Okay, I’ve been slack on updating this blog, but I’ve also been pretty busy. I’m so tired at night that I don’t feel like writing, and in the morning I’m too rushed. Tonight I think I can both write and get some work done.

I left for Lisbon last Thursday. In order to use my free upgrade into business class, I had to fly through JFK. Never my choice, since the only planes between here and JFK are commuter jets, but my four hour layover there did give me the chance to complete my “Global Entry” process.

The trip over the Atlantic was uneventful. I did get a “vegan” meal which wasn’t too bad, but I had eaten a salad at the lounge so I wasn’t very hungry. I did cave and have some ice cream, however, which was pretty much the start of my diet going on hold.

I have not been able to eat as I do at home on this trip, so my only recourse is to eat well when I can and to control portions when I can’t. I only ate have of the scoop of ice cream, but it was chocolate with chocolate shavings on top.

It was good, and hard to stop.

When I arrived at LHR I ran into trouble with the insane “safety” inspectors. I blogged about that elsewhere so I won’t repeat myself here.

Getting to Lisbon was pretty trouble-free after London. The only issue I ran into was that the ATMs here will only let me withdraw 200€ at a time, and I need more like 600€. It took me a second to figure out that I had to run the card through twice. Chalk another one up for Jocko when it comes to per transaction fees.

Alex had found an apartment in the Expo district that was also within a mile of my office. While I usually like to stay in Marriott hotels, having an apartment allowed me to also have a kitchen. Considering I can’t find any food in Lisbon restaurants, it is nice to be able to have a salad when I get off work.

I took a cab to the apartment and was met by the housekeeper/manager, a woman named Andrea. She actually lives across the hall, although I haven’t needed to talk to her since. She showed me around the place – it’s very nice, with a decent kitchen, large great room with a fireplace, two bedrooms and two baths. Throw in the wireless Internet and I’m golden. The only problem, which I didn’t realize at the time, is that few apartments in Lisbon have central heating and cooling. She pointed out two electric heaters in the pantry in case I got cold, but I didn’t think I’d need them.

I was wrong. For much of this trip I’ve been very cold. I found that if I lock one heater in the bedroom and crank it up to max I can get by.

While I waited for Alex, I wandered around looking for the market that Andrea mentioned was nearby. It turned out to be only two blocks away and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a nice selection of fruits and vegetables (as well as artisan breads and sweets, which I reluctantly avoided). I bought enough for a couple of days and headed back to the apartment.

Alex showed up later that night. He used to work in Lisbon so he has a number of friends here, and right after he put down his bag we headed out to meet with his friend Rute (Roo-tah).

She talks more than I do, if you can believe that, especially considering that English isn’t her first language. I’d love to get her in a room with my friend Antonio – as he is the same way. She is also a font of knowledge about history, Portugal and food.

We decided to walk down to the “expo” area for dinner. Lisbon hosted the 1998 World Expo, and they built the expo land out of, basically, trash. It is right along the river, and this was when I started to get really cold. We walked because like a lot of Europeans, Rute’s car only had two seats, but man was it chilly. The wind was probably at 30 mph – no lie – and we had to wait for Alex who was constantly stopping to take pictures (we eventually just left him and he’d run to catch up – which worked out for all of us).

We went to the Rep̼blica da Cerveja Рthe Republic of Beer. This is when I knew my diet was in trouble.

Alex wanted beer, so I split a litre of weissbier with him. I tried to limit my portions so I only had about a quarter of the whole amount, but it was hard. For starters I had the fish soup while Rute and Alex split a goat cheese plate. The soup was tasty but definitely the most salt I’ve had in awhile.

For the main Alex and I split Açorda real de gambas. This dish is hard to describe, but think of it as shrimp in a bread pudding covered in gravy. Man was it tasty. I was really proud of myself that I didn’t finish the serving, but I easily could have. Rute got Francesinha à República, which is two huge pieces of bread filled with beef, ham and lamb, smothered in melted cheese and served with a beer-based sauce on the side. She made me try some and I managed to get by with just a sliver – although it too was delicious. I knew that portion control was my only hope.

I believe there was dessert that involved chocolate, and Alex and Rute had coffee. I managed to avoid both.

We headed back to the apartment. Rute went home and we entered into the now freezing place. Alex started a fire and we broke out the electric heater, but in the large great room it didn’t help much, so we decided to go to bed.

Note: I am always attempted to called people who live in Lisbon “Lisboners”. The proper demonym is Lisboeta.

Now the bed was like most in Europe and it was topped with a duvet. I was lucky since I took the master bedroom with a queen bed and two duvets, which I put one on top of the other. I also grabbed the second heater which helped a lot.

On Saturday we awoke to a cold, bright day. Alex wanted to take me to the Castelo de Ṣo Jorge Рthe castle of St. George. Lisbon was occupied by Moors and other Muslim peoples throughout history, so there is a lot of Arab and African influence here. The castle was built around the 11th century and it looks like a castle Рwith crenelated walls and an entrance that could have been replaced with a drawbridge and moat.

