Ausfahrt

In Cologne, and I´m getting around to a much needed blog entry. Back in Singapore I spent most of the evening hanging around Bugis, had a very cheap Indonesian dinner in an open-air foodcourt... and saw the Arab Quarter come alive after sundown, remembering that we were in Ramadan. I was up very early - with the first call-to-prayer from the neighbouring mosque - for my flight to Munich. Oktoberfest coincides with Ramadan, so I had a couple of beers during my three-hour stopover, thus partaking in festivities such as they were in Terminal 2. Lots of red-faced lads in funny hats heading home from what looked like a good time. I arrived in Lisbon around 10pm on Friday, got totally fleeced by the taxi driver who took me (off the meter) to my hostel, but I was too tired to care about the money. Slept like a rock under a window over-looking Praca do Rossio, with its fountains and drug dealers. Saturday morning I checked out the Gallery of Modern Art and later met Danielle at the quirky old hotel where we stayed the next four nights. We ate dinner at a charming tourist trap then wandered a bit around the centre of town. Sunday we went down to Praca do Comercial where there was some great cultural festival happening, incorporating traditional folk dancing, trampolining and stilt-walking in a somewhat random mess of activity sprawled out over the square. Dinner was at a French bistro where I was able to feast on European veal and feel slightly evil. Later we went to Bairro Alto, a tight grid of narrow streets with all sorts of bars open late, famed for its Fado houses. Fado is a uniquely Portuguese genre of music...  melancholy latin heartbreakers (basically). The club we went to was dark and dusty and the band played in the shadows without amplification. Beautiful stuff. We were the last of many patrons to leave when the music stopped at 2am. Monday we went for a tram ride around the inner suburbs - the trams seem to be a local icon if you can judge by Lisbon souvenir merchandise. It´s amazing the way those rattling old things can navigate the crazy streets. In the afternoon we visited the Sao Jorge castle on the hill above Lisbon, walked around its walls overlooking the river and the city. We had dinner back in Bairro Alto, and another late night in a dark smoky little club, this time over jugs of Super Bock and under speakers blaring Led Zeppelin. Yesterday we went to Belem, from where Portuguese explorers sailed back in the colonial glory days. From there we headed East to Alfama, and the Thieves´ Market, where all manner of stolen and worthless crap is laid out on blankets for sale. Lots of sunglasses and old mobile phones, but also some great classic Portuguese porn mags amid records and rusty, dented bric-a-brac. It was probably the most authentic experience of Lisbon that we had in the whole time we were there, and I might have bought a hat if not for my enormous-head problem. Later we took a bus up the coast to Sintra, the historic mountain town. There might be history there but it´s all but lost under horrible tourist fodder. An hour there was plenty long enough. The bus back to Lisbon stopped at the Westernmost Point of Continental Europe, which was quite beautiful in the late afternoon with the Atlantic Ocean faded into the horizon... Last night we drank port (Portugal is famous for its port, obviously - which is a shame because it tastes bloody awful) at a bar on Praca do Rossio until closing time. We both left Lisbon this morning in opposite directions. Danielle has gone to Canada, and I came to Germany. Bad weather in Frankfurt meant that my flight was delayed but I eventually landed and met Lena near the baggage carousel. We drove to her parents´ house in an archetypal German village outside Frankfurt where we picked up her animals (two cats and a big black German Shephard, obviously) before hitting the Autobahn and heading North to Cologne... at 180km per hour. We got here in under two hours, after dark but ahead of the rain. I made dinner out of what we could find in the fridge and it turned out okay. Now I´m at Lena´s computer, alone in her flat with her two cats because she has gone to stay at her boyfriend´s place tonight. Tomorrow I´m in for a walking tour of Cologne and a pub crawl... apparently...