POR-TOO-GULL!!

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Buenos dias all,

here I am in a somewhat overcast Barthelona, where the weather is a little humid but still bearable at 25 degrees.

So begins the next postcard I guess, and it´s from Lisbon in Portugal, only I´m sending it from Barthelona. I´m developing a lisp whilst being here, all my C´s are quickly becoming TH´s. I imagine Catalans don´t have too much of an issue with theophilus the thistle sifter tongue twisters.

Anyway, Lisbon was like thus:

Scene: Me at a food outlet at the biggest shopping centre on the Iberian peninsula.

Me (in my non-existent Portuguese): Hola. Sumo Naranja & Atum Tosta se faz favor (This translates roughly to orange juice and a tuna toasted sandwich please).

Sandwich lady: Um, do you speak English?

Me: uh, yeah.

Sandwich lady: Speak to me in English. It´s much easier for me.

Me: Oh, ok then.


My tip for you if you are travelling to Portugal is, most large outlets have english speakers because Portuguese is actually a little tricky and they generally don´t expect foreigners to be able to pick it up. My Portuguese amounts to Obrigado (thank you) and that´s around it. I actually found it easier to cope with in Portugal than I have in Spain thus far, despite my extensive Spanish vocabulary for ordering beverages and pointing at things.

Surprisingly, going to a large shopping complex in Portugal and ordering toasted sandwiches was not the highlight of my trip. What happened to be next to the shopping complex is what became the focal point and definitely the highlight of my stay in Lisbon.

Across the road from this vast shopping centre is Stadia Luz, a 65,000 capacity football (soccer) stadium that is usually home to SL Benfica (Portuguese champions this year), but for tonight it held the World Cup qualifier between Portugal and Slovakia.

Bill (another guy on the tour) and I actually had no idea the game was on. We had stumbled onto the shopping centre around 4 hours before kick off, and had seen people wearing Portuguese flags around the shopping centre. We then looked across the road and saw a football stadium. You put two and two together and you think: hmm, I wonder if there´s a game on.

We asked a passing cop if there was a game and whether he knew if there were any tickets to said game. Our friendly cop tells us in broken english that the game is between Portugal and Slovakia, that the game has been sold out for 3 weeks, but then directs us to the scalpers who are standing outside the official box office.

Half an hour later and 25 euros lighter in the pocket, Bill and I now have tickets to the game. Mind you I had to persuade Bill to come to the game because of his indecisiveness. Well, that and we were paying 5 times the face value of the tickets we were getting. I finally persuaded him with "I´ve come halfway across the world and I am watching a game of football." Trying to haggle with a scalper who only speaks Portuguese was also an experience. It involved both of us drawing invisible numbers with our fingers and nodding and shaking our heads. I finally drew an invisible 25 on the ticket with my finger to which he eventually nodded. I can´t imagine why trade talks between countries who don´t speak the same language can be that difficult.

10 minutes before kick off, we arrive at our seats and they are surprisingly good. We´ve scored seats behind a set of goals around halfway up the stand. If that only cost 5 euros at face value, 25 euro seats should have gotten us great seats behind the dugout.

We both sat down and just soaked in the atmosphere. Cheers rang out in unison across the stadium as 60,000 odd voices all screamed: POR-TOO-GULL! POR-TOO-GULL! POR-TOO-GULL! followed by olay,olay,olay,olay....olay, olaaaayyyyyyyy....as well as joining in on the odd mexican wave. I may have spoken about this before, but it´s the grand experience of a huge group of people sharing that same moment, having the same experience at the same time. It´s like 15,000 people all singing the same line of a song at a gig. You all connect and understand each other in that one moment, and that doesn´t happen often. Every near miss, poor line call, bad foul, free kick all drew the same reaction from the raucous Portuguese crowd.

All the Portuguese stars were on the pitch that night: Cristiano Ronaldo, Figo, Deco, Pauleta, Ricardo as goalie (no Vitor Baia though). Around the 21st minute, Figo curls a corner in that the Slovakians all missed, and Meira was there at the far post for an east toe-poke in for the first goal. The moment the goal went in, 60,000 people leapt off their seat and started cheering like mad. POR-TOO-GULL! POR-TOO-GULL! POR-TOO-GULL!
In the 41st minute, Cristiano Ronaldo curls a free kick past the Slovakian goalie from 25 yards and the crowd went mad again. Bill and I were fortunate enough to be at the end that both goals were scored at 😊

I particularly found it amusing when the substitutions were made, all it reminded me of was all the times my friend and I have played Playstation and used Portugal in a soccer game.
Cristiano Ronaldo comes off, and on comes QUERESMA.
Deco comes off, and on comes TIAGO.
Pauleta comes off, and on comes POSTIGA.

But it was an amazing night. Bill and I felt Portuguese for 90 minutes, and that´s what I call being able to embrace the culture....

I´ll take leave of you now and will have a chat to you next time I make it to a pc. Til then, Buenos Noches and Adios.

cheers,
Ben

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