Belem!

On Tuesday I finally hit a place on my trip where I am ok not seeing everything and being more low-key. Ok, the whole day wasn't like that but still....
My plan was to go to Belem, a neighborhood that would necessitate metro trips, to see three sites. I saw two.
I initially had a hard time finding the right bus to take there. I stopped and had a pressed ham and cheese (and butter) sandwich for breakfast. Then I started walking in the general direction until I found a bus that would take me there, along with a butt-load of other tourists.
I was going to go to the contemporary art museum first but when I got off the bus, I saw the line for Mosteriro dos Jeronimos was quite long. So I waited on it. And waited. And waited. And waited for the better part of two hours. In the sun. (Yes, I have been wearing sunblock, Mom.) The line moved very slow. I thought I was being smart but when I looked in the afternoon, the line was quite short so apparently getting there early was not the way to go. I was concerned that when I finally got in there, it would be packed, like some of the other places I've been to. It was not, which might be a function of the size of it.
There is no way to take a picture that captures the exterior or interior, but I did my best:

This is a monastery built in the 1500's in the Manueline style. I didn't look that up. I actually remember. I actually read stuff when I have time. They did have a room with extensive info about the history of the monastery and what was happening in world history during corresponding periods, but it was a lot to take in.

Fernando Pessoa is buried there. When I was hosting Poet As Radio, one of our guests was a Pessoa expert and translator. Pessoa wrote in different personas. I did not get a book of his from the gift shop but I definitely want to check him out.

If I remember correctly, this is the room the monks meditated in. I don't like the painting but I took a picture of it because it looks like the cat is plotting something.

This is the church as seen from the second story of the  monastery.

And the second story of the monastery

And another attempt at the outside.

I then had another sandwich (chicken) for lunch. I wanted to go to this pastry place my book recommended but when I got there, the line was down the block. Being as I have had pastries here that I was able to get immediately that I thought were awesome, I was not about to wait who-knows-how-long in the sun.
I did not take a picture of my sandwich. You've all seen chicken sandwiches, I'm sure.
I headed to Museu Coleccao Berardo, a contemporary art museum. I liked their door:

The museum starts around the surrealist (yay!) and then gets more into cubism (eh!) so that first part was the most interesting to me. There was some good photography too. This painting is by Giorgio De Chirico. I have a book by him. I don't remember how I'd heard about it but it's supposed to be trippy and I acquired it during my Amazon Wishlist purge last year.

At this point I was ok missing the Torre de Belem, which was some distance away. I got a bus back to the center, walked around, bought souvenirs.
As I said, it's hard to find a vegetables around here. Lonely Planet usually recommends vegetarian restaurants and I also have a habit of stumbling across really great ones by accident. Not the case here. The one vegetarian place was in a neighborhood I had not been to, which I had a hard time finding on the map, and which took two trains to get to. When I got on the first train, there was a group of people from the US wearing vegan t-shirts. Yup, they were heading there to. They had reservations. I didn't. The restaurant staff let me sit in the garden if I promised to be out by 8:30 but I moved into the restaurant for dessert just to be safe. This was my tempeh shwarma, which was very good. I had an apple and prune crumble for dessert and this ridiculously sweet almond liqueur.

I headed back to my guesthouse. On Monday a guesthouse staff showed me how to use the air conditioner. She set it at 16 celsius which is chilly. I raised it to 22 which is very nice. Tuesday was cooler than Sunday and Monday. I've been mostly appreciating the heat. Despite my daily use of sunblock, I have gotten some color.
At night I have been reading a totally nonsense and entertaining YA novel I bought while drinking too much at an event at Green Apple. As some of you might know, I read YA when I travel. I used to do it because I found it helped with anxiety. Now I just do it because it's fun and I'm on vacation damn it!