I just can't resist this one.....

Tired Of Traffic? A New DOT Report Urges Drivers: 'Honk'

Sleeping and swimming...

Last night I slept.  I mean it.  The "sleep of the dead".  A deep deep sleep from which i awoke completely disoriented.  And today we did absolutely nothing.  That might not sound like a big deal to you, but after 4.5 weeks of "tourist-mode", it was quite a novelty.

Frederik and H took up my camera and took some wonderful photos....

F and me, by Frederik

H, by Frederick

H, by Frederik

H, by Frederik

Frederick, by H

Flowers, by Frederik

Flowers, by H

H, Frederik and F

New Favourite Radio Station

Fabi introduced me to this French Radio station, and I just love it.  I've got it streaming on my MacBook all the time now..... and thought it was time I shared it.

Enjoy... (click on the link below and then choose FIP for the streaming link which will work in iTunes and other streaming software)

FIP

A Beautiful Day of Discovery....

This afternoon Axel dropped the boys and me off on the main square of Central Lisbon.  And two minutes later I realised that I had left my mobile phone (with Lisa and Axel's phone number) in the centre console of his car.  Oops.

It was hot.  It was extremely hot.  And still.  And hot (oops, did I say that already?).  So the boys and I set off to find an internet cafe.  My inability to understand the most basic of Portugese really emphasises to me how much of the French language I could speak and understand.  Here, I feel much the same as I did in China.  It's almost impossible to guess words and phrases and equally impossible to make myself understood.

We found an internet cafe and looked up Lisa's phone number (inaccurate as it turned out) and street address.  Crisis one averted.

And then the boys lost it. Too hot. Too spoiled by lazy days of Playstation 3 and late afternoon swims and a complete rest from being a "tourist". And so I lost it too. And so, in that mood, we set off to climb up to the Castle.

The view from the top was as spectacular as it was when I was last here..... 17 or so years ago.  The rest of the city has changed phenomenally.  It is barely recognisable.  Gone is the sleepy, elegant city of my memory.... gone are the old men playing chess in the midday shade (of course they might still exist a few streets away from where we walked.  I hope.).  It has been replaced with hustle and bustle and noise and pollution and commercialism.  This is understandable and to be expected, but still it saddened me.

Still, it is a beautiful city.... and we rode on a trolley car for 45 minutes..... up and down hills and jerkily around sharp corners ..... soaking in the sunshine and the scenery ...... before catching a taxi back to the city centre for a late lunch.

Travelling back to Lisa and Axel's home was a challenge.  Finding the train station was not so difficult, but finding the correct train and tickets proved to be a challenge.  Finding a working public telephone booth tested my patience to its' utmost limits and then finding a completely unmarked taxi rank almost pushed me over the edge.

Still, we did it!  And 8 hours after we were dropped off over an hour's drive away, we rang the doorbell and returned to our wonderful sanctuary.  Where we swam and relaxed and enjoyed a leisurely late evening meal before falling into our soft pillows and dreaming of all our adventures so far.

The sun on my back...

Between the beach and the pool, I've managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders.  We only go out in the sun after 5pm, but still it's strong and burn-y.

Sheesh it's beautiful though!

The colours!  The light!  The harshness of the landscape under the light!

There was a windstorm when we went to the beach yesterday....

The boys are getting along absolutely brilliantly.  In fact, half the time I can't find any of them!!  We walked to the beach and ate our dinner on a beautiful terrace last night and Axel and Lisa and I talked the night away, reminiscing and teasing and laughing!

Lisbon.....

It's early in the morning after our first night in Lisbon.  Last night was too full to stop and take many photographs (phew!) and was really just about settling in and connecting with these wonderful friends.

This is where we are.  

View Larger Map

Fredrick, H, Emil and F.  Four of my favourite boys finally meeting each other!

Oh, and Axel and Lisa!!

My room

The beautiful Lisa and Axel

And even though we wanted it to last forever..... it couldn't....

I'm good at abusing superlatives, I know, but this day was every superlative I've ever used, multiplied by 100.

