Location: Rossio station coffee shop
Weather: high cloud with tiny sunny holes

After the coffee yesterday evening I returned to the restaurant I´d seen earlier. Now, it didn´t seem like such a draw: while its sign promised Fado (the local mournful singing that is apparently the window to Portugal´s soul but is more likely now a sappy tourist entrapment), there was no music in evidence, nor any other guests, which I took to be a worrying sign. Fortunately, I was right across the street from a tiny restaurant, whose closed door had failed to catch my eye earlier in the day. Now, the door was wide open and the room inside packed with people. Two more, obviously locals in the know, where waiting outside for their chance at a table. I joined the queue.

What I ended up with, after a forty minute wait, was a delicious pork loin in herbed butter, with tasty french fries, some fresh lettuce and tomato, fresh rolls with butter, and a small personal pitcher of "vino tinto" - red wine. This feast (for the portions were massive and the wine generous and very tasty) put me back €12.75, or about C$18. Not at all bad!

By the end of my meal I was falling over with fatigue. I walked back to the Pensão, and was very shortly in bed, where I fell fast asleep for about three hours. I woke to a rumbling streetcar and the Pensão´s doorbell down the hall. It was 12:30. I slept fitfully for the rest of the night. When my alarm went off this morning (6:30) my body was finally ready for a deep sleep again, but in the interests of beating jet lag I forced myself up, into the shower, and out the door. Breakfast turned out to be right next door, a little café that served me an almond croissant and café com leite which got me on my way.

Stop number 2 was the Rossio train station. It took some hunting: it´s on the side of the hill above an ornate but poorly labelled entrance. The trains are quite out of sight from the street level, and I went past the building twice before deciding I´d found the right place. Once I located the ticket office I ran into a further difficulty: the only office open is for local trains out of this station only, and the other office to which I was directed is firmly shut.

Since I´m in no particular hurry, I decided this was a good time for another coffee and a pause to fill in the diary.
posted by Tom at 12:38 PM | link |