. We settled in and walked around our nearby square, browsing through stores and making fun of the abundance of cork products and sardines. In the heat of the day, we rested and I finished War & Peace; an excellent, excellent book even though I disliked the ending of the story (not of the book, just the story). We finally got to see House of Cards again and watched an episode of The Last Czars, a new TV show on Netflix with super cringy actors. Then, we slept. Before going to a flea market in the morning, we accidentally saw a religious/military procession. Groups from the military were carrying icons of Mary holding baby Jesus as well as another man, followed by a large group of devotees clothed in monkish robes. A bit confusing but interesting; even the bathrobed woman standing with her hair in a bag on her balcony agreed so! The flea market was large and interesting, but only Troy bought anything there. Asher just wanted a POP vinyl Mysterio toy… We walked a while longer and I ate a brioche croissant (fine, I had two), then we took an Uber to the mall. There, we checked showing times for the new Spiderman and Toy Story 4 and ate a snack in the food court. There was an odd woman sitting at the next table who had gotten pasta with parsley and pine nuts. However, the odd part was that she fished out the parsley and pine nuts and only ate those!, leaving the pasta on the table as she walked away! We checked, and the market across the hall had bags of parsley and pine nuts. It probably would’ve been easier for her just to buy those… I started reading a new book at home before we went out to dinner at a Fado restaurant. Fado is a type of traditional Portuguese music, and we had the pleasure of hearing three singers in the course of our meal. Aba was miserable. The first woman was famous and someone was actually filming her for national TV (we might be on TV right now!), but I thought the third man actually had the best voice.
A group sitting next to us was from Belgium, and upon hearing that we are from the USA they asked us, quite sincerely, if this was our first trip to Europe! Oh my gosh, I nearly burst out laughing! Our FIRST trip to EUROPE!!!! I can’t stop laughing right now, honestly; oh my gosh. The next day we drove to the town of Sintra. There, we met our guide, Diogo, and our jeep-mates, Jerry and Trina. Jerry is 75 years old and Trina is 70, and they were both very sweet. In fact, when it got very cold and windy at Quinta da Regaleira, our first stop, Jerry made me wear his jacket. The most well-known part of this estate is a deep Freemason Initiation Well. That was interesting for me because in War & Peace (*spoiler alert*) Pierre, for a short time, becomes a freemason and engages in many rituals. There was a place inside Quinta da Regaleira to “walk on water” and many underground tunnels, but I think we all really enjoyed walking down the 120-stair staircase of the well. There were also cool battlements that we were allowed to mount. The main building of Quinta da Regaleira itself was nice, very grand and gothic, and was surrounded by an immense garden filled with a variety of lovely flora and two beautiful cats.
We ate a small snack there, and Troy loved my sandwich so much that he ate it all! After that, we drove, on the rocky-no-seatbelt-jeep-that-had-windows-so-it-was-actually-better-than-the-other-group’s. Phew.
We were taken to a local restaurant where we ate good meat and the adults drank firewater, basically a stronger Portuguese version of Vietnam’s happywater.
On the way out, we petted some cute dogs that Troy thought were ugly. Troy! We went to a nice beach called Praia da Adraga after that, but it was uneventful.
By this time, Diogo had begun to like us so much that, varying from our plan, he took us to the Westernmost point of mainland Europe, Cabo da Roca. There were fantastic views from the cliff it was perched upon, but it was so windy and cold that, after snapping a few photos, we fled back to the jeep. Poor Jerry even lost his toupée.
Our last stop was the National Palace, where we said goodbye to Diogo, Jerry, and Trina. While everyone else was fascinated by the wall tiles and furniture of the great building,
I was occupied with the ceilings. Consequently, the Swan Room and especially the Galley Room were my favorites.
I absolutely adore the ceiling in the Galley Room.
