Day Five – Seeing Out the Year

Day Five – Seeing Out the Year (December 31, 2010)

The morning dawned brightly and extremely early. Fortunately, our stylish room is fitted with electronic blackout blinds, so we missed this wonder of nature, instead sleeping off what would probably have been pretty good hangovers. Actually, if truth be told, I suspect that dawn would have arrived with more of a wet slurp than a bright *ding* - the rain was back and the clouds were dark and as threatening as a group of hoodie-wearing large men at the end of an unlit alley at night in an unfamiliar city for a man wearing a suit of money (my ability to extend metaphors beyond the realm of the believable continues to astound me).

After our morning ablutions, we made our way rather more steadily than would have been expected to the metro station, and from there to the Terreiro do Paço station. This would be setting-off point for a day of walking up and down large hills and stairways – we were off to explore the Alfama neighbourhood – the hilly side of the city that escaped destruction in the earthquake of 1755 that levelled most of the city.

We hadn’t had breakfast yet, or even my morning coffee, so our first and most important mission was to find a pasta store (they don’t actually sell pasta, however the Portuguese for pastry shop- pastelaria- looks like it should mean pasta store, so that’s what we call them – much confusion when we first arrived as I couldn’t figure out why a non-Italian city should have so many pasta shops...). We found a place just below the large cathedral oddly called Sé – I ordered a latte and a sausage in a bun, and Jamie went for a spinach thing and also a latte.

One of the things that always confuses me when travelling is the procedure for paying for food (not in restaurants, that doesn’t really change). In London, the rule at pubs, coffee shops, and pretty much everywhere else is that you pay before you eat or drink. In Portugal, even at coffee shops, it seems that you eat and drink, then pay afterwards. As they say, the exception proves the rule, and this particular pasta shop was the exception. We ordered, received requested coffees and snacks, and went to sit down and eat. In the mean time, the queue got quite large and the staff was very busy serving all the various customers. When we were finished, we joined the large queue and discovered that we probably should have paid at the start, as everyone seemed very confused as to why we hadn’t actually done just that, and it took forever to find someone to whom we could give money.

From this inauspicious beginning, we looked forward to a good day. We walked up the hill, taking a quick look at the Sé cathedral, and then continued further up to a nice viewpoint to take some photos. The viewpoint at the top of Alfama is quite scenic and presents a very good view over Lisbon. At this point it started to drizzle again, so we walked down the hill a ways looking for somewhere to take shelter from the impending downpour (we’d learned our lesson yesterday). We found refuge in a tram shelter and waited out what turned out to just be a light drizzle.
For reasons that we cannot now explain, we felt it would be a good idea to get on the next tram that arrived, despite the fact that it was going entirely the wrong way. We went one stop before deciding that going DOWN the hill was counterproductive, given our plans for the day. We got off the tram and retraced our steps up the same bloody hill to the outlook, where we turned left and found the castle at the very top of the hill. We also found a wine bar that Jamie had heard about just below the castle, and felt that it was time for a beverage and a bite of lunch.

We were almost the only people in the Wine Bar do Castello when we first arrived, and had an excellent chat with the owner about what wines we might enjoy. He poured us two excellent and very generous first glasses; I love the tendency of the Portuguese to feel the need to fill wine glasses to their appropriate level, rather that the British tendency to measure to an exact and specific pre-determined volume. We also ordered a plate of regional black pork products and Portuguese cheeses.

We spent a highly enjoyable few hours trying several different wines, including a 15-year old port for me. The invasion of the bar by a large group of extremely loud and apparently hideously rich French couldn’t even dampen our spirits. After our mostly liquid lunch, we stumbled rather unsteadily back up the castle to wander around the battlements and take more photos.

I have to be honest – after touring various castles in various parts of Europe, they all sort of start to look the same. High walls, steep stairways, fantastic views as they seemed to be obsessed with finding the tallest bloody hill they could to build interesting things on the top of. We looked around for a while and took a large number of shots before deciding that it was time to call it a day. We headed back down the hill, but being very clever, we chose a different path down than we’d taken up, so that we could see more of the area.

We almost immediately got fairly lost. This actually worked out in our favour, as we found a local little store that sold wine (amongst other things), and then even better, a non-touristy little bar to rest our feet and recuperate. A litre of beer and two glasses of wine later, they appeared to want to close down, as it was getting fairly late on New Year’s Eves, so we left. The general rule in Alfama apparently is when in doubt, go down (a good rule at all times I would have thought), so we found the nearest hilly street and walked down it.

In time, following this downhill theory, we arrived at the metro station and from there we made it back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before our New Year’s dinner.
Jamie had found a recommended restaurant that turned out to be only two blocks from the Marquês de Pombol station, which is just one station from us on the metro. Of course, it is up a bloody great hill, but that seems to be expected around here. We arrived somewhat apprehensively 10 minutes early at 8:50, but they seemed to take this in their stride and seated us immediately without making us stand around at all.
Dinner was very good, although some of the dishes missed their mark a little bit.

We also had the wine pairing that was offered, but soon realized that they didn’t have a proper sommelier on staff, as the wines seemed like somewhat odd choices, the oddest being a light and citrusy white to pair with a pork cheek braised in red wine in a potato soup. Very odd.

They also had some trouble with timing – it had been advertized as a New Year’s Eve dinner, with champagne to be served at midnight, however we were done just after 11pm. We asked if we could have our champagne and pay early, as we thought we might make it into Central Lisbon to see the New Years in. To their credit, they not only allowed us to pay early, but gave us a half bottle of the champagne that we were meant to have at midnight to take with us – fantastic service if you ask me.

By the time we’d organized all this and paid the bill, it was just after 11:30, so we rushed back down the great bloody hill to the metro station, and crammed into the first train that arrived. I can tell you that the Lisbonians have something to learn about crowded metro trains, as it wasn’t really busy at all by London rush hour standards – I could still breath for example.

We eventually got to the Terreiro do Paço station and rushed up the stairs with everyone else. We’d made it to the Praça do Comércio in time to see the final countdown for midnight. The centre of Lisbon was absolutely packed with surprisingly well behaved Lisbonians. We took our place as close to the centre of the square as we could get and waited with the rest of Lisbon for the final minutes of the year.

The countdown began, and the air was electric. Midnight came, and the celebration really began. Yelling and shouting from all side, music blasting from the speakers, and the most impressive display of festive fireworks rang out over the city for at least ten minutes. I’ve never seen such a happy group of people, everyone smiling, hugging, smoking quite a lot of pot from the smell of it, champagne, singing, dancing. A wonderful way to ring in the New Year.

Jamie had somewhat naively thought that we might be able to take the metro back home, or at least catch a bus. Silly girl. We walked with the crowd through the centre of town, cheering and laughing. It soon became clear that we would have to walk back to the hotel, which wouldn’t have been that big a deal as it’s only two or three kilometres except that we were a bit drunk and IT’S UPHILL THE WHOLE BLOODY WAY! Why is everything in this city up a hill?

A tiring hour later we made it back to the Sheraton. We popped a final bottle of what turned out to be really crap champagne and settled in for the evening. Maybe not the way we normally spend our new year’s eve, but one of the best I can remember.