Lisboa (Part 2)

Enter Saturday.

When I say this day was beautiful...you have no idea. And it wasn't until after rushing to make it downstairs in time (yeah, I overslept..duh) that I realized my worst nightmare may very well be upon me:

My camera didn't charge overnight.

Which was odd at the time because I could have swore I put the camera on the dock before going to bed. All throughout the day, I thought it was because I didn't put my key card in the little slot by the door that makes all the lights (and electricity maybe?) work...so the docking station had no power. Then when I returned home, I thought it was cause the docking station was broken. It was only until a few days ago that I realized the true culprit...the battery was blown.

Man, I will say it again--the weather, lighting, sights were absolutely perfect...and I was literally pouting and sulking out loud the entire time. All jokes aside, I was pissed! Fortunately, I was able to squeeze a few pictures out of the camera for Saturday's monumental stroll through Lisbon.

Please bear in mind: 1) these are the representative sample of but 1/16th of the pictures that I could/would have taken were I to have had a fully charged camera, and 2) these pictures were taken with haste as for each one I had to turn the camera on, align, aim, and shoot before the camera automatically shut off (i.e. less than 2 seconds).











After the stroll (mid-afternoon) everyone broke off into groups. Some wanted to shop (the ladies). Those that were not staying the extra night (those with families), left to pack their things to catch their flight home. Me? I left, with two others, to go back to the hotel to try to charge my camera. Now here's the funny thing...it didn't work on the first outlet, but it did on the second. And after checking into Saturday night's hotel shortly thereafter (the 5-star jumpoff was nice, but since the company wasn't paying for the next night, we weren't trying to pay 5-star prices) the camera charged again. I didn't think much about it then (I was just happy that the camera was back working again with the last vestiges of dusk-daylight left), I just left the hotel and went to out to take some pictures. Here's what I was able to salvage of the day...





Each of us took a shot of this Portuguese Cognac I bought while we were out and went out to dinner later on...


and for the second time in Lisbon, I had steak with a sunny-side up egg on the top and fries.


They told me a little "urban legend", if you will, that if you finish ALL of your food the night before, you'll have good weather the next day. Needless to say...


My food wasn't all I finished that night...let's just say the phrase, "TO THE FACE!" has officially been adopted by the Frankfurt office.

The restaurant was, again, in the Bairro Alto section of Lisbon...


and as the night progress into our inebriated selves, we somehow found ourselves again at the Kareoke spot from Friday night...and this time we were twice as deep and we armed with a bit of Portuguese pop culture. So much so that I'm sure to all the locals, we were the loud, drunk foreigners in the back that sang "louco por ti" louder than the guy on the mic.

I would expound on the Kareoke experience but 1) you had to be there and 2) I was there and don't remember. What I do remember is that after leaving, the half of us that didn't call it a night then went to supposedly one of Europe's most famous clubs: Luxe.

Look, at this point, I was done and all I remembered was that the club didn't live up to the hype (size-wise it wasn't as big as Dream), they played that Euro-dance music all throughout (which I have nothing against but really wasn't feeling), and there was a big pump on the roof...


You see the couple making out in the front of the shoe? What's funny is that when I got back to Frankfurt, there is no way I would have remembered taking this picture if it wasn't for this slip of paper in my pocket that (in handwriting that wasn't mine) had an email address on it reminding me to send the pitcure to the couple kissing in front of (and in) the shoe. Well I did and got a very pleasant email from them. Turns out the dude in the picture (Jose) is a painter and has a blog of his own. Check it out: www.jobelenguer.blog.pl

Anyways, I was out of commission for the rest of the trip. On Sunday, we went to this "shopping center" (since malls are what's hot in the streets of Portugal) that I can't even remember the name of (maybe I'll come back later and insert it in). Supposedly its supposed to be the largest in Lisbon or even Portugal or something. Now, maybe I didn't see all of it or something (cause there was this open-air, underground portion that I semi-traveled through), but the joint was like half the size of Pentagon City. Maybe this is American bammaness speaking, but the place really left more to the imagination. Or maybe it was just I was eager to leave cause I had a charged digital camera, it was midday and I was itiching to at least try to recreate Saturday's stroll. Unfortunately, it just wasn't the same (and no, eating your food doesn't guarantee perfect weather).
















After this, I trudged back up to the hotel, packed my things, wrote and mailed my postcards at the airport and slept the entire flight home.

Cheers.