déjà vu

One of the decisive factors in the Spain-France decision was proximity to Portugal. The possibility of hopping on a bus in Don Benito and hopping off a few hours later in Lisbon tipped the scales in favour of Spain. And so, when the All-Saints'-Day long weekend rolled around at the beginning of November, it was to Lisbon I hopped.

These two lovely ladies took up the invitation to stay at my parents' place. (I call it my parents' house but that's really just a cover for the building's secret identity as a B&B.)

A and I left from Spain on Wednesday after school; J flew in from Paris on Friday morning.

I couldn't shake the feeling of déjà vu. The combination of the absurdly warm weather (24 degrees every day...!) and tour-guiding threw me back to my summer of visitors. We hit up the main spots -- Belém, Chiado and the Baixa, Bairro Alto, the Castle and Alfama, my grandmother's house in Alenquer.

We soaked up plenty of the famed Lisbon light -- at its most beautiful at the cloister and tower in Belém. We walked by the bar in bairro alto were I spent so many nights with my Portuguese class friends, had coffee and pastries at the café around the corner, ate at the usual restaurant in the park.


But it wasn't all replay. A and I spent a chilly evening washing down roast chestnuts with agua pé in a beautifully restored country house belonging to friends of my cousin. We satisfied our hunger for the arts with a visit to the newest contemporary art gallery and box seats at Lisbon's opera house for Portuguese choreographer Olga Roriz's current show (and photographed ourselves in the theatre washroom, in gleeful silliness).

Even the streets I know had some surprises for us. We walked into a film shoot on our way to one of the downtown lookouts. We found a nifty little store where the guy behind the counter made us fun earings. A friend, P, took us to a delicious vegetarian restaurant for dinner (that's two, #1!).

It was a familiar weekend -- cozy, comfortable, calming. Fragments of home: hanging out with J, being pampered by my grandmother, coffee with old friends, a room that will always be mine (at least until my parents get tired of me).

Fancy that, me feeling at home somewhere....

More photos here.