Welcome to Lisboa!

I love my hostel.  I arrived around 9pm on Friday, was greeted and offered soup.  Next morning for breakfast it was fresh baked bread and the best pancake I've ever had, filled with apple and banana pieces.  Yesterday afternoon, I was again offered soup.  With cheese, bread and an apple.  Dinner was bread left over from breakfast.  This morning, more fresh bread and another delicious pancake.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk down to the harbor.  Lisbon is less affluent than the Spanish cities.  One block will have incredible buildings, the next will have peeling paint and crumbling walls.  The beggars are more aggressive and plentiful and none of them actually do anything.  In Spain, most people on the street were playing an instrument, dressed up as something, or offering something.  Here they just hold out their hand or cup and shake it in your face.  The best defense is not to make eye contact, or acknowledgment, and for goodness sakes, don't slow down or stop!  Not speaking the language makes it easy to ignore people unless they say Ola directly to me or jump right in front of me, which several did.  I made of the mistake of replying to one and almost got chased down.  Note that all the beggars have warm coats- I do not.

 Once I arrived at city center, I stumbled on the Santa Justa Elevator, then went to the Museo do Carmo, an archealogical museum in a cathedral that was destroyed during an earthquake.

 The museum ruined all my shots with their explanation placards...

Doorway Detail

 Then I went on a pub crawl set up by the hostel.

 I've forgotten just about everyone's name, but I can tell you that there were 2 Canadians from BC, a PHD student from Florida, an Aussie, our pub crawl leader, the night receptionist and her boyfriend, and some other people who's stories I never got. 

 

Flamenco & SICAB

I've been hearing about my lack of posting- frequently- so here's another one for you all!  Tuesday night I went out on the tapas tour for the free Flamenco show in Triana at the end.  Triana is across the river and the epicenter of Flamenco.  Again I had a fight with my camera about flashes, appropriate lighting and moving subjects (the camera won, I have blurry pictures).

Then yesterday I went to SICAB (Salon Internacional del Caballo de Pura Raza Espanola), at the Palacio de Congresos in Seville.  SICAB is a large expo for pure Spanish horses.

Sevilla Palacio de Congresos

SICAB is much fancier than Quarter Horse Congress, although it is a lot smaller.  The floor under the stalls is tile and there is carpet in the aisles.

The biggest shock of all? There were MEN there.  Not just a few, but 10x the number of women.  In the US, horses are dominated by women.  So here's the big announcement.  I'm moving to Spain, where the guys ride horses.  Joking, but don't think I didn't give it a lot of thought yesterday!!!

When I downloaded my pictures, I was about ready to throw my camera against the wall.  I had perfect timing on some tempi changes and movement shots (Do you know how hard timing horse movement with a digital camera with varying delay is?!).  They should have been gorgeous.  They WOULD have been gorgeous.  But they are grainy and blurry!  But here they are anyway, so you can commiserate with me.

Those shadowy figures? They're guys! At a horse show! By choice!

I also almost grabbed a cigarette out of a woman's hand and stomped on it.  The few good shots I got of a conformation class were ruined because of her smoke floating in front of the camera.  And she didn't even smoke the thing, she was just holding it over her shoulder, blowing right in my face, or waving it around in the air.  I feel like I'm regressing in age.  I've recently come very close to some temper tantrums worthy of a two year old...

Conformation Class

Let me add that I am SO glad that we don't have to wear these outfits to show halter in the US.  You couldn't pay me enough!!!  Not that I've shown halter in the last 6 years...

 
I did decide that I am SO getting this setup:

Uhh Jerry, how hard would it be to make a lightweight composite horse trailer?  Cause they cost around $20K and I can't swing that...

Dini also needs this heat lamp rack so he can be toasty all winter