The next day we took two tours. The first was a walking tour that we took with a large group of people and mostly described some of Lisbon’s and Portugal’s history. For example, one kind of sickly funny story we were told is that when a huge earthquake struck in 1755 on All Saint’s Day, all the Christians were in church praying as it was mandatory and you would be burned otherwise. Therefore, the earthquake killed all the worshippers crushed by debris. The survivors ran for open land near the river so that nothing could fall on them when they noticed that the water had disappeared. As the only reference of miraculously receding water was when Moses parted the sea, these Christians all started trekking across the riverbed; directly in the path of the (basically) tsunami that killed the rest of them. The few stragglers left were picked off by the fires starting from altar candles that had spread with the wind. It is said that the blaze was so bright that you could read a book in the middle of the night 30 miles away with only the light of the fire. The surviving areas of Lisbon were, of course, the old Jewish quarter and the brothels. Our guide told us a lot, but we didn’t really see any sights and he talked to the point of being irritating. One funny point was, though, when he pointed out that the happy clowns handing out balloons in the square were pickpockets. No hugs for me, thank you!
(Not a Clown)
After a short rest, Aba, Asher, Troy, and I took a private guide on another tour, this time by tram.
He mostly showed us viewpoints and the city, and I enjoyed it a lot. We went to a sardine store (one of their main products) where they sold sardines in olive oil, sardines with peppers, pilchard in olive oil, baked cod in olive oil, smoked codfish roe with vegetables, horse mackerel in olive oil, mackerel in olive oil, sea bream in olive oil, sea bass in olive oil, smoked sole in olive oil, croaker in olive oil, smoked trout in olive oil, smoked mussels in olive oil, octopus in olive oil, smoked salmon in olive oil, swordfish in olive oil, eels marinated in vinegar, tuna in olive oil, anchovies in olive oil, squid stew, sea snail preserve, shrimp in garlic and whisky sauce, oatmeal balls with vegetables, and grain patties with carrot (Comur, 1942).
He also took us to the Bertrand Bookstore; the oldest bookstore in activity according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It has been open and active for 287 years. We ate a dinner of sea bass and cod later and custard tart desserts. The next day nothing very much happened until our dinner with the Drag Queens. Aba got his mustache cut, “Communist Style”, and we watched Spiderman: Far From Home and I, of course, read.
We went to the home of Pedro and Nikolay, or Teresa al Dente and Irina Ganache. There, we also met Lumière, their professional Drag makeup artist. We were the first to arrive, Fatima and Elena were two other guests who would later come, so Asher was transformed first. He wore a light turquoise short bodysuit with pink platforms (he couldn’t walk on the high heels), orange eyelashes, pearl necklaces, blue hair, and glitter! Having already seen the rest of them, I declare Asher’s, or Sky View’s, look the best and most fabulous.
I went next with light pink hair, a black dress, heavy eye makeup, and the heels Asher couldn’t walk with, and Crème Brûlèe was born!
Troy became Elvira Verde, a chic lady with a glistening, glittery, bald spot and a green color palette that extended to her long slitted dress. I have awarded her with the best name.
Lollipop became Aba’s alter ego, with her red and braided German hair and a sparling red goatee. We cooked flaming chorizos, cod patties, cabbage soup, stone soup, sangria, and those wonderful custard tarts I was telling you about! All the while, Fatima (now Drag King Jackson) and I sang along to their amazing 70’s and 80’s playlist. Over dinner and afterward, we learned about the queens’ lives and stories. I will only relate one funny story; that of Iceborg. Teresa al Dente used to be a Portuguese wrestler and weighed over 240 pounds. I am putting a picture here because the difference is stunning! She is in a red dress in the pictures.
Irina and Lumière both performed downscale (for the children’s sakes; aka me and Asher) drag performances and we ate al Dente’s delicious custard tarts. I just can’t get enough of them! To be honest with you, I had a difficult time imagining the Queens as men. Therefore, when they, at the end of the night, took off their costumes, it was difficult not to look shocked. We really did have a lot of fun, though, and I liked them a lot.
Yesterday was basically our shopping day. We each bought a lot of clothing and accessories which will make their debut pretty soon at school. For dinner, we went back to a restaurant at one of the viewpoints after watching someone play an operatic piece on the double bass. Then, we stayed up ‘til 1 AM watching TV. Yep, we’re living the life. After a breakfast of melon, peaches, and pastries (brioche for me!) we will fly to Israel, our last destination. Lisbon, at least, was our last destination alone. I’m trying not to dwell on that too much, so I’ll just write that I’m excited to see the family. Thank you, Lisbon!
Ella
26-18-6-14-19-6