Costa da Caparica
As a person who grew up near beaches, I’ve never really experienced the novelty of sitting on the sand or paddling in the sea. There is some beautiful coastline in my home town, but to me I got more pleasure from a walk along the coastal path rather than bathing on the beach itself. For the Portuguese, the beach seems to be much more of a fixture in people’s lives than it is for the English. The first time I went to a beach in Portugal must have been last April, when the weather starts getting what an English person such as myself would call ‘summery’. I went with friends and it was an event because we hadn’t been together before and clearly it was our first opportunity to do so since I had arrived in January.
That was about fourteen months ago and I guess it was only a matter of time before my perspective of the beach would change. Take a look at any guidebook or website related to Lisbon and it will tell you that it is the only European capital city to be located so close to so many beaches. Not only is this true, Lisbon also has the warmest climate of any capital city in Europe. So why have I never really seen the fascination like so many of my fellow countrymen?
Around six weeks ago, on a sleepy Saturday afternoon, I went to a beach with an English friend. It was about thirty degrees. We visited a beach called Praia da Nova Vaga, which is set aside specifically for kite surfing. This is entirely possible as this particular beach is part of a coastline that stretches across many, many kilometres. This stretch is known as Costa da Caparica.
Location of Costa da Caparica, south of Lisbon
Costa da Caparica is located just minutes away from the south side of the 25. Abril bridge which stretches across the River Tagus. Although it is clearly not the only choice of beaches near to Lisbon (there are still many others), it is one of the most popular areas. I’m mentioning it now because although I’ve visited it before, I’ve never seen the real charm of it.
To get to Costa da Caparica from Lisbon, you can cross the 25. Abril bridge by car.
The ‘main’ beaches of Costa are located near the town itself and are the most popular on the stretch. Walk around the sands and beach restaurants and you’ll hear a wide variety of languages; these beaches are popular with both locals and tourists. However, more recently I’ve been visiting some beaches that are located a few more kilometres down the sand. These quieter beaches are accessible by a small train that runs in the summer down the coast or by a small road. Fortunately for me ,I’ve been lucky enough to experience these beaches with friends who have been kind enough to drive me directly there.
The small train which transports passengers to the more distant beaches of Costa.
Yesterday, myself and a couple of Polish friends visited a beach named Praia Cabana do Pescador. The weather was beautiful; pure, cloudless sunshine with a light breeze which meant it didn’t feel too hot. I mentioned this beach in a previous post and what makes it special is not only the quietness of it, it also has a beautiful café joined to it. (Link below.) The café provides loungers, beanbag-like things to rest on and anybody can use them on the beach. The interior of the café looks out on to the beach and must be a great place to be at night. (It’s on my to-do list!)
Inside 'Delmare Café' looking out to the beach.
Praia Cabana do Pescador
Although the sea can be relatively choppy, it’s perfectly possible to bathe and have fun in the waves and a great thing about a lot of the beaches at this end of the coast is that, as the sea meets the land, there are sand hills, meaning as the tide goes in and out, some sea water is deposited and remains in the dip as a natural pool and can actually become quite warm under the sun. The two times that I have visited this specific beach, I’ve indulged in a beautiful fruit salad from the café. Eaten on the beach, it’s just beautiful.
Heaven on a plate. Last time even had pineapple!
Anyone visiting Lisbon and the surrounding area specifically for the beaches should take the time to move away from the most popular areas and relax on the quieter beaches that are slightly more difficult to access.
The quieter areas of Costa, along with Troía lagoon (located near Setúbal), are two reasons why I am slowly converting from a beach-sceptic to a true beach-bum!
Links:
http://www.guiadacidade.pt/pt/poi-praia-da-cabana-do-pescador-costa-da-caparica-14091
Zoo and Food
Two posts in two days. See? I can maintain a blog!
Today was a pleasant enough day at work. The courses I teach are ending now so I am giving a lot of revision lessons. I enjoy my Saturday classes a lot, especially since my kids are really bright kids and my adults are a good laugh and there’s a really informal atmosphere in the classroom. Today, amid all the grammar, we had a chat about the food here. I made some, shall we say, ‘interesting’ points about a few things (rabbits, snails, organs) to get some English out of them. It’s funny how much English a ridiculous conversation can produce in a class; I think I got conversation from every student about having to look a crab in the eye in the tank before you choose which one you want killed and opened up for you to eat.
