LISBON meetup?

[Vivamus]

Hi, everyone-

I know there was some discussion of this in the original Lisbon gig thread, but has anyone come up with anything concrete? My partner & I are coming up from the Algarve for one night, and it would be nice if we could all meet up for an early dinner & or drinks before the concert....

I know it's not very "typically Portuguese", but it would appear that there's a Mexican restaurant on the seafront right next to the venue, with outdoor seating and gorgeous views. Pics here (down the bottom):

http://www.guiadacidade.pt/portugal/ind ... i=empresas

Also, if you've got Google Earth, this pic from there represents the precise view you'd get at dusk from their outdoor area:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5769650

And from there, it'd be a short walk to the venue...What does everyone think?

[NewZealander]

Gidday vivamus..You're right it did take me ages to find where you had posted this.SOunds like a good idea to me , right beside the venue. I will go back into the other thread and alert the others to your maps and photos..looks lovely!...and right there

[magdasto]

And what is actually the venue on the google photo?
It's too early for me to eat but as long as I can have a coffee there... I'm in.
magda

[st theresa]

That looks like a great place to meet--Count my husband and me in too.
Thanks for taking the initiative Vivamus.

[Vivamus]

magdasto: The Google photo is the outside seating of the Mexican restaurant from the previous link. Unless you mean the structure in the background, which is the rather impressive-looking new lighthouse, I think. It must be very normal for you in Spain, Mexican restaurants- But here in the Algarve, sadly, they are still quite exotic! Anyway, I only suggest it because it seems to be located on the Passeio Maritimo itself, and the view seems so nice; I know nothing about the food, but I'm sure you could have just coffee no problem.

In the other thread, you mentioned fado houses- From what I hear the ones in Bairro Alto can be a bit tourist-trappy. I think this one is the best respected, and, as I understand it open all night (though I don't know when the kitchen closes & their website appears down):

http://www.aportugalattraction.com/port ... -vinho.htm

st theresa: Woo-hoo! A fellow Canadian! I'm from *whispers*...Winnipeg....but tell no one! Have you heard this before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-LzM9fMS-0

But seriously, folks: When was everyone planning on actually heading to the venue?

[st theresa]

Vivamus
Are you seriously from **shhhhh***Winnipeg? Or did I post that about myself on some long lost thread?
I was born and grew up in W........ lo these many years ago--however left that city for travel and adventure in 1972. My sister and two brothers still live there. Thanks for the Canada song-you made me laugh till tears came.

[NewZealander]

Hi St Theresa..yes she definitely is from your old home town....(she's married to a Nice Scottish Fella..with a lovely wee dog to match) See her avatar...And in the meantime she's been giving me this great travelogue of where to go, how to get to places Ive seen up in the North of Portugal....So between them, (her and Luis) I consider myself very lucky to have come across two very helpful ambassadors of the country..... ....

[magdasto]

has anyone figured out already what would be the best time to meet?
how far is the restaurant from the venue? do we really need to be there two hours before it actually starts?
can you, vivamus, make a reservation for all of us?
cheers, magda
ps. I liked the song, too, it was fun but can somebody explain to me why does everything but Alberta suck?

[Vivamus]

st theresa- Like I'd LIE about coming from Winnipeg- For the cachet, presumably, LOL.

But I hadn't read anything about you being from there, honest. My brother also still lives there.

Bit of a thread-jack, but I was up in Edinburgh for New Year's a couple of years ago, and my mother-in-law's neighbour (a gentleman, I would guess, in his early seventies) came over & introduced himself, asked me where I was from in Canada, yada yada, and I made my usual reply of 'oh you won't have heard of it, dead centre of Canada, nothing but wheatfields', and he said he'd not only heard of it, he was born in TRANSCONA and lived there 'til he was 8. Transcona, of course, being where I'm from. How's that for obscure?

Small world, eh?

Now, I'm going to be REALLY freaked if you're from that particular suburb as well.

