Lisbon
So were off to a new country again. This time to Portugal and its two months after the fact and let’s see how much I can remember.
Friday
Headed out to Europe and a new country stamp. We were going to Portugal via Madrid and Dallas. Unfortunately, with the price of fuel now AA is using the smallest aircraft as possible. The crappy 767. I had an exit row, but it had been awhile since I flew that. The exit row is a bulkhead and thus, has about as much leg room as my back seat. To top it all off I did not have working audio so I couldn’t watch the bulk movie they show to coach class. The flight attendant couldn’t be more apologetic and offered me extra food or alcohol. I didn’t want coach food and I wasn’t really in the mood for alcohol. So she kept saying Ill bring the purser and she’ll make things better. I thought maybe she would bring me a handheld movie player, no, she came over and said what do you want, I don’t know what do you want, well you said you wanted to speak to me, no the flight attendant said you were going to come over here and offer me vast sums of money. Ha..haha..ha ha har har. There were crickets, I really didn’t say that, but my tone was such. So she went back to first, my flight attendant came back and asked why didn’t I ask for anything. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to ask for but she finally left me alone.
Saturday
We landed in Madrid and had to take a long bus ride to our terminal. I got to practice my Spanish when I ordered some tapas; beer, bread, cheese, and ham. My stomach thanks you Rosetta Stone. Flight to Lisbon was a normal 1 or 2 hour flight. We checked into a fairly fancy hotel, I had a queen bed which is always appreciated. I had German shutters, that closed light tight, meaning they let no light in, it was fantasmical. Then to top it all off I had I rainfall shower head, only problem was it was about 5 inches tall. The spout was right where my neck, so I had to duck into the shower. Oh well, the water felt amazing and I would just stand under the water for minutes. After hanging out in my room for an hour or two I went for a walk to HRC. Needed to get my pilgrimage underway and get my pins and stamps from HRC. On the way I saw the coordinator and she invited me to dinner. Dinner wasn’t until 9pm, I thought that was kind of late, but oh well, it sounded fun. It was supposed to be like a 24 course meal. I was intrigued. It turned out to be like a 33 course meal. We had a bread and 4 meat appetizer courses, followed by about 7 beef, pork, seafood dishes each, varying from casseroles to sautéed things to who knows what else, just put it in your mouth. The problem was that every serving was about 2 bites. I was attempting to pace myself because I didn’t know how many were left. A lot of times I would motion for just a little bit, they would smile and nod, Silly American Heres A Shovels Worth. Thanks. I felt a little bad too because the Portuguese contingency we were with were devouring their meals and I was being a bad American and wasting food. During the course I met the spouses of some of my coworkers, they were both very cool. We had lots of wine and sangria. The sangria was absolutely amazing, so tasty. Finally, it was time for the dessert round. We had 5 rounds total to include a dish called Moose Drool. It was this sweet caramel concoction. It was so sweet that it made the sangria taste bitter and sour. I could feel my teeth saying, WTF dude, sugar much!!!!!! Headed back to bed and slept like a champ.
Sunday
Woke up for breakfast and pure usual jet lag, had about 3 plates of food. That morning I helped a coworker with some of her work and then we were released. Well released midday means Jacobs is on extreme tourism. Its difficult for some to comprehend or follow along. It means using my legs to their giant gait abilities and then only spending about 5 minutes at each site to take some pictures and say Allllright. My coworker has short legs and is a big picture taker. So Id have to keep looking back to make sure she was still there. And then wait for a while she took pictures at every angle and aperture setting. We went down to the square and then to the shore line. Next we were off to the fortress. It was a good trek up a big hill. On the way we stopped at a really pretty church to use the facilities. I thought I had lost her, because evidently she went to use the bathroom while I was going and then she wasn’t at the meeting point for awhile. I was really scared thinking maybe she had been kidnapped. Then she emerged and our journey continued. The fortress was really cool, still in good shape and a lot of stuff to explore. It was above the city and all the classic rooftops you see in pictures were there. A plethora of burnt sienna shades strewn across the landscape. ßcheck me out using descriptive language. Alright, back to regular Jacob speak. We headed back to the hotel after making a stop for some beer and met our teammates for some dinner. We went to dinner in tourist restaurant row. Had some really good seafood. And then made our way back to the hotel.
Monday
This was our first day of the conference and it was fine. I was busy the rest of the week with network assessment stuff. I currently wear about 5 hats overseas and I ignored the other 4, I knew I could catch up in Montenegro. That night we went out to dinner again in restaurant row. Something that is interesting about walking around Lisbon is all the drugs that are offered to you. Hey, pshh, pst, you want some and they would motion down to their pocket. You want weed, coke, hashish, shrooms. Nah man Im good, no my friend you don’t got this you aren’t good. And this was about 3 or 4 times per walking trip around town. From what I heard or could tell, Lisbon is the gateway into Europe for drugs. All the drugs from Africa and South America filter through there and I guess the police look the other way for personal consumption. It seemed pretty sketchy if that’s how you were to buy your drugs, but I guess all drug purchases are kind of sketchy given their legality.
Tuesday
More work and then on to the ice breaker. It was a long and windy road to the officers quarters where we had this thing. I was feeling kind of nauseous throughout the trip; and with a lack of a/c I was having to tell myself not to yack. I didn’t but it was close a couple of times, there were some hard swallows going on. The ice breaker was pretty good, they had plenty of beer and gin. Why gin, I don’t know, but they did. The hors d'oeuvre were filing enough. It rained, so it made the air smell really nice. Had some good conversations with some of my counterparts from Europe.
Wednesday
Just some work and conversations. Made some new friends with the Canadians, Irish, and Norwegians. They are all cool peeps and were willing to help out with my network assessment needs. One guy that was not was from a certain group, hes the acting lead nation for the group, meaning hes the lead router and hes a giant pain and the ass and he didn’t want to play nice. I was really proud of my vendor for going toe to toe with, we didn’t lose this round, we didn’t win either because the guy just eventually walked away from the conversation. I asked my vendor if that was the hardest sell he ever had, Nah not by a long shot. We’ll just try again. I was very impressed, the guy was totally unphased. I guess since he works with some really big name banks and high powered CEOs this Maj was no big deal. We eventually won the war in Montenegro. Youll hear about that in a few weeks. Went out to dinner that night with some friends.
Thursday
Wash, rinse, and repeat basically. This was my last night in Portugal because I was leaving on Friday to Nepal. I tied up as many loose ends as possible before going. It was a little stressful trying to cram in 5 days of work in 4 days but I somehow managed like always. That night I went out to dinner with the same girl from the fortress tour. She is a lot of fun to hang out with, good conversationalist and she doesn’t eat or drink too much, so I get to have all of her leftover food and alcohol. That’s really all I have to say about Portugal. It was great, got a lot of work done, and I guess I was basically WINNING like always.
Okay, take care readers, see you next week.
Hugs and kisses
jacob