Anyway, I finish work at 1.30pm on a Saturday and since I can never sleep well on a Friday night, I was whacked. Unless I nap in the afternoon, I rarely do much in the way of active stuff and today was no exception. Therefore, with the day being too bright and sunny to squander indoors, I headed just down the road to Lisbon zoo with a book and some marking. The zoo is quite a nice place to chill out in at times because there’s a large area with monkeys, birds, crocodiles etc, which is free to enter, and there was a really quiet cafe on the water to relax in.
The quiet cafe on the water in the free part of the zoo
I didn’t stay for too long but it was nice to get out and catch some sun.
The cafe
June has been a surprisingly ‘cool’ month so far (not much above 20-25 degrees so far) but today seems a little warmer. Tomorrow should be another immaculate day so I’ll try and get to a beach. Last week I visited a beach on Costa da Caparica called ‘Praia Cabana do Pescador’ which was a beautifully quiet beach with a great cafe facing the sand with loungers. I drank a beer under the sun and later had a king-sized fruit salad with all kinds of tropical fruit. If there’s one thing Portugal certainly does well, it’s the beach. I’ll take my camera next time, but the place we bathed next to has pictures on its website. So tranquil and the sea was really comfortable and warm.
Santos Populares
Having visited a few places nearby Lisbon recently (must upload pictures to Facebook sometime soon), today it was nice to walk around an old part of Lisbon (Alfama) as it prepared for this weekend’s festivities.
This weekend is a four-day weekend and there are various processions and street celebrations. The festival is known as ‘Santos Populares’ and Alfama is renowned for becoming very crowded in the evening as people drink and party in the streets. Every little street has a bar, tables, barbecues and a lot of decoration. As today is the first day of the four-day weekend, my American friend Jen and myself decided to explore the area as it prepared for the parties!
One of the most striking things is the colour. As the sun shines on the streets, the vibrant decorations are really highlighted. I guess you wouldn’t see this so much at night.
A street in Alfama
Decorations in Alfama
The plan for the weekend is to see all of this in action, so I should try and take more pictures. I have about six months of pictures to sort through anyway from various walks around and trips, so keep half an eye on Facebook!
Spontaneous Sun
The weathermen turned out to be wrong today. There was no heavy rain and there was no hail. Instead, we had a sunny, clement day.
Jack, another English teacher here, and I decided to go to Cascais to have an explore and to watch the football. Cascais is a thirty minute train journey west of Lisbon and is particularly popular with tourists. There are plenty of beaches, old buildings and palm trees:
The pub and square where we watched the game.
Cascais
Because of the surprising weather, we decided to take a long walk along the Lisbon Coast and take in the sea air (and a couple of beers!) The walk began in Cascais and ended in Carcavelos, where we bumped into other teachers on the beach. In the end we played some beach volleyball in the late evening while the sun was setting. The spontaneity and surprising weather made today a much more pleasant day than I had anticipated. Here’s the route we took:
Cascais Walk
Cascais Walk (zoomed out)
Due to it being carnival season, I have three days off now and don’t return to work until Thursday. The weather forecast states that the weather is going to be awful, although if it’s anything like today I might just get down to the bus station and head to Porto or Coimbra anyway!
Driven Crazy
Drivers in Portugal are interesting to say the least. Anyone with half an interest in people-watching would certainly enjoy themselves here; every street is an adventure. Psychologists, I imagine, would marvel at the sheer power the simple automobile has over a human being’s psyche here.
Two instances today made me smile. Well, not sure the first one really raised a smile. An eyebrow or two, maybe.
The first occurred at around two this afternoon. I left work at the mid-point of a double lesson. I crossed the road (not at a zebra-crossing, which I assume induced some kind of rapid bowel shakery / rage in some nearby observers) and proceeded to the local shop for a snack. As I was crossing the road I noticed a hearse with a draped coffin inside around 15 meters to my north. Now, when I see a hearse with somebody’s dearly departed inside, I would normally associate this with decorum, respect and dignity. It was, however, on a road. A road in Lisbon.
