What some Lisbon avenues might look like ...

I know extensive façade refurbishing takes time, ... is expensive, etc. ... etc ...  etc , but the saddening reality is that some of our fine examples of architecture are falling to pieces ... their past glamour almost unrecognizable as their undeserved "melancholic" looks strike the passers-by ...

I was recently walking around Praça de Espanha and Gran Via in Madrid and couldn't help thinking about some of the avenues in Lisbon, particularly those with "slowly dying" buildings  along them ... and just wondered what they might look like if ... some of their "fine" architectural "skeletons" were to be taken care of ...

Turkey (final considerations) ...

The description of my Turkish mosaic circuit wouldn't be complete if I were not to consider the things I brought with me, apart from the "memories". Some of these were actually bought in the very few inbetween intervals we had along the circuit.

The books have helped complement the information I already had, as well as further expand the additional information provided locally, which for obvious reasons was not (nor could be) immediately "absorbed". 

The yellow tissue bears hand printed Hitite like designs and was bought in Cappadocia, so was the rag doll made by the women of the Soganli Köyö village and which now preciously stands out in my doll collection for being so exquisite.

The  silk embrodery, though having been bought in Alanya is from the Eastern Anatolia and so is the silk embrodered Kaftan, which was bought in the Grand Bazaar of Istambul and which I have already worn several times since then.

The leather Turkish style  shoes were bought in  the open market of Kahramanmaras and proved to be my favourite "walking" companions during part of the circuit.

The little glazed ceramics have Izmit designs on them and the little shaddow puppet reminds me of the importance Theatre and every form of Theatrical  performance plays (may play) in one's daily life.

The last and definately not least important piece is a "Syrian"  handicrafted wall tapestry, with a very naive design and some very peculiar details (the glasses on the windows are made out of plastic) was bought  in Adiyaman. 

Turkey is a country I will go back to (I just know it) ..., because it deserves to be further "explored" ... and not just for the beautiful seaside beaches, but  above all for its cultural  richness.

Poetry out in the streets (of Madrid) ...

I have always been taken by all sorts of initiatives, which try to "impart" knowledge in a creative way.

A few years ago a well known bakery in Lisbon started handing out the bread rolls in paper bags with poems printed on them and what initially sounded (and even looked) like a rather strange initiative ... was to soon get the approval of most of its customers.

I actually met  a few, who started collecting the "paperbag" poems, particularly because many of them were by unknown poets ...

During my recent stay in Madrid I realised that every Madrid subway carriage I got into had poems stuck on many of its walls, in an initiative called "Libros a la calle" (Books out in the streets).

Here is a translated extract of one of those - "El loco de la ria" by Juan Farias (1935).

"The fool had not learned how to read,

nor how to write,

but he could count up to ten; like many

others, he used his fingers as a calculator.

He could read the wind and the clouds,

the smell of the air and the ants'movements,

all of those things which are useful

not to leave the umbrella home,

because if one is prepared, one won't get wet."

One may or not be driven to read what comes next ...

I must confess I read it all there and then ... and still several times before I got off where I was supposed to.

May you like it as much as I did (... or maybe not) ...

 

"Solidarity " has no face ...

Solidarity has no face ... but here are some of the faces of those who have contributed towards the Christmas campaign in favour of the children of Calheta. We have collected quite a few clothes, shoes, school bags and toys  (four huge cardboard boxes) ... which will soon be sent to Cape Verde by ship, though  my only concern now is whether they will reach Calheta, as expected  ... and without too many delays. I will only  be fully "relieved" when Sibylle calls me back from there saying that the things have arrived.

Paula (Above).
Maria João (Left). Two cardboard boxes filled up with clothes, school bags, shoes and babies' feeding bottles (Right).

Gabriela and Anabela (Left).
Isabel and Carla Carreira getting the boxes organized (Right).

There are things I can't obviously do nor ensure on my own ... and there is always a number of unpredictable issues that can eventually happen in any sequence of events, which may not exclusively depend on those directly involved.

Today, just before having filled up the fourth box, Anabela's sister (Nélia) came around with 31 brand new cotton T-shirts, which were not used in the annual run organized by the Airports and Air Navigation Club, which decided to join in. With them a few around the neck identification ribbons.

I am extremely happy with the response and would therefore (on behalf of the children of Calheta) like to thank everyone who so enthusiastically participated in the campaign.