Along the way we passed through the Feira da Ladra. This is a huge open-air flea market that springs up every Saturday and Tuesday. There was an amazing amount of stuff for sale – from pure junk to antiques to electronics and porn. It is said that if your phone is ever stolen you can buy it back here. It would have been nice except it was still very cold and windy, but we still spent an hour or so looking around.

We then made it up to the castle. The good part of this trip is that I’m walking a lot, so I hope it offsets some of the food I’m eating. The castle was interesting – they had a little museum that showcased it over time, from the Romans on, with coins, pottery, weapons, etc.

After the castle we walked to the Chiado section of Lisbon, which is a very famous tourist spot with shops and cafés. We meet Alex’s friend Pedro Santos there, who was to be our guide for the rest of the day.

Here’s an example of where Portuguese really clashes with my understanding of Spanish. Pedro’s last name is pronounced “San-tosh” whereas I would say “San-toes”. There is a lot of “sash” sounds in the language, and while I can pretty much understand written words, listening to it, it might as well be Russian.

Pedro took us to lunch where we had bitoque and wine. Bitoque is grilled, seasoned meat topped with a fried egg and served with french fries. I had the pork. It’s tasty, but when faced with portion control I simply eat around half of what is served to me.

To make matters worse, the restaurant was right across the street from Pastéis de Belém – home of a famous egg tart by that name. Opened in 1837, it is considered the “original” bakery for this flaky crusted, creamy goodness tart and it is usually packed with people. Pedro snuck in and gave Alex and me each a container of six of the little pastries. You are supposed to eat them hot, topped with powered sugar and cinnamon.

I ate two that day, and I’ve been rationing out the remaining four.

Right next door was the first Starbucks in Lisbon. What most people consider coffee in Lisbon we would call espresso. They find it highly amusing to see coffee in large cups.

Pedro then drove us along the coast road to Sintra, with our ultimate destination being the Castelo de Pena. The drive was beautiful – the area reminds me of northern California, and they even have eucalyptus trees.

Unfortunately, we took too long and by the time we got to the castle they were closing. None of us wanted to hike the climb up to the top of the mountain just to be told to turn around, so we took some pictures and headed back to Lisbon.

For dinner we went to Peter Café Sport, which serves “sailor” food based on a similar restaurant in the Azores. I had the bacalhau, which is salt cod drowning in olive oil and topped with garlic. It was served with boiled potatoes and broccoli. I ate all of the broccoli and half of the fish and potatoes. It was decent, but I could have done without the oil and extra salt. Alex and Pedro had hamburgers.

On Sunday we slept in and then Alex prepared to head to the airport. We walked down to the Vasco de Gama shopping mall and wandered about a bit. After Alex grabbed a cab I went back to a place called “Go Natural” for lunch. It was a take-away place with fresh salads, pasta and sushi. While the salad had a little cheese in it and the sushi had rice, I figured it wouldn’t set me back too much.

For the rest of the week I was visiting my customer, Oni Telecom. The office is just short of a mile away from the apartment, and I look forward to the walk there and back. Pedro, my customer contact, always offers me a ride back but I have yet to accept (that may change if it is raining). I figure walking two extra miles a day can’t hurt.

No one reading this wants to know about my job, so I figure I’ll just talk about the food. I’ve never been much of a breakfast eater, but now I always try to have one or pieces of fruit before I start my day. For dinner I’ve been having big salads, so the only real interesting meal of the day is lunch.

On Monday we went to a local restaurant where I had the “standard” Portuguese lunch: grilled fish. This was delightful. I had the salmon, served with potatoes, carrots and spinach. The oil was offered on the side. Once again I focused on eating only half of the potatoes and fish (it was a huge steak).

Tuesday was the evil day: all you can eat sushi for 11€. Unlike the only other “all you can eat” sushi places I’ve seen which were buffets, this was made to order, off the menu, all you can eat. Dangerous. I stuck mainly to the sashimi and ate two small salads and a miso soup.

Wednesday we worked late until the afternoon, so we just went across the street, where I had a very similar meal to Monday, only this time I had dorada (mahi mahi).

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday, but at a little more upscale restaurant. When you sit down at the Portuguese restaurant table, you are usually presented with olives and bread. Here they also brought little fried cod cakes and some type of cured meat and cheese. I sampled the appetizers but focused on my fish dish, which was linguada (fillet of sole).

It was the perfect size portion (the waiter served it off the bone) along with the usual veggies. Two of the guys got octopus and two got bacalhau served in an enormous bread loaf.

I’m not quite sure how the Portuguese stay slim, but in part it could be the lack of processed foods. Wine is usually served at lunch, but you don’t see a lot of fried foods or things like hamburgers. The traditional lunch would probably pass for a fine dinner in the US.

And now I’m caught up. Two more days in Lisbon and them I’m off to the UK. With the exception of one particular pub, English food has never really tempted me, so I should be safer than here in Portugal.