Luck is where you find it

Celebrating one year in Portugal

Feijão meets its cousin, “Buzz”

We were walking back to the car from a shopping excursion to El Corte Ingles in Lisbon, when Efti exclaimed, “oh no!”  

“What?”, I asked. My mind was wandering as we walked along the pleasant sidewalk under the shade trees. 

“That!” she pointed. 

We looked where she was pointing, and could see that Feijão was surrounded by police tape. 

That is never a good thing. 

Ever. 

We quickened our pace. As we drew closer, the scene came into view. A large limb had broken off of a mature pine tree which stood over the sidewalk and crushed a number of cars. I had chosen that spot to park precisely because of the shade.

An owner of one of the crushed cars consults with a police officer

Feijão, miraculously, sat untouched. We shook our heads at the carnage, snapped a couple quick pics, and barely had time to get into the car before the tree crews pulled up. We quickly hightailed it back into the intense Lisbon traffic. 

Feijão sits just at the edge of chaos, unperturbed by it all.

We were lucky that I had chosen the parking spot on the end, rather than the first one we saw, which was where the most damaged car was. Given the police presence, I was also relieved that I had taken great care to keep our parking payment current via an app. We had seen, during our walks along the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, that it was home to expensive, fashionable shops, high-end hotels, and a vicious parking enforcement organization that had no qualms with booting and caution-taping the automobile toys of the rich and famous. We had seen Range Rovers, Mercedes, and Lamborghinis with boots and encircled with tape. Our Portuguese friends say that staying only 1 minute past your parking time could get your car booted and taped off, and hundreds of Euros in fines might get it unlocked in a few hours, but certainly not quickly or cheaply. 

A very unhappy Mercedes owner calls to get his car unbooted.

In order to avoid that potential hassle, we had chosen a parking spot a bit further away from Avenida da Liberdade, up along the side of the Parque Eduardo VII, a picturesque park with topiary, expansive views of the city and the Tagus river and many pleasant walking paths to explore. Parking is always hard to find in Lisbon, and my typical hack of finding an EV charger to charge up the car has started to become less and less of a hack, as more EVs mean more in-use chargers. A good problem!

Efti & Rustam at Parque Eduardo VII, Lisbon

We were in Lisbon on March 9th to watch my favorite English Premier team, Arsenal, take on Sporting Club Portugal (SCP) in a Europa League Round of 16 match. It was the first Arsenal match I had been to in person, and also my first SCP match. We had a great time, even though we were not sitting in the official Arsenal supporters section. As usual, Portuguese people are very kind and welcoming, and we received no heckling at all. The game was back and forth: Arsenal went up 1-0, gave up two goals to go down 1-2, but managed to grab a lucky equalizer and hold on for a 2-2 draw. We chose to ride the train to the match, knowing that driving and parking was tough in Lisbon, and luckily, despite a rail strike, we managed to get to the game and back to our friend’s place in Carcavelos without much delay.

Come on You Gunners! My first ever live, in-person Arsenal match, at Estádio José Alvalade, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal

As luck would have it, on our way back out of Lisbon, going back to Coimbra, we found a place to charge and park near an area we wanted to explore more. There is a famous Portuguese “found objects” artist, Bordalo II, who has done some beautiful art around Coimbra, and we were eager to see more of his work. He built a giant Iberian Lynx on the Lisbon waterfront in 2019 out of garbage bins. It did not disappoint. We were also lucky enough to find one of the best signed and well-maintained bank of EV chargers we’ve seen. Top-notch. 

Efti Levitates in front of “Iberian Lynx”, by Bordalo II

We strongly believe in the power of (dark) chocolate to lift our mood and serve as our “daily vitamins,” so when we heard about the chocolate festival in our favorite little medieval city of Obidos, we couldn’t pass up the chance to visit. We went with some friends, and despite only buying a few pieces, we ended up eating entirely too much chocolate just from all of the samples. There were more types and flavors of chocolate than one could even dream up, and despite only sampling the dark chocolate (our favorites) we almost had to roll ourselves out of Obidos’s famous front gate on our way home. 

A carved chocolate statue of, who else, Lucky Luke

It was a good thing we had too much to eat at the chocolate festival, because the next day we went to the Bussaco Palace Hotel for lunch. It’s a famous landmark near Luso, a town famous for its excellent springwater, and located in the center of the Buçaco National Forest. The only way to go inside the hotel is to be a guest at the hotel, or to eat in the restaurant. We decided that lunch couldn’t be too expensive, so we’d try it out. 

An ornately-carved balcony at the Bussaco Palace Hotel

Our friend ordered the gazpacho, described as “whey, crab, Port wine roe, coriander, olive oil”. The rest of us ordered some of the other fresh options. Gazpacho is a cold soup made of raw, blended vegetables. It originated in southern Spain and is eaten during hot summers, since it is refreshing and cool.

When the waiter arrived with the soup, he had a bit of a smirk on his face. He set down a bowl, about the size of a small teacup, and poured the tiny bit of liquid from an elegant (but small) pitcher. When the bowl was only half full, he completed the pour, and declared “that’s all” (“e tudo”).

We all gaped at the tiny bowl of cold soup - a bit of liquid, two small fish roe, tiny bits of crab, and some small greens. That was it.

We burst out in laughter at the absurdity.

Luckily, we had ordered the cheese board as a starter, and we had protested when they tried to clear it away, since there was still bread and cheese left. We pushed the rest of the cheese and bread to our poor friend, as he pondered just how to eat this minuscule bit of cold soup and feel satisfied. We laughed about his absurd soup adventure for the rest of their visit.

A kooky suit of armor guards the staircase. His eyes light up.

In the end, we decided that the cost of the extravagant and un-fulfilling lunch was simply the entrance fee to a beautiful and historic museum/hotel/palace. The Palace was built between 1888 and 1907, and was commissioned by King Charles I of Portugal as a royal retreat. It is grand, sweeping, ornate, and feels every bit as royal and pompous as it was intended to be. It has overwrought paintings and azulejos on all the walls, inside and out, grand staircases, sumptuous carpets, ornately-carved marble on every imaginable surface, and even a whimsical coat of armor to guard the staircase. We paid our bill and proceeded to enjoy our self-guided tour of the building. 

The Pedro & Inez pedestrian bridge reflects with the sky on the glassy surface of the Mondego River

It is our one-year anniversary here in Coimbra, Portugal. We have learned to slow down, to enjoy the weather, the experience of friends, and of just enjoying a cup of coffee and watching the world go by. We sat on a bench on the riverbank recently, soaking up the early spring sunshine, and were acutely aware of just how lucky we are. 

We live in a beautiful place, with friendly, welcoming people. We have learned some of the language (we just finished our “A2” language class), and feel acclimated to the culture.

The graduates of the A1 and A2 Portuguese language class, on a tour of the University of Coimbra pose in an old (and still used) classroom.

We know our way around, and frequently chose to walk to most of our destinations, or sometimes just walk without a destination in mind. We always feel safe, and the number of people who greet you with a smile and a “Bom dia!” always bring a smile to the face. 

We’re lucky. We’ve made a lot of the luck, but we’re lucky nonetheless. 

The winner’s stand for a recent national team rowing competition, held on the Mondego River, with Coimbra in the background.