Wander through a city for a few days with your camera or phone ready, and you’ll end up with lots of pictures. Look through them later, and you’ll probably find you have a collection of bits and pieces that are a little different from the rest.
Sometimes they’re things that are just a bit odd, occasionally memorably beautiful—and sometimes they have an air of ‘Did I really see that?’ They usually don’t fit into any narrative I’m writing, as in this collection of ‘out-takes’ from a week in Lisbon.
Well into several of those categories: the title image of a monument that marks April 25, 1974, the end of the Salazar dictatorship. Broken pillars, and a sort of carnation, symbol of the revolution. You’d never know without a scorecard!
Sometimes you have to look up to spot the bits on a balcony, as above; sometimes it’s more subtle—is the poster copying the statue or vice-versa?
Some signs that leave a chuckle or a sigh: free-form fusion food, a sneaky come-on and a plug for wine…
Bits of whimsy pop up here and there…
I’m never without pictures of birds, though I’ve never before seen a peacock in a tree. That’s at the St George castle on a hill above the city.
Also a bird, sort of…
And some more wall art, whose meaning may or may not be what you (or I) think.
Some repeating shapes and patterns, from the Jeronimos Monastery to souvenir sardine cans to a flower-bedecked tiled building.
Standing tall in different ways: A guard at the Republican Guard Museum at Carmo, the Santa Justa Elevator that connects Carmo to the lower part of the city, and a parade of military cadets.
At the Parque subway station, pillars that resemble gnarled trees; at Martim Moniz station a wall of tiled text that reminded me of Simon and Garfunkel’s line that ‘the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls.’
Things that come in multiples: freshly-baked pasteis de nata, a wonderful custard treat, and tuk-tuks shilling for business in the Chiado district.
At the Art Deco museum, a selection of figures fill false windows, and last, a grafitti-style sign for a bookstore.
