Making Work Great Again… in Lisbon
Starting month 2 brings an assortment of new experiences and challenges. Unfortunately, the shiny patina of a new experience starts to wear off. The seemingly predictable rhythm of the every day starts to set in, but to really throw you off and keep you paying attention, you change locations. We packed up the whole gypsy caravan and moved from Belgrade to Lisbon. With this there’s a litany of detail that causes you to engage way past your comfort zone. The basic changes of even knowing where you are in relation to others or the locale becomes exaggerated, there’s new keys and new apartment, new trash rules and a new grocery store to navigate. Quick side trip: For those of you that know the detailed layout of your local Publix (or Kroger, Safeway) there’s something that’s extremely telling on how people live by the way their grocery store is laid out. Lisbon is no exception. You notice a sweeping array of fresh fruit, vegetables and then there’s the cod bunker (yes, cod..the fish) These folks are sold on the power of salted cod. This display takes up a large portion of real estate between the melons and meat. Cod.. it’s a huge part of Portuguese cuisine and they love it. Love it or hate it, it’s a dominate force. Oh, and I’m liking it.
Then there’s the streets. The old town section is laid out in a crazy random maze, that is actually planned chaos. The Moors used this as a tactic to make it almost impossible for anyone invading to make a straight shot to the castle. It is a bona fide design point, as I am told. The streets are meticulous covered in limestone cobblestone that contingent on where you are in town can be literally peppered with basalt (black stone) laid out in the most captivating and intricate designs. The cityscape can be vertical in places adding to a challenging walk. It’s not unusual to have a stepped or terraced feature in a sidewalk to support navigating your daily walk. Yes.. It is a vertical city, giving your glutes an amazing workout. Be prepared, this is a five-star-sensible-shoe town. Think mountain goat precision balancing acts. Yet you start to notice that local women do navigate in high heels and even higher wedges..very impressive!
The first day of my work commute, one of Lisbon’s famous yellow trolley traversed the street right as I turned the corner to walk up the street. It looked like a movie scene or an animated postcard that I just happened to witness. I did stop just to take it all in.. the sights, the trolley sounds, the narrowness of the streets and people just going about their everyday. This was also my new everyday. WOW! thank you, Remote Year. 
Realizing that basic living logistical challenges is the cost of changing locations, it elevates you about two levels . While stretching, you get to absorb, breath it in and allow yourself to experience the sheer panic and beauty of a change of venue. It makes you feel alive. It energizes your creativity. You see new things with tired eyes and suddenly it’s effervescent.
Lisbon’s history and culture are deep and as American’s we have had exposure to the great discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and the explorations of Vasco de Gama. Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world. There is a respectful beauty of the old city’s cityscape: tiled buildings, red clay tiled roofs, punctuated with the omnipresent cobblestones, street art, musical interludes of traditional Fado and lyrical guitars. This is a seriously magical place.
Most tourists stay a week, checking off their Bucket List items. When you stay longer, you take time to visit with your local barista (Mine is originally from Ireland and she makes an extraordinary Almond milk latte), buy cherries from a local grocery at the bottom of your terrace and take a long walk after dinner because there’s so much to see and do. You start to use words like terrace, cobblestone and trolley on a regular basis. Somehow there’s a funky juxtaposition of this beautiful simpler life overlaid with the virtual nature of digital working; technology has enhanced my life.
Yes, there can be pangs of extreme Heimweh… of home sickness. I am missing my Florida life. I miss my beautiful daughter and friends. A benefit of a digital life is everyone is a simple keystroke away. It’s very easy to send them digital postcards, ensuring that they are part of this precious and precarious journey…real-time. By the way, I ate grilled Sardines for my Sunday dinner while watching the world beach soccer championships (yes, this is a real thing.. go figure!) while sipping a particularly crisp vino verde on the most incredible beach, Nazare.. where you can watch the sunset over the Atlantic (I’ll give you Floridians a moment to process)
Wish y’all were here too.. Smile– – I’m determined to Make Work Great Again.. one blog post at a time.
