My Lisboa!

(this was long overdue.)

While everyone blogged about their adventures *in* Lisboa, mine started even before I got there (and not in a good way). It began with, of course, my usual conundrums of getting a visa, as I discovered there is no Portuguese embassy in Dhaka and in order to get a visa I would have to fly to Delhi. Let's just say that didn't suit my schedule. :) Now the way to circumvent that is to get a visa from any other of the schengen state embassies, namely dutch, french or italian. The italian is supposed to be the most lenient (don't know why), so I applied there (which involved heaps and heaps of paperwork) and waited with bated breath and crossed fingers. now that's only the visa, then began travel problems of getting flights and connections. if I get an italian visa then italy has to be my port of entry, and I couldn't get a connection to lisbon, at least not from Dhaka. and when I finally did get something online, the stupid site wouldn't accept my amercian credit card even though it's Visa. seriously, I was running across the strangest problems, and in the meantime driving all my friends (Bengali and Portuguese) up the wall with my travel planning and qualms therein. I'm actually so accustomed to traveling with every single detail planned out beforehand that this was a good experience for me. So with my halfbaked plans I finally flew on the 2nd of June (I think), and I actually had a presentation that morning, ran home, de-'saari'ed, grabbed my suitcase and passport and rushed to the airport. after a 7 hour layover in dubai and another 7 hour layover in milan, I finally FINALLY reached lisboa, and all my troubles and stress melted away to Ana's beautiful smile, her gorgeous apartment on rua do saco, Rui and Su's warm welcoming hugs, beautiful and unusual tiled architecture, vivid mirradouros, the amazing neighbourhood of alfama, a bright fuchsia bougainvillea tree, vintage trams that go up and down, the stunning view from rui and su's apartment, the amazingly steep staircases, church bells that won't let you lose track of time, ana's enchanting marionettes that hang over the doorway and lovely little stories, su's superb parking skills and a fabulous new haircut, rui forever in stripes, warm dinner with friends and yummy bacalhau à brás, the best port wine I've ever tasted, requejão with honey and groselha, decorating the patio for santa antonia, fado music wafting here and there, the most delicious grilled sardines with sangria on a warm afternoon, driving to and fro from expo(parque das nacões) and nearly losing Mac the Ripper (goodness) in rushing to the feira do livro, watching little pidgeons dunk their heads into the waterspouts at praça martim moniz, meeting an interesting painter at castelo são jorge whose boyfriend can speak Bengali, menus that start with fish items, fat fluffy cats sitting contentedly under every hedge or bush, beautiful red-roofed houses spread out at hitherto heights reflecting the funky terrain, the amazingly ornate terrreira do paço, exploring belém and visiting le corbusier's mesmerising exhibition, taking a wonderful nap on the sunlit grass in jardim gulbenkian, rushing to Sisimbra and then rushing back to cheer for Portugal and watch them win against turkey:), failing to read the map and getting lost only to find fellow bangladeshis and indians at every corner ready to help, sweet conversations with ana, a breathtaking half molten church, taking the train to Sintra to get lost in the grottoes and secret passages of Quinta da Regaleira, and my favourites - talking the night away with Ana, going to sleep in Rui and Su's place staring into the stars, and of course Pastéis de Belém. :) :) :)