So this is what happened; I was enjoying a coffee and reading a book in Rossio, a nice area of Lisbon  with the biggest shopping street and two nice squares with some very nice fountains on both ends. Sitting at the cafe next to one of the squares, a little girl and – I assume – her mother asked me to buy hankerchiefs. I had allready given a little money to someone else earlier that day, so it was enough for me. But they kept bothering me, more then usually. The little girl was on the left behind me at some point while the mother was on the right side behind me. I was holding my iPhone (I was texting). The little girl started tapping my shoulder annoyingly, so I turned to her and at the same time (soooo stupid!) I put my iPhone on the table. The little girl pushed the hankerchiefs in front of my face (so that I couldn’t see propperly anymore) and when I pushed the hankerchiefs away they finally went away. But off course when I looked down on the table the phone was allready gone! I had allready payed for my coffee so I went looking for them instantly. Obviously they were nowhere to be found. I suppose it really WAS the oldest trick in the book…

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Down here are three photos I made yesterday. Photo 1 one is the ‘view from the office of Check The gate.’ Photo 2 is ‘Metro life at ‘Cais do Sodre’, Lisboa’. And Photo 3 is ‘People become art in a metro hall of ‘Cais do Sodre’, Lisboa.’ The last two photos I shot on my way back home.

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On the fourth day Linda and Marielle (also from my faculty in Holland) joined us to visit the castle and gaze at some amazing viewpoints over the city. The castle itself is nice, but for me personally the view was the most interesting. There wasn’t a lot of information about the castle itself, allthough you can feel the centuries that passed by while you are walking there.

Have a look at the photos here.

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So, I’ve finally arrived in Lisbon almost a week ago now. After a strange flight that involved two firetrucks fixing the right wing of the plane at Faro airport while we were escorted into the terminal, the same plane touched ground in Lisbon a few hours later with a small delay of about an hour. I took a taxi to my new appartment and Hylco and Kasper – my roommates for the upcoming 5 months or so (they are also from the same faculty as me in Holland) – were at home waiting for my arrival.

They showed me the house and which room was mine and a few minutes later I enjoyed my very first Portugese beer (Super Bock). I freshed up a little and Kasper wanted to show me a little more of the city by night. We went to the Erasmus bar for a beer and after this to a nice viewpoint over Lisbon.

The next couple of days I tried to arrange my transport ticket. Had to wait in the que about 3 hours the first time and had to come back the next day and the day after that. I finally mannaged to get the ticket, though. It makes life a lot easier in Lisbon because now I don’t have to upgrade my ticket every 24 hours, but only once a month. It’s cheaper as well!

With my new ticket I explored the transport of Lisbon a little more, with the help of Kasper who got here a week before me.

Next week I’ll start my internship. If there is time I willl meet with José Mineiro for a coffee first to get to know each other a little. So far we only had contact by phone and email. I’m really excited to start my internship, but more about that later when I’ve been working there for a while. For now, enjoy some photos I took of Lisbon on my third day here when I did some sightseeing.

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I’ve been putting this off on my blog for a long time because everything was still a little uncertain, but now things are finally starting to pay off for me regarding to my internship. I Had to fill in a lot of forms again (just like with Turkey) over the past few weeks, and make a lot of phonecalls to the city hall for example and arrange the erasmus scholarship programme for one last time.

But all the ‘filling in forms’ and placing phoncalls are finally (well almost, actually) finished and I’m off to Lisbon, Portugal for my internship next monday (14th of september 2009) for about three or five months.

I’ll be working at a filmproduction company called ‘Check The Gate’ there and from here on most of my journal will contain all my activities regarding to the internship for the upcoming months. I’ll write about the things I’m working on, the things I’ve learned and off course about Lisbon and Portugal.

I’ll try to write as many posts as I can, but I remember in Turkey after a while I was just to busy for writing blogs (and NOT just because of parties, really!:P). Anyway, I’ll post more information about Lisbon and my internship, probably somewhere during next week when I’ve acclimatized in my new city a little. It’s a new adventure again and I just can’t wait!

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