Lisbon: 7.29.12

I just realized I never told you what actually happened to kaZantip, just prattled on about Lisbon in my excitement over being in a new country! Here’s the story…

I did a quick Google search after we got here to try to figure out what went wrong. If you recall, the first story I heard was that the festival lacked the requisite permits to serve food and beverages. My Google investigation, however, unearthed the story that kaZantip did not move from Ukraine to Portugal. In fact, the Portuguese festival was a copy of the original event that was trying to make people believe the Ukranian kaZantip had moved to a new country. Was the new event just a scam to make off with the ticket money? Don't know, and it doesn't matter to us, since we never had tickets in the first place. Was it just a new event trying to capitalize on the success of the kaZantip brand? I think I'm more inclined to believe that option. It seems, based on pictures, that the location was actually set up for the festival. That seems like far too much effort to put into something that's just a trick to scam people out of a little cash.

We may never know the real story, but it doesn't much matter. I have never been one to dwell, and Jon isn't either, so I had already moved on from kaZantip by the time we landed in Portugal. There will be more parties, and I had such a great time at Balaton that I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. We have the option of detouring to Ukraine to go to the real festival, but I don't think we will. We've both unexpectedly fallen for Lisbon, so there's no need. It will just be another tale of travel-gone-awry to add to our repertoire!

So let's see...what other stories do I have to share about Lisbon so far?

Our second day here was pretty quiet. We were still exhausted from the trip, and both of us had work to catch up on. We managed to make it out of our hotel room for lunch and a wander through a grocery store (I love going grocery shopping in other countries...it's up there with hotel breakfasts on Elyse's List of Favorite Things To Do While Abroad), and a return to the restaurant we had dinner at the first night. This time around we had an impeccably grilled salmon steak. They have charcoal grills in the kitchen, which would never fly in the US, but which make for some insanely good food. We capped it off with a native dessert that's some kind of chocolate mousse-cake hybrid. Too soft to be a cake, too solid to be a mousse. Whatever it was, it was decadent and delicious.

Afterwards we attempted to explore more of Bairro Alto, but it was mostly just people in the streets by the time we got there. Bars close early here (1-2am), at least by NYC/Miami standards. Portuguese nightlife seems to follow this pattern: late dinner (9 or 10pm), bars in Bairro Alto (until closing), then clubbing down by the water. Personally, what I think is actually going on is: dinner (9 or 10pm), bars in Bairro Alto (until closing), NAP, then clubbing down by the water. Otherwise I don't know how they could stay out as late/drink as much as they do!

We went to Lux, one of the major nightclubs in town, on Friday night, and it didn't start getting busy until 4am. And we thought we were going late by arriving at 2am! The Portuguese party like the Germans...arrive late, party all morning, go home in the afternoon. Lux was a nice space (3 floors, rooftop bar overlooking the river), but we were both too sleepy to really enjoy it.

We did a little better last night, because we made a point of being out in time for Bairro Alto bars. Our first stop was the bar we visited the first night, with the band playing Britney Spears, for another giant mojito. There was no Britney to be had, unfortunately, so we left shortly after procuring our beverage. The rest of the night was spent exploring the neighborhood, wandering in and out of establishments that looked cool or were playing good music. We found a super kitschy Swiss bar called, predictably, Heidi. The whole place was dripping in cheesy decorations - fake flowers, lederhosen, stuffed Saint Bernards - but the music was good, so we settled in. That's where we met the Viking.

He looked like a more homeless version of Zack Galifianakis, and he was dressed like he was on the Playa. Huge fur vest, massive white sunglasses, stripy pajama pants, layers of necklaces and, topping it all off, a horned Viking helmet. He also had a phone...and I don't mean a cell phone, I mean a phone with a cord that disappeared into his backpack. As strange as this man sounds (well...was), he was owning the bar. Taking pictures with everyone, dancing with all the girls...he was the center of attention, all night long. We befriended a group of Irish girls who had been befriended by him, and together we went in search of more fun when Heidi closed. The Viking wanted to take us to a club called Incognito and we figured "Well...why not?" We made quite a motley crew on the walk there.

Adding to the strangeness of the night, it turned out that homeless-Viking-man knew the manager (or the owner...I can't remember!). Who would have guessed?! He spoke to his contacts about letting us jump the line, but the club was at capacity. We thought about sticking around until things cleared up, but we were sleepy and hanging out with a crazy bearded homeless-looking Viking is only charming for so long.

Our daytimes have been all about the food. We've been going on a culinary tour of Lisbon, and it's been delightful. We found a Belgian-style waffles place when we took a walk down to the water, and we made the delicious discovery of Portuguese pastries. Portugal is famous for its pastries, and it's a reputation well deserved. I think we've tried 5 kinds over the last 3 days. No regrets.

The first was a pastel de nata, the most famous of all Portuguese pastries. It's an egg cream custard in filo dough that looks like a mini pie. The second was a savory pastry filled with parma ham, followed by a cooked pear wrapped in dough with a cinnamon stick stuck through the middle. It was like eating a little pear pie. The next day we sampled two more, one shaped like a pizza slice with a tropical fruity filing and the other called a "bola de Berlim" or a "Berliner." A Berliner is a round, deep-fried pastry with sugar on the outside and a soft, sweet, bright yellow filling made from egg yolks. A lot of Portuguese desserts are egg-based, as it turns out.

I think I'm drooling just thinking about them. Lisbon is going to be bad for my waistline.