First things....

First seven days of delight mixed with a bit of drama

Park overlooking the downtown area of Lisbon

Today marks one week we became residents of Portugal’s capitol city. As with any geographical relocation, the experiences of the first few days in a new place are saved in a file somewhere in our brain-computer. If you’re into Excel spreadsheets, which I am, the file in my head would list the experience in the first column. The second, third, fourth, and fifth columns would be titled “delightful, dramatic in not-so-good way, neutral, and still thinking about it.”

So, here are a few of my “first” experiences these past seven days. I’ll leave it up to you to decide in which column the check mark goes.

First dinner out. Our first dinner out was just down the street at at a little Italian restaurant called Leonetta. We sat outside—it was actually cold, as the temperature had dropped to about 59 degrees by the time we sat down. All their pasta is hand-made to order and absolutely delicious. A bottle of wine, salad, and two entrees for 70 Euro. I’d put that in the delightful column.

First time to get stuck in an elevator. I’ve never been stuck in an elevator, thanks be to God. It’s one of those nightmare scenarios that play out whenever I get on one in a tall building. The elevator gets stuck on the 199th floor, the elevator cable is frayed and the little metal box you’re stuck in is in danger of plummeting down the shaft at the speed of light. Or, worse, you get stuck on the 57th floor and have to climb up a skinny ladder to floor 109 to escape.

Since we rented our flat back in May, they’ve been working to get the brand new elevator inspected and running properly. On Saturday morning we went grocery shopping and on the way back got a text that the technician had just replaced a couple sensors, so the elevator was now operational. Spoiler—this incident goes in the drama column. We got in the elevator on the 1st floor. The door shut, we ascended about 6 inches, then it stopped and we couldn’t get out. Long story made short—we were stuck in the elevator for about 30 minutes, which isn’t that long when you think about it, but did I mention that it was 98 degrees and the dimensions of that little shiny box was literally 36" x 36"? After about 15 minutes the walls of the elevator were all fogged up. David wrote “Help!” with his finger on the back wall. I think I lost about 25% of my body weight waiting for the technician to come back to our building. That was my first Saturday in Lisbon.

First Sunday morning. I posted a picture somewhere taken on my first Sunday morning here. It was taken at one of the parks near our flat. I’ll try to upload it here. The significance of that photo is that it captures a moment that will most likely become a part of my Sunday routine for the next umpteen years. I picked up coffee at a little shop down the street from our flat, then walked over to the park to sip it. No sermon to prepare, no last minute details to think about before leading in worship—just sitting on a bench, sipping coffee, soaking in the sun, and looking out over the city.

After those blissful moments in the sun, I made the 20 minute walk to St. Georges’ Anglican Church. St. George’s will be our church home for the foreseeable future. The parish is led by a married couple, both priests in the Church of England. Surprisingly, less than 50% of the congregation was from England or the United States. There were worshipers from Africa, India, Pakistan, and a few native Portuguese in the crowd. After attending church for 65 years, this is the first time I will be worshiping in a truly multi-cultural congregation. Better late than never!

All in all, it’s been a good week. There was a water line break on Saturday night, and did I tell you that right across the street is Shorty’s Shot House? It is what it says it is—you can get about 20-30 different kinds of liquor shots. The place really doesn’t get going until about 1am. We’re still figuring out how to use the washing machine—it operates nothing like a washing machine in the US. The shortest wash and spin cycle last about 2 hours. We have no dryer, so the clothes are put out to dry on clothesline stretched across the balcony railing. Every day our underwear is on display to locals and tourists from every corner of the earth! Food is good and inexpensive. Yesterday I bought a whole chicken from the butcher shop on the corner for 3.59 Euro. Today I bought pork chops for tonight’s dinner. 1.59 Euro. A good bottle of vinho blanca is about 13 Euro, but we like the Vinho Verde (green wine from the Minho region) which runs about 3-4 Euro. The coffee shop/mini-grocery store/lunch counter is open again. We found it shuttered when we arrived and were afraid they’d gone out of business. They were open again this morning. The owners, brothers I believe, were on vacation for a week. So, all is well in the nieghborhood.

Yes, on the whole, I’d put the first week here in the “delightful with bit of drama” columns. But more of the delightful, for sure.

NOTE: The article on the Portuguese Camino will come next week, as promised!