The hearse wanted to turn left, which, in Europe, means he has to drive through the opposite side of the road. This was not possible, since a car had driven too far forward and was blocking the junction. He could not proceed because he was being blocked off by a car coming out of the hearse’s desired road. They were blocking each other off; a vicious triangle. As I looked at this situation, I marvelled at the incredible breakdown of logic and the immediate ascent into primatal behaviour. The simplest solution appeared to be for the guy driving out of the hearse’s desired junction to reverse, say, two metres? This would then allow the oncoming guy to continue driving, the hearse to enter his junction, normal traffic to resume flowing and everybody to live happily ever after. But this is Portugal. Instead, the guy remained in his car, waiting for somebody else to move. The hearse couldn’t; it was indicating left and had no other safe option. The other guy couldn’t reverse; there were already three or four cars behind him and he couldn’t move forward because the junction driver was there (hence him reversing being the simplest solution). So do they settle it in an adult, gentrified manner? Well, no.
The guy who should be moving is motionless. The guy who can’t go forward or back sees red. With all the calmness of a bull watching its young being wrapped in a red cloth by a man in a big, red suit and being stolen, he starts waving his arms around both inside the car and out of the window. I think I could see steam emanating from his ears. The oblivious driver didn’t oblige; why would he? It’s up to somebody else to move; the Portuguese driver is always right.
So it’s effectively a street stalemate. Nobody’s moving. I’ve been here a year, so I knew what was coming. Anybody would.
Fifteen seconds after coming to a halt, about four or five cars back, I could hear it:
*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.*
You see, to a driver here, remaining still on a road is an infuriating, unacceptable experience. I lived on a one-way street last year and have seen drivers holding their horns for as long as twenty seconds when an AMBULANCE had stopped to retrieve somebody.
I hear it again:
*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*
Eventually, the driver with the simplest solution available to him arouses himself from his stupor and decides to reverse. He reversed! Praise be to God!
The driver stuck in the middle proceeded, after wiping the ear-steam from his windscreen. The hearse and its unfortunate passenger continued left and drove on, not before the driver, also red-faced, leant out of his window to wave BOTH fists at the slightly slow driver who was in the wrong for all of 45 seconds.
I see this most days here. I am fully aware that Portugal does not have the worst drivers in the world and I am also aware that England has far worse. What does confuse me is how intoxicatedly angry the drivers get here when they sit behind a wheel. It’s like a chemical reaction; it’s dog-eat-dog on the roads and I’m surprised people haven’t learned that it just makes them look… childish! I’m twenty-four now and I’m watching men in their forties and fifties react worse than one of my junior students when I double their homework. They are rarely still for longer than a minute or two; does it really hurt them *so* much? The *beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep* used to wake me up so frequently when I lived in the Bairro Alto; I guess when the red mist sets in, they forget they’re in a residential neighbourhood upon pressing their anger buttons and it’s not only pathetic and petty, it’s also selfish.
Oh yes, and the second instance happened after I had finished work. I was waiting at a zebra crossing (like a good boy) and didn’t cross because, although many of the traffic lights were red, there was still one lane behind the other lanes permitted to continue. An older, bearded man was waiting there with me and decided to proceed anyway. I wondered if he was aware of the lane that was still going; three or four cars were heading his way. The traffic light turned amber, and as the car was about to pass through and continue his journey, the bearded man walked straight in front of it. There was no dramatic braking, but the driver had to stop quicker than he would have wanted and, of course, he missed his chance to go. He would now have to wait for a whole minute.
You have never seen anyone react so physically.
I don’t think the driver said anything; his mouth didn’t appear to open. All I saw were two flailing arms move up and down above his head and onto his dashboard. His world came crashing down around him and, as I passed him when the green man appeared, it was clear that his day had been ruined.
I don’t know what it is, but something changes the behaviour of people here when they are sat behind a steering wheel. And you know what? If nobody gets hurt then it is just fucking hilarious to watch from a safe pavement.
