Lisbon orientation walking tour

6pm meet and greet last night, 16 co-tourers plus Ana Teresa the guide. Family of 4 from Sydney, 5 Canadians, 3 Americans, 1 Malaysian, 1 Brit (Debbie), another Kiwi Sandra from Napier. A diverse bunch with careers including science teacher, psychologist, interior designer for office and industrial sites, two nurses, two uni students, an accountant, a primary school teacher, a speech therapist, a provider of public transport ticketing solutions including here in Portugal who has been to Auckland in advisory capacity, and two retired. Dinner out for typical Portuguese meal of spit roasted chicken and chips - go figure, I expected it to be cod, octopus etc. The hotel’s neighbours are two big opera house/theatres, the go to places that actors and singers aspire to perform in, as is the restaurant we ate at, the place to be seen - although no stars while we were there. The 4,300 capacity Coliseum de Lisboa’s billboard advertising a sold out January 2020 Madonna concert.
Orientation tour today helped me understand why this older part of Lisbon looks so tired and somewhat dilapidated, it’s a city in recovery from the usual chequered history seen across Europe. Including a barbaric event in 1506 after years of

plague and extraordinarily harsh living conditions were blamed on the ever homeless Jews, over five thousand of them were burned alive in the square where this monument finally got erected in 2006 - right outside this church that stood at the time, the heavily scarred pillars being the originals. Hearing that story then going inside the church was really emotional for us all.
Their last event pretty recent with the 1974 overthrow of a 48 year regime of destructive dictatorship. Almost bloodless with only 6 being killed and celebrated as the Carnation Revolution same day as our Anzac Day every year. Nice story of the revolution where the dictator agreed to step down when his soldiers refused to shoot their colleagues who were leading the revolution. A women carrying red carnations offered a soldier one instead of the cigarette he asked for, he put it in the barrel of his gun and other soldiers asked for a flower too, more carnations were bought when hers ran out = kept the revolution subdued and friendly. Still no quick fix to their troubles as it seems they still don’t have a well functioning democracy in place due to political corruption - although very little corruption at police level according to Ana. Great exchange rate with food, clothing, souvenirs etc all very cheap for us tourists but not a safe feeling place from an EQ prone building perspective and even worse H&S. Lisbon was decimated by a 9 EQ in 1755 during church time resulting in high fatalities from roofs caving in, fires caused by

the church candles and the massive tsunami that followed = 85% of Lisbon destroyed. The area where the prostitutes and druggies hung out was spared causing many to doubt their faith afterwards - although it seems that didn’t last long as cavernous churches everywhere now and always with loads of people praying and lighting candles. 18th century record keeping not great so unknown number of deaths with extreme range of guesses from 10k to 90k. I fear their next large EQ will be just as devastating due to the appalling quality of these older buildings, many look like a push from your little finger will topple them. Their take on it is that they are fine as they continually get little earthquakes that release the pressure so another big one isn’t going to happen.
Great dinner out with the group at a fabulous Fado concert - the traditional Portuguese style of singing and music that can have quite a melancholy lamenting tone. The female singers particularly so as the wives and girlfriends of fisherman sing for the safe passage and

return of their men from the sea, with the male style notably more upbeat.
PHOTOs of the extremes of Lisbon: street art in the rather unkept looking older part of Lisbon and from ‘viewing point’ in a newer part.
Huge street mosaic of Amalia Rodrigues, who went from being a fish seller to best ever selling Fado singer, she died in 1999. Very hilly city so loads of terracotta rooftop views.

> Gift shop with original medieval stone floor. Lisbon’s oldest house built 15th century. The prison tour guide Ana’s grandfather escaped from during the dictator years, returning after the 1974 revolution. I climbed up into the bell tower and nearly had my eardrums blown out when someone decided to hand ring one of the bells. Yellow fronted building where we dined and listened to Fado.