I waited and waited for the bus,the green line of the hop on hop off bus, and after half an hour of watching people, I thought I’m going to start walking. I’ll get it later. Haha! It figures, it’s passing me right now as I walk to the Carmo convent. It’s a tough walk uphill, but worth it in the long run.The Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, is a former-Roman Catholic convent located in the civil parish of Santa Maria Maior, municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. The medieval convent was ruined during the sequence of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the destroyed Gothic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the southern facade of the convent is the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the old city. It is amazing that the back chapel is a still up after the quake. It survived, and a lot of artefacts were in there. The video presented on site, which is in Portuguese and English, explains a lot about the attempt at reconstruction and the events. That was really worth it. I’m sitting in the Square Largo da Carma having a beer.
24 hours from now will be sitting on my plane heading home, I hope.
For dinner, I planned to go to a restaurant just down the road that had steak. I thought I wanted something different than regular seafood but then as I was walking down there, another restaurant was open. This place is not more than 300 feet from where I’m staying; this one was called Quermesse.
I saw some Italian dishes on the menu and I was curious. I saw lasagna,and that’s why I walked in the door. It’s another favourite of mine and great a comfort food. It was seafood lasagna and I had a couple of glasses of red wine. It was all delightful.
It wasn’t an inexpensive dinner, but it was good. I met a couple of women there, one from Minnesota one from San Diego, California. They were asking me questions, because they heard me talking to the waiter. They were both in the education field, both principals, and we had an interesting conversation across tables. They were asking all about where I was, where I stayed, what I done; I left my email address if they wanted more information. It was an enjoyable conversation. When you’re eating alone it’s nice to have a conversation with other people.
It was a long day of touring. I’m exhausted, I need to go home to Canada for a rest . I have booked a taxi for first thing in the morning to the airport, and then I am off. I’ll see you or talk to you all in Toronto.
Ta ta for now.
This probably is my last blog edition for a while. I am heading home.