The unregistered Postcrossing card ...

It is quite sad to find out that some postcrossers do not bother to either register the cards we so kindly send to them, taking into account their preferences ... but also refuse to acknowledge the messages suggesting to send them another one, in case those cards may have got lost on their way to them ...

I have had my third card not registered (this time) by a Polish postcrosser I have sent a Lisbon elevator to (Elevador da Glória) on the 26th of September, together with a few "exquisite" stamps and a recipe.

While I was waiting for it to be registered (60 days) I may as well have sent another randomly sellected card to someone who might (eventually) have appreciated the effort and even felt happy to have received it ..., but what can I say ... these are the rules of a "game",  in which not everyone plays fairly ... nor is committed to.

May this card (like the previous two unregistered ones) occupy an outstanding place of its own, not in a postcrossing wall ... but in a  simple blog ...

PT-142602

Note: The card has been registered the same day this article was published.

The puppeteer ...

I have been watching street performers for quite a few years ... it is almost impossible not to "trip" on them in packed up  touristic squares and street corners just anywhere around the world ... and yet, what is not so common is to have some of them perform so intensely that they don't seem to be even worried about being given a few coins for their odd performing acts ... In fact, quite often, when one is just getting to appreciate what they are doing, out of the blue comes someone "asking" for money ...  and interfering with the magic moment, one had just "experienced" ... or was still "experiencing" ...

I have  already watched a few good street puppeteers, I must say, ... but none like the one I have had the privilege to watch recently in Madrid.

His facial expression was convincingly (strong) ... as convincing as the puppet's eyelids ... his body "slid" back and forth to the sound of the musical chords in a somewhat almost perfect syncronism with the moves of the  string pulled puppet ... He kept going on and on ... dancing ... moving around ... approaching children ... adults and even dogs, who gathered to watch his performance ... the one that never seemed to end ...

Was he doing it for us? ... or (maybe) for himself ? ... or merely for the art ... the performing art, we sometimes relegate to a secondary position ...  the streets ...

Whichever reason he may have been doing it for ... he was good ... really good ...

Tourism in Portugal during the Republican era ...

A few weeks ago  ... (basically out of curiosity) I walked into one of the exhibitions being held  around Praça do Comércio to celebrate the one hundreth anniversary of the Portuguese Republic and the most amazing thing was that in a way it was like walking into a completely different world, though I identified some parts of "that world" with some of my own childhood memories (regardless of the fact that some of the pictures looked fairly old).   

The picture of this yound lady sitting on the beach of Cascais in 1921 could easily correspond to my own image in the seventies ... the look ... that "hippie" look ...

This brochure about Figueira da Foz (my hometown), dating back to 1920  refers to something I constantly heard from my early childhood through  to my adulthood period " [...] Figueira da Foz, the most beautiful beach in Portugal" ... and what's more  ... I believed in it until I moved into Lisbon many years later.

One of my biggest fears as a child, (which I have referred to before), was the forced  sea "dives"  at the mercy of the  "banheiros" (bathing attendants on the beach) in the name of  building up one's bravery ... and the truth is that looking at this photo the whole process does not "feel" that bad  ...

Having always liked guides, as a first "approach" to any city or country  before focussing on other important related issues ... I had the priviledge of having had a look at the first ever guide about Portugal in French (dating back to 1909) to be seen on the left, together with the first one by a Portuguese writer  Henrique Mendonça, who happens to have been the author of the Portuguese National anthom (to be seen below on the right).

 I have also had access to  one of the oldest guides about Sintra (Left), whose cover is quite interesting with its well known poets'quotations. 

 Having looked at some of the earliest photos of foreign tourists visiting Portugal was interesting as well. The one taken in Cais do Sodré impressed me because of  having allowed me to see how much this Square has been able to keep of its past.

"Awaiting Italian tourists to Lisbon", June 1923, Cais do Sodré (Left). "Arrival of American tourists", July 1922, Cais do Sodré (Right).

"German tourists in Lisbon", March 1925.

I was drawn to a specific document, which defined the required skills people involved in the Tourism industry  should have, so as to perform the necessary skills adequately, as well as the course objectives aiming at achieving the minimum required level. The whole document made me realise the large range of  general acquired knowledge they should have in a wide variety of subjects.

I feel some of the intervening actors in our daily life should have half of those skills ... particularly those related to the Languages and "writing" ...

Requirements and Course  content.