Feira da Ladra

I slept in as planned. When I decided to face the day I headed out to A Brasileira - a coffee shop nearby that is recommended in my guidebook. (Speaking of guidebooks, I highly recommend Frommer's 'day by day, 20 smart ways to see the city' books.)

A Brasileira has a bronze statue of Fernando Pessoa outside of it. Think that's mainly why it's famous. Watched lots of people pose with him. The guidebook warns that the waiters are not very friendly but a few words of Portuguese go a long way. Sure enough when he came up to me he was aloof and as soon as I ordered his tune totally changed. He was curious and asked me how I was Brasilian and that he would have never guessed.

Same thing happened in a shop. The woman working in there was not nice to the tourist before me but very kind to me, even though she knows I'm also a tourist. I was attracted to this shop because they were playing loud Fado (melancholy music famous in Portugal) and they had a sign saying "hand-made by us" outside. So I was curious what they were hand-making. They were tiles. Lots of decorative little tiles everywhere. I bought one. Turns out it was hand-made by the woman in the shop at the time - she was very proud of that one.

The main thing I did today was go to the Feira da Ladra - an outdoor flea market every Saturday and Tuesday. It was easy not to buy anything there, mostly used junk like old video game controllers, vhs and cassette tapes, and random parts to stuff. They did have some book stands and some new items but nothing I wanted to stop my slow wander for.

It took me quite a while to find it. Was proud I didn't ask anyone, figured I had enough time to find it on my own. It's in the Alfama neighborhood and that's all I knew. It's quite a hilly neighborhood.

The weather was pleasant and sunny, and nice and cool in the shade. It's a bit windy though and I flashed people a few too many times for my liking. Will have to whip out pants tomorrow.

I saw Portugal's version of PETA today - called PAN who petition for the benefit of animals and nature. I gave the guy standing by the table with signs attached to him a thumbs up. He smiled.

I went to the local market to pick up some food and beverages to be cheap for the next few days. My hostel serves a dinner every night and I asked them if they ever do a vegetarian dinner. They said that any night they can have a vegetarian option, you just have to tell them in advance. They are serving chicken piri-piri tonight which seems to be pretty popular. I've just been avoiding meat these days for some reason. Although he did convince me that I MUST try the bacalhau while I'm here, and that he was cooking it tomorrow night. He promised it wasn't very fishy and that it was delicious. I told him I'd give it a go since it's advertised everywhere in the restaurants and markets. I also need to try green wine, working myself up to that. It's not actually green in color, they just pick the grapes young and apparently the wine is semi-sparkling.

While I loved the smaller towns, it's nice to be back in the hustle and bustle of a city. I think one of the reasons (besides there being a lot to see) is that it's easier to blend in among the other tourists and being by myself is less noticeable.