Thoughts from an Irish Pub in Cascais |
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19 March 2025
Sitting in an Irish pub reading in Cascais as the rain pours outside. Quite a stormy place. There were reports of 15 foot waves earlier in the week and this morning the beach was ankle deep in seaweed. Nice thing about Irish pubs is that I'm usually not the only one with a book for a companion. And it's perfectly reasonable to heckle the other patrons. Like the soaking wet girl trying to smoke just outside under a failing umbrella when she comes in. Cascais also has a leavening of leftover imperialism - less than Lisboa, but still invigorating. Nehru may have kicked them of Goa decades ago, but Indians are still coming here to run shops and restaurants. Tonight I ate the best lamb vindaloo I've had in years. I had hiccups I was so excited!
Two nights ago I partied at another Irish pub in town with students from UCD, that is, Dublin not Davis. Apparently it was a surfing class field trip, but I may also have been born yesterday. Nothing like singing together badly and not caring though. The Irush stew was spot on and made my St. Paddy's Day.
Over the weekend I was in Lisbon for the Monsanto trail run. No, we weren't spraying chemicals. That's just the name of the mountain were Lisbon gets its water, so they keep it forested. Just a beautiful run! I came in 170th out of 180, but who's counting. I'm feeling good for the trio of half marathons next month.
But last week before that I was also on the Portuguese coast working remotely. It's nice, but I think I'm only getting fatter here.
A Brazilian woman I met in the bar nicely tried to teach me Portuguese for an hour. Bad Spanish can get you quite far! And then a group of Norwegians came in and I got to practice that language. One used to sell chimneys in Wisconsin and knew right where New Hope was. Small world.