Pope Go Rome
As I write I am listening to the UEFA Cup (it’s still called that to me) Final between Fulham and Atlético Madrid. I’m watching on a German/Tunisian channel and the commentary mostly consists of “Whooooaaaah!”, “Ooooooh!”, longer “Whoooooooooaaaah!”s and “Lalala…” Tunisian has just jumped up my ‘languages to learn’ list, if there is such a language…
It’s been an interesting few days. We’re in the middle of a ‘holy’ couple of days here in Lisboa where literally thousands of idiots get excited about the visit of an old, wav(er)ing man called the ‘Pope’; a man who represents a spiteful, homophobic, preying organisation openly found guilty of molestation. This organisation claims the persecution their priests suffered amounted to that of the Jews in The Holocaust. For some reason, this organisation is permitted to make such comments because of the sacred context they work within. This excuses them a lot of things; if a political organisation made such comments there would be calls for it to be disbanded. The Pope claims their faults are down to ‘the sin within’. It’s not. It’s because their entire foundation and belief system is flawed, old and desperate. They deny contraception and damn their followers if their backward beliefs are not followed meticulously. They also believe there is a God; a topic upon which I have had to bite my tongue over these last couple of days. Rant over.
Actually, it’s not. The visit practically shut the city down yesterday and he’s coming back again tomorrow. A full-scale military / security operation was in full swing, transport was disrupted; all of which consumed a great deal of money which could have been invested elsewhere. Thankfully, many of my more sane students still came to my lessons instead of heading towards the river to be preached at. I began my lessons with a show of appreciation of the fact that they opted to spend their evening with me and not the ‘holiest’ man in the world. Rant over. Again.
I think God knew these were my sentiments. Yesterday was a day that involved a few mishaps. Firstly, I went to lunch with some friends and my meal arrived HALF AN HOUR after my friends had received their meals. I didn’t find this out until today as I had spent so long in the restaurant that I had to leave for a meeting and to plan my lessons.
Yesterday evening, we also lost our water supply while I was half way through brushing my teeth. I’m damned. It must be God. Fortunately, He left me my bottle of water in my room so I could at least clean my mouth out. Thanks, Man.
I’ve got into the (bad) habit of approaching the cat in the style of a monster; raising my arms in the air and roaring whenever she’s stood in front of me. It sounds strange on paper but it’s quite fun. Only to be done when the flat is empty though.
We have a new Prime Minister! David ‘call me Dave’ Cameron is now the main man in England. I’ve been following the coverage in England so it’s a shame that the whole process has come to an end. It’ll be interesting to see what ‘changes’ come about under his reign. I anticipate the antithesis of *every single thing in England* should his ‘change’ campaign speeches all accumulate into one big ball of ‘change’.
I’ll end with a music video again. Today’s track is from a film I saw a couple of days ago called ‘Once’. It’s beautiful – I recommend it. Our world is a beautiful place even with all this religious nonsense. We don’t need to cheapen it by placing all wonder, mystery and beauty under the umbrella of ‘God’, and as a proud atheist I enjoy things for what they are. Particularly arguing about religion. ;)
Chicken Run
Went out with some friends last night. I was the token photographer/fodder/male of the group as I met some girls I know who were out on a hen night / bachelorette party for dinner. It was a nice night – I went home after work to drop my stuff off and headed over to a restaurant called Chapito’s – near the castle. Arrived at about 11pm.
The restaurant was nice; we ate in a courtyard under a clown school and a lot of the décor was based on this. The staff weren’t dressed in clown costumes, sadly. Because the restaurant is located on such a high street, the views across to the river and the bridge were very nice at night; I might consider going there again in the future.
Afterwards we went for a few drinks in the Bairro Alto, and I’m don’t think I’ve been to many bars twice yet at all. Went to a place called Bedroom Bar which is quite pricey but quite a nice place. The music was standard, house / club stuff and it wasn’t very busy. This was a problem for some but I much, much, much prefer to be in a quieter club than a place with so many people in it.
Afterwards I came back to my flat with a few people and we drank a bottle of wine. A Polish friend, Justyna, didn’t like the cat so Caipirinha sat outside while we chatted for a while. It was really nice, and I enjoyed having friend round for the first time here. In future I plan to have a flat-party here, which will be nice.
It’s finally the weekend. I think tomorrow will be quite lazy barring a gym visit and Sunday we are still planning to go to a beach in Carcavelos. I’m still contemplating whether to buy a camera, mp3 player or both. I don’t have the money, in truth, but maybe I’ll treat myself to a cheap mp3 player or something if I find one. I depend on my music quite often!
Speaking of which, a video to commemorate the coming visit of the Pope in Lisbon by an artist I like to listen to. Please don’t watch if you’re religious in any way (it’s offensive)!
Do the Salmon!