[Vivamus]

magda- I'll make the reservations no problem, once we finalise everything. I think how early we get there depends on how important it is for each one of us to be close to the stage- personally, I'm not fussed, so I don't plan on getting there before 9, but it would be interesting to know when other people are going to begin to queue (so I can saunter up at last minute and cut in front of them-ha!----Kidding; I'm kidding!).

I just (unscientifically) held up a piece of paper to my Google map screen and would estimate that the distance between the restaurant and where they'll set up stage (going in a straight line through the parking lot) is 450-500m.

The song was evil Alberta propaganda. The theatre group that sang it all come from Edmonton, so of course, THAT can't possibly suck.

[NewZealander]

hey everyone...my comment on two hours before had also included having a meal somewhere first.....And now vivamus that Ive seen those youtube links that you sent me re the venue I'm not so sure how early I want to be there either....You might also be very lucky to make a reservation on the night if there are 20,000 or 30,000 tickets on sale as purported. I'm actually sitting here giggling remembering in 2006 when the Rolling Stones came to New Zealand on their last tour...My Uncle and I had flown up to Wellington our capital city. He is a great one for reading all the trendy dining books and wanted to take me to this nice cafe he had read about. We called from the Hotel and they said that they would not take a booking on the night because of the extra 30,000 people who would be milling around waiting to eat...Well we walked around for ages looking for the place. Could not find it..Eventually I grumpily told him I was very hungry and we should just go to the first place we could find...So then we were unable to eat anywhere..Eventually we were walking past burger king in the main street and lined up there for something...We sat in the park over the road, eating our nice little meal of burger and chips happily watching the thousands of people walking down to the big stadium... Uncle was upset as he had planned to treat us in the "right place according to the book", ..I was happy as a (burger?) king with my hunger satisfied ....So....for me I have no expectation of even getting a meal on the night ...I just think that if you are serious about wanting to eat there perhaps you need to be there 2 hours before??....(As there are a hell of a lot more people in Portugal than there are in little old NZ!)?... ..So... Should we say make your own eating arrangements somewhere and meet by the Mexican restaurant an hour before the start??...The more people you involve in plans to meet and include a meal the more complex it gets??..Please if someone from Lisbon is reading this do you know how far from the venue gates the mexican restaurant is??....

[st theresa]

Vivamus
sorry not Transcona--Weston but----I had a best girl friend who moved to Transcona and I used to ride the buses
all the way over there on weekends for sleepovers when I was 10-15 or about that anyway...One of my brothers lived in Transcona for many years. What a coincidence to meet someone from your neighbourhood so far away. What are the odds? New Zealander--I am following the links on Leonard's tour in the small theaters he is now visiting and imagining that our venue will be just as intimate..no one in Portugal really knows who Leonard is do they? I was in tears watching the you tube videos --just imagine how I would melt if we got so close to him. Perhaps hot Mexican food prior to the show is not such a great idea after all. I will be getting antsy as we wait for service and watch the thousands of fans strolling by. I am one of those terrible people who want to be on time--my husband keeps the leash tight when I get like that. I would have very little appetite with the excitement building. Then again with two weeks of holidays prior to the date, I may have time to mellow out and slow down a bit.

[NewZealander]

Oh St Theresa..that was just a very funny story..perhaps not the reality of how it will be over there (after all he's Leonard, not old Mick Jagger!).. But who knows how many will be there..only one person from Lisbon (Blue Bird) seems to have helped out here on some of these questions..(Perhaps they are frightened away by these foreign women trying to plan something way before time!!....)But anyway perhap you are right it might be very easy to get very close to the stage as after all we are of the "older generation",surely not so many over there will be so interested....?..Anyway I have an idea!!!.... Is that good or bad??....Remember Im staying right up the hill in that apartment/hotel complex.(with a restaurant).I first thought that I could easily get enough yummy food together to bring down to the waterfront and meet you all with it for a picnic ...but they do have a restaurant...I will email then and ask them if they would get together an "out catering" picnic basket of food for us all and see what it might cost per person??...And in the meantime R..oh Vivamus, perhaps you could try and see if the mexican restaurant would take you booking for those who really want a big hot meal.....(Im the softy around here who cant take too much of that heat)....
I do think St Theresa though that it would be good to try and get as close to the stage as possible ..if we are milling around there for a while monitoring it we will know when to go in and try and get close...I know that Luis was interested in that too early on (in the forum) when we discussed rugby scrums...I hope you are right...that it will not be too packed and nice and relaxed...

