Thursday, March 14, 2002, 08.00 am
Weather: rain, sun, who knows? Wait 5 minutes...
Location: coffee shop next to Pensão Prata

I can´t believe how much I´ve lived and experienced in the last four days! Last Saturday seems an eternity ago. And it seemed that way last night when I walked up the hill to the restaurant where I ate on Sunday. Everything looked familiar, but fresh, as though I were returning to a town where I used to live and was seeing old haunts again. A very strange feeling indeed.

This time I arrived at 7:30, ahead of the dinner crowds, and was immediately recognized and seated at the same table as though I´d been a regular there for years. Now, I had the basic vocabulary to choose between the fish and meat specials, and understand that the fish was grilled and came with a mixed salad and potatoes. I´d also been here long enough to know that the tempting bread rolls would add an extra €1.50 to the bill, and to patiently sip my vinho branco while I waited for my meal. Which was delicious, though the fish came on the bone so it took some time to eat.

As I was enjoying a coffee to ensure that I wouldn´t fall asleep at the ballet, a young englishman came in and apologetically asked for a table for one, in English. The owner clearly (to my ears, anyway) indicated in Portugese that his establishment only had one table for one, and that I was sitting at it but would likely be leaving in 5 minutes. All the English guy heard was the rejection of the tone, and he left like a scalded cat, clearly distressed. I felt sorry for him, but also somewhat superior in my newfound ability to communicate in Portugese. (Plus, even on Sunday I would have tried a "hello" in Portugese before asking if we could speak English!)

After dinner, I returned to the Gulbenkian Centre for the ballet. The hall was quite similar to the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, though its acoustics were at least clear from where I was sitting, about halfway back. I was seated next to an American student and her family, over from North Carolina for a week. We passed the time until the show started, and during the intermission, discussing our trips, where else we´d been, the ballet, cell phones in Europe (don´t recall how that topic started) and the weather. We both concluded that it had been upwards of a decade since the last time we´d seen a ballet. In my case, the last dance troup I remember seeing was La La La Human Steps from Montreal, and that was in 1992.

The ballet Gulbenkian presented two modern works, both excellent. The first was an exploration of the solitude of night, title "Lunar, o dia fragmentado", with an interesting score by Koen Brandt. The second featured a quartet of singers from Naples who sang traditional Neapolitan songs, to which the choreographer had set a modern interpretation of traditional dances and more stylized solo and subgroup sets. This was titled "Cantata". The ballet company was excellent, though their energy and fluid grace was more consistant than their timing. I must go to the ballet more often. I wonder if it´s a function of age that my appreciation of the energy and youthfulness of dance has increased?

This morning I packed my bags and prepared to check out of the Pensão Prata. My train to Evora isn´t until 2:40pm, so I´ve dumped my main pack for the morning and will have a nice quiet stroll (rain permitting) in search of a couple of small gaps in my equipment list, chief among them a "one size fits all" sink plug for laundry days. I´m feeling good about how much of Lisbon I´ve been able to enjoy in my short stay here, and think I´ve earned a break from museums!
posted by Tom at 8:02 AM | link |