We did all the cliched Parisien tourist things, in our own "Fabi" way.

We began the day with croissant and cafe in a market in Belleville, near Fabi's old home. The market was bustling and noisy and fit to burst my senses! The smelly fish! The stinky cheese! The body odour!! It was magnifique!!!! We bought bagettes, chicken, cous-cous, tomatoes, avocadoes and fruit and then spent half an hour finding 3 available "public" blikes (the flaw in the plan is that often there are no bikes where you want them, and too many where you want to return them!) before riding for hours through Central Paris (sometimes in the rain).

This weekend is Bastille Day, and the city was celebrating. Balloons, firecrackers, music, conversation, laughter.....

We stopped on Pont Marie to watch this wonderfully comic street performer....



...before riding along the side of the Seine and then stopping on the tip of Ile de la Cite for our picnic lunch, under the protective gaze of Notre Dame. There were young lovers sitting near us (the perfect backdrop) and the sun shone for our picnic.

We then rode through St Germain, on to Luxembourg Gardens for glace and an explanation as to where all the people had gone!

And then we rode back through the busiest and most beautiful areas of Paris .... over bridges and through markets..... past Churches and Galleries.... to the Canal near Fabi's house for refreshments, before riding back to Belleville for a Chinese meal.

By the time we rode home and dropped the bikes off, we had been on them for over 8 hours. And even Fabi was marvelling at the beauty of her city.

Knowing that we had an EARLY start (9am!! How shocking!) we fell into bed to the sound of firecrackers exploding underneath our window.

We DID arise in time, packed the bags in time and Fabi took us to the airport in time for our flight.

I've adored Fabi each time I've met her, but we've never spent an entire week together before. I can now say, with a full heart, that she is a lifelong special friend to all of us. Her willingness to be "taken over" by the three of us (like all of our hosts on this trip) and her wonderful approach to my boys and her relationships with them is testament to her beautiful nature. I am SO grateful for the journey of life that has given me these wonderful friends.

But goodbyes are agony. And so we said "see you later!".

Thank you Fabi.

Paris by Cafe...

After a VERY slow morning, Fabi took the boys cycling to the City Of Science..... a wonderful Science Museum with thousands of thrilling exhibits (yawn!) ...... and I hopped back on the Metro for a unique afternoon of SOLO strolling through Paris (yum!)

This is the view from the first table that I sat at....

This from the second......
..... and this is from the stroll back to the Metro for the trip home.....

..... where my tired feet are preparing to begin packing the bags again.  

Pitanque in Paris.....

Last night two of Fabi's friends came over for dinner and Pitanque.  Matyr and Charlotte.  They are both actresses..... beautiful and interesting and wonderfully patient with my smatterings of French.  

We walked across to the other side of the Canal to a bar which lends out Pitanque balls.  It was a challenge to stake our patch of ground to play on, but we did it!  And a wonderfully competitive game was played!

Fabi, Matyr, Charlotte, F and H

apparently I have great style, but my accuracy was wanting (kind of sums up my life!!)

Final score..... F and Matyr 13, Fabi and Charlotte 7, H and me 4.  Hmph.

The smells and sounds of Paris....

Today was another walking day.  The boys and I caught the Metro to Bastille and then browsed the tiny alleys and lanes around the Marais district.  We went to Musee Picasso and NEARLY went to The Louvre!  But we're all completely and utterly exhuasted.  We've reached a wall, beyond which lies a week in Lisbon with beaches and swimming.  Our feet are sore.  Our attention span is short.  

But today my other senses seemed to be working overtime.  Paris has a distinct smell.  Overall, it is of burnt sugar, baking bread, cigarette smoke and the River.  And its sound is a muted laughter and conversation over guitar music.  Quite distinct.  If I were blindfolded and put in a padded room and asked to distinguish a location by sound and smell, I believe I would guess Paris' in an instant.  London (to me) would be of exhaust fumes and traffic, and Sydney would be salt air and seagulls.  Hmmm... Gee I'm generalising, but you know what I mean.