Lisbon Day 2

I’m generally opposed to doing anything educational on these trips, but today I opted to go on a bike tour of Lisbon. It’s the highlight of my trip so far, primarily because I got to ride a bike on terrifyingly steep, narrow winding streets full of people and animals. But I also learned some things. Despite everything I’d always believed, it turns out that learning new things can be fun!

The bike ride looked like this.















And this – which is actually a very terrible video, but in all the pretty areas we rode through I really needed to keep both hands on the bike. I will have better videos later in the trip when I'm on less scary roads.

These are a few of the things I learned:

1. On the day that I get to Europe, if I take a short nap and go to sleep early instead of walking around all day getting nothing to eat or drink except for bar food and alcohol at 11:00 at night, I will be much better prepared for day 2.

2. Portugal only became a democracy in 1974. Which seemed like history to the tour leader but seems like just the day before yesterday to me.


3. The Portuguese national pastry Patel de Nata (which along with sardines comprise the two
keystone culinary dishes of Portugal) is basically custard in dough. It was invented by the poor people who used to have to starch the priests’ robes using egg whites. One day one of them thought “Hey, call me crazy, but maybe there’s something useful we can do with all of the egg yolks we don’t need for doing the laundry.” And those yolks went right into Patel de Nata, where they have been raising cholesterol ever since.

Every pastelería has its special secret Patel de Nata recipe and people living in Lisbon all have their favorite Nata place. The picture at left shows a bunch of hipsters waiting in line at 10:00 at night to buy a few artisanal Patel de Natas (they pleaded with me to hang out with them, but I just don't have time right now).  However, I’ve eaten a few myself in the interest of blending in.










The store at right is called The Fantastic World of Portuguese Sardines. I'm not sure what they sell, but the messaging is pretty clear. On a side note, the third major component of the triumvirate of Portuguese cultural staples is cork. It’s hard to think of any single keepsake that could incorporate all three (Natas, sardines and cork) but I did see lots of sardine-shaped cork souvenirs, like bookmarks, so . . . good job Portugal.



4. There is a mild sub-surface enmity between Portugal and Spain, probably because in the old days Spain kept invading Portugal in attempts to conquer it (these Portuguese really know how to hold a grudge). This makes it not the best place to practice my Spanish. I have finally found a country where the natives prefer Americans to something.

And now I’m packing to leave Lisbon. Despite the deep and complex relationship Lisbon and I have developed in the roughly 24 hours I have been here, Lisbon still has some secrets. Like,

1. In almost every public parking lot there is a disheveled man pointing out available spaces to people driving in. Is that a job, or is it more like when I go to Baltimore sometimes and a guy walks up and explains that I’m not in the best neighborhood but for $5.00 he’ll hang around and make sure nothing happens to my car?

2. There is a large orange metal suspension bridge here, built by the same San Francisco company that built the Golden Gate Bridge, and it looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge but it’s smaller. There is a Christ the Redeemer statute on a hill in Lisbon that is a replica of the Christ the Redeemer statue on the hill in Rio de Janeiro, but the Lisbon one is smaller. There is a large park in Lisbon that people commonly refer to as “Central Park,” because it reminds them of Central Park in New York, but it’s . . . smaller. What does this all mean?

3. A woman with a bag of bird seed goes to a tiny park surrounded by busy roads. She is immediately besieged by pigeons. And geese, roosters and a peacock. No one bats an eye.





Solving these puzzles will have to wait for my next visit; tomorrow I’m off to the Spanish border to start my bike ride.