Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Today was my last day in Lisbon. I move on to Porto tomorrow. I had specific plans for today and all of them got changed. I’m sorry I missed the things I didn’t get to see, but I was rewarded with things I hadn’t planned on seeing.
I realized last night when I started to make plans for today that many monuments and sights are closed on Monday. I had wanted to see the Jeronimos Monastery but it is closed on Mondays, however it is right next to the Palace, so I thought I would go there, at least. The Archaeological Institute is also in the same area. All of them are a few miles away from where I’m staying, so I knew it would take some planning for how to get there. I’ve seen signs that there’s a metro system and I even have the Metro map, but in the four days I’ve walked around I haven’t seen a single Metro Station. Buses and Trams go by regularly, seemingly everywhere. I got on one yesterday and paid 3 Euros; at the next stop - one block later, everyone got off the bus and I continued to sit there. The bus driver said something to me in Portuguese. I asked if he could repeat it in English. With grand hand and arm gestures, he basically told me to get off the bus. So, I was averse to paying another 3 Euros to end up not going where I thought I’d be going. I was also not terribly interested in walking 5 miles to get there, let alone getting back. As much as I hated to do it, I ended up taking a taxi.
When I arrived, there were police officers everywhere and the taxi couldn’t drop me off, so he dropped me nearby. In the moment I wondered if I should even get out, but curiosity got the better of me and I wandered closer. It ended up that the Palace was closed as well and people were lining the streets. A red carpet was rolled out from the door of the Palace and the Calvary started arriving. Several large black sedans pulled up and parked nearby. The person next to me asked one of the police officers in English what was going on. He said that the President of Slovenia was in a meeting with the President of Portugal.
The Archaeological Institute is undergoing some reconstruction/remodeling, so it was also closed.
I had completely forgotten that a friend of mine had suggested that I go to the Coach Museum until I passed it on my way to find a taxi back. Thankfully, part of it was open. They have built a brand new building for it and are in the process of moving the collection.
Lisbon is a study in contrasts. Here is a picture of some not so pretty areas which are scattered throughout the city. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of places where there are abandoned buildings next to hip/expensive establishments.
Even these older areas that are not full of graffiti, feel depressed and lonely compared to the same type of areas in Madrid or Barcelona in Spain.
But there’s always another beautiful church around the corner, regardless of the condition of the neighborhood.
I really needed to have a larger portion of those eggs and sausages I had on the food tour, as it was just a taste that evening, so I went back to the restaurant where we got them. It was not on the menu, so I showed them the text note that I wrote myself about the dish (ovos mexidos with farinheira) and they were happy to make it for me! I definitely need a recipe for this and learn how to make it.
I stopped for a gelato in a tiny little shop after lunch. I ordered the coconut. One of the best gelato’s I’ve had. YUM!
There’s a bookstore that’s also a restaurant. It’s very cool. I didn’t eat there, but thought it was neat.
I ordered Grilled Golden (whatever this is); it came with potatoes and broccoli. The fish was cooked to perfection! Absolutely delicious. And caramel mousse. They had three different flavors of mousse, so I figured this might be the best option. It was just ok.
I had done some research back home about food insecurities in Europe and what various agencies/groups are doing about it. One of the organizations that I learned about in Lisbon is called Impact House. I had contacted them about meeting and learning about what their organization did while I was in town. The woman I had spoken to had forgotten that I was visiting today when I called her this morning to confirm and asked if I could come later this week. Since that isn’t possible, she spent some time with me over the phone and directed me to their website. I had hoped to see their place in person, however I learned a lot from our conversation and found out that the organization is a LOT bigger than I had thought.
First, in 2020, when the last census was done, they were able to include on the form some questions about housing and food insecurities on it. Just over 8,000 people in Lisbon marked on their census form that they were homeless and 19% indicated that they did not have enough food to eat in any given month. Impact House is trying to address both of these issues, as well as affordable housing for those who are just on the edge of becoming homeless or working their way out of homelessness. They are also trying to deal with an unemployment rate of 7% in Lisbon.
Impact House offers a number of programs. They have a hostel type of temporary housing for clients and guests. It is free for clients for up to a week at a time, but they must be looking for work while they are there and they get a volunteer advocate who helps them through the system. They also offer free Continental Breakfasts for anyone in need. They have a cooked lunch and dinner for 10 Euros each. The meals are cooked from scratch by the Impact Moms with food recovered from grocery stores and restaurants. Impact House has a volunteer internship program where the volunteer pays Impact for the experience - prices range from about 300 Euros to 1000 Euros each week. Multiple weeks, the price is greatly reduced! They also have something called ImpactTrip where you can pay to go on a trip anywhere in the world. The proceeds go to help pay for their programs.
Impact House was created to help alleviate poverty and food insecurities in Lisbon and they feel that their contribution is helping greatly. The political stance has changed too. The current president is committed to 43 Billion Euros between now and 2030 to help end homelessness in Lisbon.
I’m headed to Porto in the morning.
I’ll leave you with these pictures. Where am I? San Francisco or Lisbon?
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