Lisbon’s Light

The light in Lisbon is revered. For most of the day the light is as if its in that so called golden time of the early morning and evenings, where the light comes in at a certain angle and everything is so much more richer in colour. Hence all the lovely photo’s in this post.

I had been venturing out now and then on my own, pulling myself away from the fibre optic internet connection here to see what’s going on in this bright city. Then I found myself with some company for two days to walk around the city with. A girl from Poland called Monika who was here for a two week holiday, I met her just a few days before she was leaving. We walked randomly down the hills and up the hills of Lisbon.

This is Monika, looking very tall in both pictures. In the second one she wasn’t sure what I was up to as I lay on the floor and asked her to move her arm a bit left, a bit right, a bit down. Then she saw the picture and was highly amused.

On one of the days we met up with a friend of Monika’s, a guy she had been talking to on the internet for a few years but had never actually met, so we met up for a coffee and then he showed us some choice sights. The first was this church here, which is called São Domingos Church, it’s been burned down a few times he told us, and the last time it burned down they cleaned most of the soot off and left it as it was, he said some people love it and some hate it. I was one of the people that loved it, and of course felt that people who don’t like are are silly.

He then took us to the building that these tiles were in, i’m not actually sure what this building was. He pointed out rooms where old people can go and read, and watch TV, a room with a cafe in, there was a room where a film was being shot. There was a room with books to read. It was such a lovely building, such nice light coming in from all the windows, and I just got these two shots! I’ll go back there and take some better pictures of it all I promise.

This window was in the above mentioned building also. It’s a nice effect see all the light bloom like this, it’s nice how I can change the settings and get two totally different views of the same window.

This is such a familiar view in Lisbon, since there are 7 famous hills around the city with excellent views. I think all the white buildings has something to do with the famous light in this city, all the light reflecting off them….maybe!

Monika took me to one of her favourite parts of the city which was the old part, an area called Alfama. It reminded me of Varanasi in India (one of my favourite cities there), a city with very narrow streets, often too narrow for cars. Living like this often creates a much more connected neighbourhood. We stumbled across a few people sat around a table in the street, well it was more like a little square, I guess they were all neighbours. They all seemed quite happy sharing a drink in the sun, and they were very keen to help us get where we were going despite not speaking any English and the fact that we weren’t going anywhere in particular. This second picture here is of a tile in the above mentioned building, the one with the rooms to read and watch TV, I put it here because the building in the first picture looks like it could do with some new tiles (there is always some logic behind my pairing of pictures!).

These two pictures are from two different areas of the city, i just put them together because of the similar perspective! So the first one is in area I mentioned above, Alfama. And the second one is more near the centre, as you can see from both Lisbon is a very hilly city!

A street cat! I dodged from side to side as it cautiously came down the steps, then at the last second it darted to the right between the railings. I’ve seen a few pigeons around like this, with their wings laid out flat, at first I thought that it was hurt, but I think it was just getting some sun.

There’s loads of great graffiti in this city. I love the colours in the first one, and the random nature of it. The second one reminds me of a JCB, I’m sure it’s meant to also. I do like graffiti but it really has to be unique for me to really appreciate it, I’ve seen pictures that obviously have had a lot of work go into them, yet it just looks like so many other pictures, all cool and street style. Lisbon really does have a lot of unique pieces though.

Like this first one, see how the guys arm goes through the building, and he’s using a catapult made from a man, and the size of it is amazing. The second one is made from tiles, I’m not sure if it’s a picture of anything though.

Mario! This was such a surprise, we were wandering down backstreet’s and we stumbled across this one, it’s beautiful hey (there is a mistake though, can anyone spot it? if your not familiar with Mario though you’ll never spot it). And that second one is also great, but for a different reason, I like the fact that he has no legs.

I think this first picture is of Jesus, I think this because it said that next to it.

And some profanity going on here, someone wishes the pope would get “done” and then someone else elaborated on it and wished he would get “done” in prison! And then there’s someone’s sentiments about the Swiss, dunno why, maybe it’s because they have a legalized suicide system? That’s just a guess mind you.

And look! It’s ET! And some woman on the back of that street sign.

This first picture is the logo from Anonymous the hacking group that has been dubbed a terrorist group, yet it only seems to strike terror in evil doers minds, the ethics of the group, whilst actually aiming to cause trouble, are wholly based on attacking the true evils in society, unethical companies, unethical governments and so on. And this last picture of graffiti says “Sorry about your wall” which I thought was a little mean, but also quite funny.

We went into another rather grand looking church which is where this stained glass is, very beautiful designs.

And that first picture is in the same church, these old pictures always have some big story behind them, I was going to make up some silly story about what was going on in the picture, but I didn’t. And there’s another of Lisbon’s many beautiful statues.

Some more street art, that first one isn’t really on the streets though, its through someone’s gate. And the second pic looks like a little orange man that is considering suicide….should go to Switzerland.

I got the impression that this KPMG building was a TV company, but I could be wrong, I could search on the internet and find out but sometimes I’d rather just keep the mystery, why? because it simply sounds poetic when I write down such an intention. And this dental companies name tickles me, sounds kind of blunt to call your company Dental Face.

All over this city I have seen people embracing, at first it was a bit of a shock, having spent so much time in India and learning that people shouldn’t do this on the street it was a surprise to see it, still I have nothing against it, just pointing out the differences here. And there’s Jesus, he’s on the other side of the massive river and to get across you have to take a boat, you can’t walk across the bridge, which I think is a little unfair.

So that’s some more pictures from Lisbon!