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À la recherche du bar perdu.
This entry was posted in Europe, Portugal and tagged Ascensor da bica, Bairro Alto, Bar, Beer, Bica, Brazil, Drugs, Europe, Intendente, Lisbon, Music, Night, Night time, Portugal, Samba. Bookmark the permalink.
29 Responses to À la recherche du bar perdu.
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So typically Lisbon. I’ve never been so gloriously perdu as when I was during my visit. And no illicit substances were involved! It’s hard enough to try to locate a place once, let alone try to find it again much later. You really captured the atmossphere of this surreal city.
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Thanks Julie! Lisbon is really a gem, gotta come back again (and again, and again…)
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Much lighter fare than the Proustian search for lost time (thank god), but one that would tug on me more than his task! You are so right, though, that not finding it makes the memory even more special. There are a smattering of places like this that exist only in my mind now, and their lack of earthly substance does not dim their power over me!
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Yeah, 2 A4s vs 7 volumes… Good old Proust never was one for synthesis wasn’t he?
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The reference to Proust has given me nightmares all over again. That bloody book! Lol
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Ha! It was an especially bad book… but the title is great.
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Did they serve petit madeleines?
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There were some sardine pate, I think… still counts?
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Thank you for letting us into your dream. It’s quite… wet in there. 😀
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Yeah lots of… liquids!
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Oh I was with you all the way, immersed in the scene you created and wishing I could have been there. Your storytelling is wonderful. I’ve never been to Portugal, but long to go. I’ve heard nothing but good things.
I once stumbled into an up-market hotel lobby in Mexico City to accidentally discover the most beautiful huge stained glass ceiling. I figured I’d never see it again, and never did but I’ve always remembered it. Many many years later a friend posted a picture of it on FB – she was staying there. So finally it was not perdu, but I still haven’t been back to it. And I also remember a bar in the suburbs of Paris that I’d love to find again, but doubt I ever will. Perhaps they are better as memories anyway.
Alison
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Hey Alison, thanks for the kind words! Did the Mexico city stained glass lobby pass the test of times and memory? Sometimes I see things I used to look at in the past and more often than not I find them somewhat smaller, tinier, than they were in the past!
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Definitely passed the test of memory, except now I can’t remember the name of the hotel lol 🙂
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You capture the feel of past memories despite a beer buzz better than I can clear-headed.
I do remember one night in 1980 in a bar in Salzburg. No mass crush of people, but watching a couple locals drinking beer by the boot full. (Glass boots, large, probably a couple liters worth.) One of the fellows ordered a second one (or maybe it was a third.) We later found him laying in the street, making a bed out of the gutter.
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Well, they must’ve been Brits! Thanks for reading Dave. Boot beer mugs sound great.
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I always thought you can’t go to the same Lisbon twice. Seems you found that too.
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You, sir, are a true Philosopher!
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🙂
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Great story. Reminds of one too many for me!
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Well that’s the proof of a life well lived!
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A life well lived indeed. Your storytelling is magnificent, even the haziest of recollections. I had a scroll through the comments and see many of my friends here! I am so glad that we have now connected here in the blogosphere. Ahoy from Panama.
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Hey Lisa, ahoy from London. Indeed it feels like a small world, and I did find you through Alison I believe? thanks for being around.
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Adore Alison and happy to have met you through her!
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Sounds a more interesting quest than Proust’s. A bar. Would he have approved?
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Who knows?! They had no Bordeaux or champagne…
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A fatal mishap…
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A fabulous story, and I felt as if I was walking those Lisbon streets with you. There’s a cool rooftop bar at Hotel Mundial, you know. 🙂
It may be best you didn’t find that bar – it is now immortalised in your memory, or lack thereof.
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Yes, never meet your heroes and all that… I saw that rooftop, but never went there. We did pop down to a rooftop bar on a multi storey car park though!
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The Park Bar. It was on my list but I didn’t get there.
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