LISBON IS DRESSED FOR CHRISTMAS

Today, I had enough free time to stroll through Lisbon downtown and take some photos of the city dressed for the Holiday Season.

One of the highlights of the city life arrived early this week when  Lisbon Mayor pressed the button that officially lit the lights for the festive season. 

Although I admit the main Christmas tree, with its structure consisting of nearly 90,000 lamps, is imposing, I didn't like it very much. The main square with its National Theatre and a Xmas Market were my favourites, perhaps because of the different stalls that added colour to the evening.

I ended my outing with a a piece of a cake and a black coffee at a historic café located at the Main Square.

 

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~~ May you have a wonderful weekend ~~

ISN'T IT A SECOND LIFE???

In recent years, many young creative entrepreneurs have been forced to leave Portugal in order to find work. Yet because of this, a Portuguese young lady, owner of a music management agency, was able to bring a London success formula to Lisbon.

Located on a site of the Lisbon tramway station and close to the river, Village Underground - so is the project name - provides affordable studios for young artists in recycled shipping containers and disused buses.

The latter were supplied by Lisbon's public transportation company, Carris, which saw in the project an opportunity to revitalize its station.

For 150 euros a month, up to 60 creatives can co-habit in the fourteen units, two of which are permanently reserved for workshops and a third for short-term stays by visiting foreign artists or entrepreneurs, like a Dutch woman who was kind enough to give answer to a few questions from me, while she accepted to pose for my camera.

Her office was in a container. She liked living and working in Portugal because, as she emphasised, there was sunshine and people smiled...  Her business activity, renting tuk-tuks, was going very well, she added. She told me she never had the feeling of being in a container but in a normal office room. Through the window, she enjoyed the view of the bridge, while seagulls sometimes seemed to be watching her...

I saw a man remodelling what it seemed to be a desk, most probably to be used in an office to open soon.

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WHAT I SEE FROM MY BEDROOM WINDOW....

Every morning, as I open my bedroom window, I look outside and I see two windmills on the top of a small hill in a Forest Park, maybe 300 meters away from my eyes. They always greet me in a very unique way, though they are not working for several years already.

These two windmills were built in the mids of XVIII century, for the Irish Dominican nuns of a nearby Convent. Nowadays, they are in Lisbon, the only perfectly preserved evidence of the significant mill activity developed by dozens of mills across the westside of the city that were the flour suppliers to the populations. The Santana Mills - so the two windmills are called - used to supply the Royal Palace - whose tower tops you can see a bit farther -  and they were acquired by the City Hall in 1942 and restored a few years later. They preserve the circular tower and chapel of four triangular sails, the typical structure of Portuguese windmills.

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You may wonder about those ceramic pots. We call them winkles or horns. They are all different in size. The function of these essential parts played an important role in the people's daily life. As the wind blew on the winkles, it made them emit a very peculiar sound that could be heard over long distances. As the peasants heard it, they used to say 'The windmill is singing', They knew the miller was at the mill, ready to start milling the grain. The sacks of grain were carried on donkeybacks.

 

This happened a long time ago, much before I was born. How I would have liked to have heard that song..

I have already thought of moving to another apartment as this one where I have been living for over 35 years, has become a bit big for one person, only. However, the moment I think of it, the moment I change my mind. How could I open the window of another bedroom and not see those windmills? I would surely miss my beloved windmills...