Street scenes

My first impression of Lisbon was that it was a lot like Mexico complete with the smell you often get on the streets there, the noisy trucks and the litter, but as I have spent more time walking around I am getting a different feel for it. There are subtle things that give it a uniqueness. For example right now I can look out the window and on the tile roof across the street I can see that plants are actually growing up between some of the tiles, in fact if I look more closely I see lichen growing on the tiles too. Now those are some old tiles!
The first thing you notice in the pedestrian streets are the streets themselves. They are shiny and look wet! It is a giant mosaic and it very beautiful. Now I am convinced it is made of glazed ceramic tile.


On this street there are tons of buskers of course. This guy was doing very,very well. Every female that walked by dropped a coin or two. If I ever take up this line of work I now know know to make it a success!



I stayed and watched for a while and the dog really knew how to work the crowd. He got pretty mad though, when this other busker who was dressed as spiderman came over and tried to move in on his prime location. He was barking and growling at the guy til he finally moved several yards away. Spidey was lame in comparison . Here he is standing on a stool. Not sure what his talent was supposed to be.



Other news included me drinking the world's smallest cup of coffee.






They gave you two packets of sugar but that seemed like overkill for a scant 2 oz. Of coffee. It wasn't that bad really. I tried it because of my dinner with the Portuguese and Serbian hostel residents last night. They are big fans.
The owner of the hostel's mother cooks dinner here most nights. It is a great deal for only 8 euro. Last night I got to talk to people from Serbia, Portugal, Australia and two US study abroad students while eating potato and leek soup, chicken and rice with cheese and chess(?) pie with ice cream. There was also sangria plus they served Port and these marinated sour cherries after dinner. It was great!
Today I walked around and and checked out the neighborhood. This car was parked in the street selling CDs of Fado music which is the local music.
Here is a sample.

Here are a few more street scenes.



The blue at the end of the street is the river where it meets the sea.










Some buildings are covered with tile . Very pretty!
















I think the tide was out. That's it for today!

Location:Lisbon, Portugal