Some observations from today:
- The heat does interesting things to my teaching technique. I mainly start shouting more. In a good way, of course.
- It appears some people in this country like their genitals so much that they don’t mind choosing to wear a mini-skirt with a waist-line SO LOW that you can practically see bristle…
- I have a good heart. I give up valuable free time for the sake of the company I work for. I feel this buys me at least 10 misdemeanours around the various schools I work in. Expect to see more colourful shirts, more beard hair and more swearing in the staff-room.
- If you don’t ask, you don’t get. I asked, and I got another four weeks of Portuguese lessons in May. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum and actually be able to communicate in Portuguese soon.
Oh, and it’s nearly a month until Rammstein. I. Cannot. Wait.
Oh, oh, and: I’m going to try and attach a song to each post in future. Just something I’ve been listening to at this present moment in time. This time around it’s this from the Chemical Brothers. The song’s nothing great, but the video is fantastic. I never I thought I’d say this in a sentence, but look out for the beat-boxing blow-fish. Magic:
Tres semanas depois…
It’s sticky. Very sticky. It’s the end of April and already it’s warmer than most of the last few summers in England. You leave a building and can feel yourself walk into the warm air. Not that I’m complaining; I could be complaining in July though if the temperature keeps going up!
The beach weather has meant we’re planning beach visits now. I’ve not had much time recently to get to the gym to make sitting on a beach without a t-shirt on less embarrassing, but I’ll live. I think we are going to go on Sunday if the weather is still good; if we do it’ll be the first of many beach-days, I’m sure!
I’m three weeks into my Portuguese course and there’s only a few days remaining. I feel like I know much more than I did at the start and can actually communicate to some extent using Portuguese. It’s still very basic though and very difficult so I’m going to see if I can do some more classes in the near future. During the course I have met many new people and we’ve been out a couple of times already. There are some pretty cool people doing the courses and we go for lunch together most days, which is nice.
The teaching is still going fairly well, I think. I’m enjoying myself and will hopefully continue to do so. Saving money is proving to be trickier and I’m going to have to make more effort to clear my overdraft and pay back the other debts I have. Pretty difficult seeing as my mp3 player has stopped working and I still want to get hold of a camera at some point to get some nice pics in the sun. Ah well, life is too short to worry about it too much. I’m sure I’ll get there.
Speaking of pictures, here are a couple of random snaps courtesy of other people. Back soon!
In the Bairro Alto with Barbara and Anja.
Playing on the Wii at a flat party.
With some of the people from the Portuguese course.
Out for dinner at 11.30pm; sat outside under an awning during a storm!
Portuguese e o sol!
It’s been quite a frantic week. The first thing to note I guess is that it is now very warm here. About 24 degrees. For an Englishman this is quite an experience at the very start of April so I’ve been out enjoying the sun. On Tuesday this week I also finally started Portuguese lessons! It’s quite an intense course but so far, after four lessons, I feel I know much, much more than I did on Monday. Hopefully after the full four weeks I will be able to communicate better in Portuguese than I do now.
It’s quite an experience. I haven’t started a new language from scratch (or at least had beginner classes for it) since school, I guess. I have really enjoyed it and I am in a class of just three people so I should continue getting a hands-on learning experience. I have met some interesting people at the school; both from my class and the other classes. In my group there is me, an Indian nun who is travelling to Guinea-Bisseau for missionary work once she has learned some Portuguese, and a girl from the Philippines, who has a similar personality to myself in some ways so we get on well. Other people I have met include a Korean missionary, who is going to Mozambique, a British film director who worked with Grace Kelly and various other people.
I was also back to teaching this week after the Easter break. Many of my students have not come to lessons because they are still off school in their Portuguese schools, so I have been teaching much smaller groups this week. This has been a mixed bag; having one junior turn up on four separate occasions this week has meant the lessons I planned had to be adapted to simple activities and one-to-one games. On the other hand I have enjoyed teaching my more proficient, older students in smaller classes. I’ve not taught groups of just four or five in a closer environment before, but I think it was good being able to concentrate on the students who came and work on their individual points. I am starting to really care about them passing their exams, so it should be interesting when the summer comes around.
That’s been my week pretty much: sun, Portuguese lessons and quiet teaching groups. Not much happened in the football world I think, so let’s not mention anything to do with that!
Ate logo…
