Sunday Walk to Church

Today we walked to church, a small, neighborhood Portuguese language church. We are getting to know some of the people and every time we are there, try to speak a little more Portuguese with them. It was a nice morning and I took the camera along so that I could take pictures of the walk. This is also the way we walk every time we go to the metro. Hope you enjoy the views.

A Cafe Day

Some days are just perfect for eating at a cafe, outside, and the day we were visiting in Alcobça was one of them. Warm sun, gentle breeze, no bugs, and even a musician playing soothing music on a flute - over speakers no less, so the whole praça (square; plaza) could hear. The flute player is in the background of picture number 2. A nice surprise that day was finding out that the owners of the cafe were believers and went to a Baptist church.

More from Alcobaça

Romeo and Juliet... wait, I mean Pedro and Inez

Portugal has its own tragic love story. I don't have time to tell it here but you can look it up on the internet if you are so inclined. I'm just going to show some pictures from the monastery at Alcobaça where they have their tombs.

Football not Futebol (or soccer as we know it)

There is a learning curve for American football when you are Portuguese. For one thing, they haven't grown up throwing a ball in the backyard with their neighborhood friends, they were busy using their feet on a soccer ball. When they were young they didn't learn to run full speed at someone and knock them flat on their back, but they did learn how to trip and tangle legs up in a chase for the ball. Even the way a player runs downfield in soccer is really different than the way it is done in football. But, there are some Portuguese guys who are loving learning and playing football.

Campo Pequeno and Purple Trees

A few weeks ago, Don and I went for a walk and found ourselves at the metro stop, getting on, and wondering where we should go. We decided to ride to the Campo Pequeno station and go walk around the area. It was a beautiful spring day and the the purple trees were gorgeous. We walked around for a bit, sat on a bench and watched the pigeons a little while, and then got thirsty. We decided to go into shopping center below the building (Campo Pequeno is the building where the bullfights are held and also where concerts and circuses are sometimes held) and buy a bottle of water. Don also saw some Ben and Jerry's ice cream that was on an incredible sale and we ended up with a container of that, too. So I guess we didn't lose too many calories on that walk.

The City Museum

We were walking by The City Museum the other day and the doors were open. We went inside and inquired about the price and the lady, in Portuguese, told us something along with the word "gratis". We asked, "Hoje? (today)" and she said, "Sim". The City Museum is about the history of the city of Lisbon but it also has some very pretty gardens to walk through and enjoy, so even if we couldn't understand all of what was inside the museum, we thoroughly enjoyed the walk in the gardens.

God Moments, Again

Sometimes things happen and when you stop to think about it, you just know "that was God at work." Lately we have been having more of those moments happen. We will pray about our day (we are always praying about our day - just living in a foreign country makes you ever aware that you need God's blessing on your day) and then when the day is over we say, "that wasn't a coincidence".

For instance, we walked out of the building the other day right when one of our neighbors was coming out with her dog. We had talked to her a few times when we'd first moved in but lately things were a little cool (or busy) every time we'd seen her in the past months. But this day, we walked in the same direction - to the park around the corner on our way to go to a little market. While talking with her another neighbor, who had been even cooler to us, came up. Apparently they walk their dogs together each day and sometimes sit on a park bench to talk. We "happened" to be there at that same time and stood and talked for a bit and asked their opinions on a butcher shop and how to ask for certain cuts of meat. Don told them something that really made them laugh and there just seemed to be a new friendliness from both of them.

We never see people we know at Chili's unless we have planned to meet them there but last night at Chili's one of the football players, a very new Christian, saw us and came over to our table. He stood and talked to us for a long time and then we stopped by his table to meet his family before we left. When we stepped around to their table, there were four children, 3 girls and 1 boy, and it was like looking at our family about 20 years ago. We have something in common now to talk about and build a bridge to his wife, and that wouldn't have likely happened in any other way, than by "chance" at Chili's.

I am meeting with a lady in our building, once a week for several hours, at a nearby cafe for language practice. Her understanding of English is better than her speaking so there is good give and take when we talk. We are becoming friends and she had said that she and her husband would have to take us for sardines sometime in June during the sardine festivals. (Don is not sure how much he is going to like this.) We'd not really met her husband and she said he would not talk as he will not speak English - even though he can understand some. A short time after the sardine conversation, we walked out of the building one evening at an "unusual" time for us and they were coming back in and we got to meet him and even joke a little about our language skills.  A few days later their car battery died and since we park across from them in the garage, we were able to spend even a few more minutes with him, and work through some conversation and hand signals to figure things out - vocabulary isn't enough sometimes. But, the ice is broken and we know that getting to know him, even with the language barrier, is an open door.

These moments and many more like them remind us that God is working around us and that we just need to be asking, seeking, and knocking, as we go along each day. He is the One who reveals those moments and we don't have to strive to find them.

Been Missing the Green Spaces

I woke up earlier this week from dreaming about some of the wonderful places we would walk at this time of the year in northwest Pennsylvania, wishing for some of those afternoon walks that we used to take. The Lord must have know my needs because he has blessed us this week with not just one but with two places to soak in some of the "outdoors" right here in the city.

Yesterday, we had a long day of study and staying in the apartment with the heat of the day. So, in the evening we went out to walk around and explore some. We took the metro and we found a park, just a few metro stops from us that actually has some big trees, grass, water, open space, trails (well almost trails) and just an "out of the city feel" even though the apartment buildings circle the whole thing. 

Funny thing was that this is the same park that we had our first meeting with our co-workers a few weeks after we arrived in Lisbon last August, but we'd never discovered how close it was to us and how easy to get to. 

We found a bench in the quiet part of the park. I took a picture of Don sitting on a bench and then he made me sit for a picture, too. We found an old fountain on the backside of the park with 1916 engraved on it that didn't have any water in it. We have decided that even with some pretty hot days the spring weather here is the best - lush green, lots of flowers, gentle breezes that keep you cool on a hot day. If you want to come here sometime to visit it seems that May/June of the year would be perfeito!

Well, we came out of the metro and passed Chili's (yes, the American restaurant) and ended up going in to share a meal. Who wants to end a perfect walk with having to go back and cook and clean up in a hot kitchen?

A Sunday Afternoon Drive

On Sunday afternoon, our friends, Rui and Susana, drove us over to Cabo da Roca (the farthest point west on this continent), about 40 minutes from our house, and we were as close to Pennsylvania as we could be from across the ocean. It was an enchanting ride as we left the bright sunshine going up into the mist.  There was a front moving in and the wind was so strong that once Don almost stumbled over backwards. The wind made the clouds and sun play a game of tag but it was cold up on top of the mountain! On the way back home, we stopped at a beach side cafe that served crepes - yummy. 

We drove down the mountain, drove the coastline, and headed in the direction of the beaches that you see behind the rock in the first picture. When we got lower down the sand was blowing straight across the road and when we got back in the car after taking some pictures we all had sand in our mouths. Wonder what it was doing to the paint jobs on the cars that had been there for the day?