Life in Portugal

You name it, Lagos has it — yoga studios, shops of every kind, beach, high rises, ye-old ancient city, surfing lessons, a side car motorcycle tour(now that was a new one for me) driven by a man who looked a bit like the Australian Red Baron, 5 day crash course in Portuguese(no way in H!@# is that possible), kitschy shops selling kitschy stuff, every nationality in the world drinking beer or wine in the sidewalk cafes, Indian restaurant owner from Goa and I reminiscing about the “good old days in Goa” while I ate samosas and palak paneer, the air of “spring break” brought by university kids from Spain, UK and other locales, and the Konditori pastry shop w/8(count them) cake layers w/chocolate butter cream in between each layer and sliced fresh cherries soaked in some kind of liqueur on the bottom served w/ espresso – I died, went to heaven and my hips just went friggin’ ecstatic –(thank you, Lord, we are out of Senegal and she is thinking about us again!  It took her a while, but she is back in the fold. Amen.)…random thoughts.

To say the words “coffee to go, please”, or for that matter, any “food to go” would be tantamount to sacrilegious — eating and drinking are the pleasures of life and one takes the time to savor the food, the drink and the company.  One is never in a hurry, so plan on 1.5 to 2 hours for a meal.

Met a lovely English couple — whom have had a flat here for 20 years.  We went to, what the Mrs. called, “The Piggy Place”  – served suckling pigs and, for some reason, it just didn’t dawn on me what I was eating, which by the way was beyond fantastic (roasted and grilled w/fresh chips) until we were walking out the door, and it was  pointed out to me the tiny little baby pigs thrown on the grill – a bit disconcerting to say the least.   I have felt guilty ever since.  We stopped at a store to do some shopping and we had to find a parking place where there was no backing up involved, “No, we don’t back up the car at all.  We only go forward.” OK.  We finished out shopping and drove out, going forward thank God, but a flashing yellow light caused major consternation w/the Mrs. – “blinky blinky lights are so stupid – either stop or go.”    Another note:  the Mrs. is a serious horse racing follower — picture the following:  little English lady, grey hair, lovely garden, irons on “her Saturdays” with the TV and radios broadcasting the horses races, mobile(pronounced mo-BILE) on the edge of the board, placing bets w/her bookie, …people are great, aren’t they!

Vision this morphing into a cartoon….

Have been here for 6 days now, and leaving for Marseilles, France in the morning. The beach has been wonderful, albeit water is cold, long walks along the shore line and anyone can wear a two piece as long as they are tan – age is not a deterrent(fyi).  Coffee and pastella for breakfast – coffee and something light for lunch at 1:30ish – coffee at 3:30ish – dinner at 8:30pm followed, of course, by coffee.  There are no US newspapers anywhere to be found yet German, Dutch, French, English and Spanish are abundant.  The Algarve Post is available in English(indication of how many UK’ers have 2nd homes).  Spanish has gotten me thru the language barrier.  An aged ex-hippy or perhaps he still is in the groove, sings old country western songs by the cafes – reminds me at bit of the recent boozy Jeff Bridges’s movie – and he played “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” – sigh.

After being here for 6 days, my ego has kicked in and I am no longer a tourist, so I can say, the tourists arrive on Thursday nite and depart Monday AM = Tues, Wed and Thurs AM are not as busy.  Indication of increase in population on the weekends is the visibility of the Tourist Police.  All sums up to =  if a person can stay in a place for at least a couple of days, you understand a little more about the day-to-day living and another way of life, which in Lagos, is A-OK….and yes, I will take yet another cup of coffee!

The old fort gate frames the new….

take care,  me!