Graffiti, Eight Flights of Stairs and Really Flaky Pastries

You've all seen enough castles and statutes, right?

Then how about some of Lisbon's graffiti? "It's everywhere," Carolina says as she gestures widely from the car. She and her boyfriend, Marcos, drove me around after picking me up at the airport at 8 am (since I had five hours until I could check into my airbnb). But the best graffiti is right next to my apartment, up a narrow staircase that leads to more apartments. I found myself there with several Chinese tourists, who also made up most of the line outside of the famous Pasteis del Belem - where the best pastries in Lisbon are sold - and which was our first stop this morning.

"For some reason, the Chinese LOVE these pastries," says Marcos. I tell them it's probably because something that looks similar is sold in China - at least there is that custard tart that Brian referred to in the last post's comments in Seattle's International District - but that these taste nothing like those. These are fluffy and custardy and are contained inside the ultimate flaky, crispy crust. Those - well, they are yellow "somethings" that are contained in cold, soggy dough. So the Chinese are discovering the divine kind, and I'm really lucky that these two took me to taste the divine of the divine first. I will run experiments so I can report on the quality of the others, all over the city.


Carolina and Marcos dropped me off near the river with two hours left to wander (my airbnb host's friend picked up my luggage at the airport. "It will be waiting for you upstairs at 13:00," he told me). So I went to the Modern Design Museum, hiked up to the castle (just five minutes from my apartment), then checked out the grocery store and bought European yogurt, always a highlight. By the time I got up the eight flights of stairs to my apartment (the picture is taken from the ground floor looking up), I had decided that Pam's "No Jet Lag" pills don't work - at least not after being up at 4 in Seattle with a five-hour layover in Newark and flying all night. So I just woke up from a two-hour nap, and am ready to go back out. Lisbon is beautiful, and I'm staying right in the heart of it. Here's a view similar to the one from my apartment window - lots of red rooftops:

I really enjoyed meeting Carolina after months of intermittent emails. She had been volunteering for IPAV until they received their grant in October, when she became a full-time, paid employee. She embodies everything you hear about Portugese people: she is warm and laughs easily. We talked a bit about the program that will take place on Wednesday - enough for me to know that she is very passionate about her students. It's going to be a great week, filled with many good stories and flaky pastries. I am feeling very lucky.