IT'S TEA TIME... IN LISBON!

I like arts... no matter if they are visual, poetic or some others... I like museums... I like visiting their permanent collections, while temporary exhibitions are something I try not to miss...

In November, I visited a three-month exhibition that traced the history of tea, the world’s favourite beverage over two thousand years.

Through some 250 pieces (porcelain cups, teapots, paintings, etc) visitors discovered the virtues of the tea plant, which for a long time remained unknown to the Western population.

I believe you would have loved to see all those treasures. It's a shame my photographs didn't turn out better, but the local conditions, even concerning light, weren't photo friendly. The lotus flower teapot was wonderful but there were many others, equally original and beautiful that I didn't have conditions to photograph. The wooden sink to wash tea cups was something I had never seen before...and it was amazing!

CINDERELLA PUPPETS EXHIBITION - A TRIBUTE TO HIS CREATOR

Some years ago, one of my relatives founded the Oporto Puppets Company, the most well-known puppet company in Portugal. Two years ago, he passed away but his widow decided to take the helm as director of the company and the shows continue.

Yesterday, I visited the exhibition ‘Cinderella’, a space where the puppets, his own creations, which made part of the show with the same name (it was on stage at the time of his death), were on display. It was not the traditional Cinderella. There were characters of other fairy tales - the seven dwarfs, for instance - that make the puppets be new hypothesis to exist beyond the stage. An interesting feature... the puppets are manipulated without strings.