Meanwhile, its a murky drizzly cold presnow type evening here..I'm just finished work and now have to get ready to drive back into the city for a formal dinner...hope I do not slide home!!.....Bring on the Northern Hemisphere and Sunshine and laughter eh!!

[Vivamus]

Yes, well, it won't stop raining here. I am most dischuffed. Angry letters of compliant will be written.

I very nearly put a bit in my last post about how we'll probably know better how to prepare once we get a report back from one of the larger venues- Is it Dublin that's bigger? Does anyone know if any of the other gigs are general admission like this one? I know Benicassim's similar, but that doesn't help us as it takes place AFTER Lisbon.

I was once in Rome during Holy Week, and during the Stations of the Cross, let me tell you, those nuns were BRUTAL, elbowing and jostling their way to the front of the crowd. I just like to avoid scrums. I do the same when we fly Easyjet. I think I'm getting slightly agoraphobic in my dotage.

I was a little disturbed to find it was a general admission concert. I mean, I'm relatively confident that they won't sell out a 30-40,000 capacity venue, but yeah, a more intimate venue would have been way cooler. My partner's already starting to moan about his hernia and standing for two hours.

And I wasn't MARRIED to the idea of the Mexican restaurant- I realise people might want something more Portuguese, I was just struck by its proximity to the venue. I was initially meant to be meeting up with my cousin in Lisbon for dinner prior to the concert, but I was trying to avoid being stuck somewhere in the middle of the Bairro Alto or wherever, a victim of slow service or heavy traffic, etc. & not getting back to the venue on time. As it happens, she doesn't like Mexican food either, but I thought she'd appreciate the locale- Incidentally, I've never had a proper "hot" Mexican meal in this country. I don't think you can get the proper chillies or whatever and anyway it's been my experience that the Portuguese generally don't like spicy food (contrary, I know, to popular perception). There is an Indian restaurant just by your hotel, NewZealander, but I wasn't even going to mention that!

Can you tell I have special meal requirements (vegetarian) at all, lol?

Anyhoo. Whatevs. Me & the Fat Man will be at the Mexican, tending to our blood sugar levels from 7- Hmm. What if we all provisionally met for drinks & coffee, on their outside terrace, say 6ish. Assuming there's room, of course. I'm not so concerned about a rush of Cohenites as the fact that it is a pretty prime location (I shudder to think what their rent is) at the height of tourist season, but generally speaking at that hour we should be okay.

NewZealander- I'm totally not dissing your picnic idea; I am just a total coffee FIEND. Need. Someplace. With. Plentiful. Coffee. Supplies.

I could probably research another restaurant. There appear to be loads in Alges. Or we could revert to the pasteis de Belem idea. Could we just maybe concretise what time people who want to get there early would want to get to the venue, so we could work backwards from that? Say, 7? Anyone thinking earlier than that? Bueller?

[NewZealander]

haha..well you have your Mexican..thats fine...Someone else here is a fan of hot and spicy, but for me with that food I break out in the hottest sweat!!....someone might mistake it for some middle aged women's disease...or a longing for something else ..I will have stores in my little fridge and will probably be not so hungry...I am looking forward to three weeks of not having to schedule any mealtimes for home and just eating a bit when required and exercising a lot!!....I will have had a snack by the time I come down that hill...so the concert is 9...are you saying meet at 7...???....with a view to having a coffee and a chat and moving on in there as the flow of people seems to show us that its time???.... That sounds good to me...