Boa noite, Portugal! Lisboa edition

@spurious-claims and I have finally returned to our home after a journey to Portugal, where we attended SteemFest² and toured the country. What follows is an account of these adventures. This trip wouldn't have been possible without the good people of distributed autonomous collectives throughout the world. I'd like to give a special shout out to @roadscape for island-hopping, @lovejoy for having a good time without luggage, and @wolfcat for making phone calls. Thanks for all of the laughs and good conversations! Special thanks for the great conversations we've had @eroche @ebarbakos @wackou @ned @andrarchy @vandeberg @justinw @relativityboy @nanzo-scoop @saramiller @everlove @quinneaker @heiditravels @jexblackmore @elear @virtualgrowth @shla-rafia @lafona @dougkarr @alexlinebrink and everyone else that we crossed paths with over this grand journey! And of course, to @roelandp for bringing us all together!

Lisboa

We got to Lisboa a few days before SteemFest, so we could get to know the city a bit before going with the flow of the SteemFest crowd. Overall, there is a lot of energy in Lisboa and it definitely has more of a youthly vibe compared to Porto. On the first night we were roaming, and we came across a party by the sea, complete with a DJ and bar. I was offered cocaine and hashish from the first person to talk to us. We eventually learned that these dealers were everywhere and had a special affinity for me, probably because of the facial hair. I eventually figured out the best way to avoid their aggressive selling tactics was to shake my head "no", and keep walking every time one of them approached.

Photographed by @roadscape

Every road we walked on seemed to have some elevation up or down, and had the same cobblestone feel as Porto. We noticed that the Portuguese have not seemed to really address their colonial past head-on as one might expect a culture who's relics are built on the backs of slaves to do (such as the United States). For instance, the statues to commemorate those laborers refer to them as "pavers" instead of slaves. I wonder if these pavers were paid for their works?

Photographed by @robrigo

The street art in Lisboa is some of the best I've seen. From cobblestones to graffiti, statues to murals, there is something interesting to gaze upon everywhere you look, much of it commentary on today's issues or criticisms of today's global systems.

Photographed by @robrigo

We also spent part of a day touring around the countryside with @jexblackmore @justinw @almost-digital and @relativityboy.

Photographed by a passerby on @robrigo's phone

@jexblackmore was our steadfast driver, taking us first along the coast west of Lisboa to Boca do Inferno, where Aleister Crowley faked his death.

Photographed by @robrigo

After that, we did a mad rush through Sintra, an extravagant town of palaces nestled in the hillside outside of Lisboa. This is where the Portuguese royalty looked down on their peons from. Some of them even descended into initiation wells and traversed a network of catacombs, to what end? Nobody knows. It was a very opulent place.

Photographed by @robrigo

Overall Lisboa was a great place to travel, we hung out with many people from the internet and had a grand time nerding out about Steem and digital tokens in general.

Stay tuned for the culminating episode (and my personal favorite part of the trip)... in the Azores!