Lisbon - Kermit's business trip

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Beginning of February I had to go to Lisbon on a business trip. I always try to plan my meetings at the end of the week so i can stay the weekend extra to go sightseeing or visit friends. Since it was a trip for work I was alone and Peter didn't come along with me. Kermit did and i showed him parts of the city of Lisbon!

Thursday 2nd of February

I arrived in the afternoon and headed to my hotel which was right in the center in the Chiado area. It was a very nice and comfortable hotel but unfortunatelly they didn't have any internet connection, so there wasn't much i could do online. Maybe on one hand good since i was forced to leave my hotel room and go do things. Since my parents are portuguese I have been to Lisbon many times before and know the city quite well. I decided to go shopping in Armazens do Chiado. There I had a sandwich, went to some shops and even at H&M i didn't find anything I liked. I spent an hour in the cd shop FNAC but didn't buy anything. I felt a bit hungry again and went to get some portuguese tapas at a bar, had a portuguese espresso which they call "bica" and went back to my hotel. There i was able to catch someone's wireless internet connection and was able to talk to some friends on MSN and check my emails.

My roommate from my erasmus period in Coimbra in Portugal now lives in Lisbon. We decided to meet up since it had been 4 years that we had seen eachother. I was waiting in front of the shopping and meanwhile some older guy was trying to hit on me big-time! thank god that Daniel, my ex-roommate was right on time to save me so we could go look for a restaurant. He took me to a very nice traditional restaurant in Bairro Alto, my favourite area of the city, also called the Gay area. There we had a huge meal, loads of meat and e very sweet dessert. We both ate for only € 25 euros all together, dirt-cheap! It was pouring down rain outside so we decided to wait inside the restaurant where the owner, a typicall old Lisbon lady started chatting to us about politics, the current situation and the fact that i was a portuguese from Amsterdam. We had some Baileys to get into the mood and as soon as it stopped raining we went to my favourite bar in Bairro Alto called Portas Largas.

At Portas Largas we continued drinking, at the restaurant we had already had a whole bottle of wine and some Baileys and here Daniel ordered a jar of Sangria. We continued drinking, got drunk and there i saw a couple sitting that i had seen at the airport too when i had arrived that day. I went up to them, introduced myself and we started chatting. They were both from London but the boy was Slovakian and the girl was from South Africa. They were really nice and asked if they could join us. All together we went to some other bar of which I don't recall the name but they had a pole there and it wasnt long before some muscled guy started to ride against it and doing a strip act. Ofcourse it was a gay-bar where we were!

Then the 4 of us went to a club called Finalmente. It was a nice small dark gayclub with very nice music. We were already trashed by now and had some more beers. Here i met a dutch guy living in Florence in Italy but on holidays in Lisbon. He was a really nice guy and he was happy to be able to talk dutch after such a long while. Suddenly on stage the curtains opened and a dragqueen came out and started to do a show! She did a very good impersonation of Withney Houston. It was great to see. Some more dragqueens gave shows, all the gay anthems passed by and even some eurovision songs. The mother of all dragqueens in that club also started talking on the microphone and she gave a stand up comedy act as it seemed, she was hilarious. After dancing the rest of the night i headed for my hotel for a nice sleep.

Friday 3rd of February

I got up really late and to my surprise no hangover. Today I had to go to the airport to pick up my colleague, our technical manager to go with me to the company where we had our meetings. I took a cab, picked him up and headed back into the center. Since it was lunchtime we went to a restaurant and had lunch the portuguese way, with a hot portuguese meal and red wine. After our "bica" we went to the company where we had to be which was just around the corner from our hotel. The weather was lovely by the way. Here we sat for 3 hours where we did what we had to do. The people from that company, which I had already met in August invited us to go with them for dinner at night so we agreed. Since we still had time i took my colleague and Kermit to see the highlights of Lisbon. We took a cab to Belém, walked past Mosteiro dos Gerónimos and took a taxi back to Rossio. There we walked uphill through the narrow streets of Alfama to the S. Jorge Castle. It was quite a hike and after coming down again we had some pastries at a small bar and went back to the hotel for a short nap before being picked up for dinner.

At 20.30 we were waiting in the lobby of the hotel. They picked us up and brought us to a Brasilian restaurant near Sintra. Here we had Picanha, it was the only thing on the menu and you could eat unlimited. Its excellent food, thin slices of beef prepared in a special way, with rice, black beans, vegetables, herbs, spices and loads more. Caipirinha was the drink that night. the portuguese that took us there were big drinkers and wanted me and my colleague to join them in their drinking-fest. We started modest but before we knew my colleague and I were smashed! The restaurant had a live singer and before we knew customers of the restaurant were drunk, dancing, on tables and partying throughout the restaurant. One of the portuguese that was with us was so drunk that he even sang!

After the restaurant they took us to the biggest casino in Europe, Casino do Estoril. It was nice being there for the first time. It was huge and who said people in Portugal don't have money? They were spending money like it was nothing. I was still very drunk so I tried a slot-machine, lost € 20 euros and decided not to spend anymore. At 3:00 they took us back to our hotel.

Saturday 4th of February

This morning when I woke up I had no hangover again! I was pleasantly suprised, got prepared to go into town but had to leave that hotel first. Since the weekend I was staying for myself and not for work I chose a cheaper hotel in Lisbon. I chose Anjo Azul, the only gay hotel of the city right in the middle of Bairro Alto near all the bars and clubs and all this for only € 30 per night. So i dropped off my stuff there, looked for a place to have breakfast, then i went strawling through town. I went shopping and ended up again in FNAC the cd-shop where i bought 3 cd's. In the afternoon I met up with Daniel again and his roommate. We had coffee and sat outside at a bar with a great view over Lisbon and the Tejo river.

I went back to my hotel to relax and watched a movie on my laptop. I watched Saw II, what a scary movie that is! I slept for an hour, took a shower and was ready to hit the town again. I met up again with Daniel and his roommate and they took me to a nice portuguese restaurant. There i had a great meal, we had an excellent bottle of red wine and got into the mood for more drinks in Bairro Alto. The weather in the evening was still nice and everybody was standing outside chatting and drinking. We joined the crowd on the street and met up with the british couple again. I even went to a bar where i had to ask: can I have a kick in my cunt please? Sounds odd i know but that was the name of the drink.

I wanted to go to a gayclub called Trumps, since it had been a while since I was there. The british couple didn't join us as they had to go away very early the next morning. Daniel, his roommate and I went to the club. It was quite an expensive one as you pay € 4 for a simple beer! The music was great! I danced untill I met a cute italian boy which I decided to take back to my hotel! Not gonna tell ya what happened next ;-)

Sunday 5th of February

After waking up Kevyn (the Italian guy) and me went for breakfast at A Brasileira, a well known café in Lisbon. We had our toast and our coffee and then walked from Bairro Alto to Rato where we had to say goodbye. It was a very hot February day as it was 20 degrees Celcius. I had only an hour left to pick up my stuff and go to the airport. So i checked out of the hotel, caught a cab and went to the Airport. Here I bought my duty-free cigarettes, had a coffee and boarded the airplane and my great short business trip came to an end.

Kermit says "Adeus"

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Photos

Kermit @ Torre de Belém
Close Up

A Kermit Torre de Belém
A tower especially made for him!

A Kermit @ Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
Kermit goes to church!

Kermit on the hotel balcony in Bairro Alto
catching some sun rays and enjoying the view.