February 21.
See the blind man / shooting at the world. Jack stands up and makes his move. He’s a tactical guy. Start talking with the older one, the uglier one, the least attractive woman. Following the harsh merciless laws of nature. That way he transforms himself from a danger coming from outside the group into a …
February 18. Jack’s first adventure.
Today Jack got out early, while I was still dreaming of rosabuds and guirlandes on the wall of a monch’s refectory, of tulips and waterpipes, of drowsy days spent under semispherical
pink umbrellas, of the Lisbon elevator that takes you up to the sky for only 2€ and the tram that takes you down for …
February 17. Meat and Metaphores.
I want to find my way into the cave underneath us, explore the big hollow caverns that lie below the fundament of our civilization. I want to descend as far as I can, and breath the stale air of the dark grotto that is filled with highly inflammable gasses. The weight of our civilization compresses …
February 16. Jack enters.
I decided to split up. One part of me is sitting in the sun being wonderfully happy, living up to his dreams to his heart’s content, he produces reflections like sunrays on the surface of a still mountain like, and he produces the illusion that those reflections will last at least a few centuries. The …
February 15. Belém.
That professor of mine might be infected too. He could be part of the complot. He accepted my PhD-thesis just because he felt sorry or something. Otherwise what would it mean? I am not used to squeeze meaning out of that. The complot thought could be interesting: just imagine the whole world working together diligently …
February 12. Sintra.
Sintra. A wonderful, sunny day. Portugal has been a monarchy but the coward royals went off to Brazil during the Napoleontic invasions. In Sintra, you can visit one of their flamboyant castles. It’s very beautiful as you can see on the pictures. The opulence of the crown was paid for by the poverty of the …
February 11. To whom it may concern.
For writing perhaps you need loneliness. Loneliness for breakfast, loneliness for lunch and loneliness for dinner. But that will never be enough. You’ll need to sleep with her, caress her cheeks, she’ll have to be the muse in all of your dreams. And what is it you can write then? A really-real account of that …
February 10. Pasteleria and abstractions.
There are very good Pasteleria’s in Lisbon, and the coffee is very cheap. I can work fast without caring too much about quality, about what the reader might think. I can’t put the bricks of words together when I know what the building must look like. I can’t guarantee you the building isn’t going to …
February 8,9. Pombal built this city.
Marquise de Pombal is the Hausmann of Lisbon. The streets of Rossio are laid out like a chessboard, like Barcelona or Manhattan. That’s Pombal’s work. They have Pombal-style houses that are made of wood in order to make them earthquake-proof. In the 1755 earthquake the city was almost completely distroyed by the tsunami and the …
February 7. Adamastor and the human condition.
In Lisbon don’t miss the Miradoura Adamastor. Adamastor, a great Portuguese discoverer, an icon of the empire that has been. His statue looks out over the Tejo now, and there are always young people drinking and laughing in the square of the Miradoura. The sun heated up the scene, a drunk Scottish boy mooched about …
February 5. At the Docks again.
I went to the docks again, wanted to find out if a crossing is possible in early February. Here’s the result: no. The freighters have their European Union regulations with safety measures and every human being on board needs a certification for everything. It would take me months to do the necessary paperwork and besides, …
February 4. City over the Rainbow.
Famous scene with Streetcar The next day, I turned into a tourist. Got up early, same breakfast, same women, same atmosphere. But I met Alicia, a little Chinese woman who was nice to talk to. With her and some other guys we walked up to the castle. If you’re visiting Lisbon, you should walk up to the …
January 29. In the Countryside.
The breakfast Andre offered me was very good. Especially the strong Portugese cheese called “Queijo da serra” was delicious. Go try that, dear reader, when you are in Portugal. Andre brought me to the bus station, where I bought my ticket to Oliveira do Hospital, a small city in the middle of the country. Then …