Open Photo Gallery

Saturday morning cartoons - this one seemed pretty good, sort of a "fantastic voyage" thing, here I think they're exploring follicles and goosebumps.


Random Portugal: these bookshelves seemed rather popular (read: I saw them both at Marcos' and Johnny's), along with those kind of folders for magazines and papers and stuff.


My own footsteps outside the bath amused me.

It's nice being easily amused.


Yo Dawg, I heard you like garage doors...


Random Portugal: you order "café", espresso is the default.


Random Portugal: I think the European standard plug might make more sense than the American/Japan. It just seems more durable.


Plus, you can have light, non-grounded versions.


At the museum yesterday I boguht a book about "Contemporary Photography as Art" so now I'm all pretentious.


One thing I forgot to mention is, political season is in full swing here - todays the "day of reflection", the day between when all campaigns have to be ended and the voting on Sunday. Here are some of the party billboards:


Commies!





So today was the highup attractions of Sintra. Marcos mentioned that the mountain the palace is on has its own microclimate.


But before we tackle the castle, lets see the toy museum! It was kind of dominated by Playmobil.


Marcos was really taken by the floor of toy soliders... actually, many of the photos from here on him were by him.





Man, that man ruined a perfectly reasonable mustache option, forever. Among other things.


A cleansing dash of Boy Scouts.


Soldiers of ancient times were also present. Lots of action here.


And the Egyptians


And naked cavewoman???


Oh, come on! You can't fight with your junk all out in the open like that!


Game about getting to heaven, I think.


Marcos points out dolls can be really, really creepy.


And creepily gothy.


GAH






They had a neat model of a German town on the ground floor (and, yeah, Portugal and all of Europe #s its floors starting with "zero", which appeals to the computer geek in me)


Overhead view.


You know what this world needed? Vodka in a tube.


So we grabbed the bus up the road. The winding road had hairpin turns everywhere, the driver was kind of amazing.


Even at the end of the bus line, there was plenty of climbing to be done. The photo doesn't show it well, but the foliage is this crazy blend from all over the world.


The castle is a nice blend as well.


Kind of expensive though, and the high cost relative to other just as interesting things combined with their "don't photograph anything inside" shtick made me cranky, as you can see here.


And here.


Crocodile gargoyle?


The view was expansive.


Only in Japan had I previously seen hills that fade into the mist like in the game "Koronis Rift".


Pretty.


Marcos lookin' like he owns the place.


Kirk lookin' like... I dunno, an angry genie?


Deft kitty.


See ya later, castle.


Cheese-based sweet - "queijadas de Sintra" - the area is known for - awesome, especially the crispy texture of the outer crust.


Here kitty kitty...


The Salvation Army!


Castle in the distance.


Guess it's always nice to see construction during economic down times. The Portuguese just refer to it as "the crisis". (One T-shirt on Bica street last night said "F*** the Crisis", sans the *s)


Finally back home, we watched Marcos' and his son's favorite team "Sporting Lisbon" take on Porto - here's Tomás right before Porto's single and deciding goal.

Tomás and Laura dressed in team colors.



Tomás' pretty inventive maneuver to retrieve the pool'd ball.


Jeez those are cute kids!