Thanksgiving

Or, as it's known here, Thursday. (42)

The year has worked it’s way around to The Big Day: the 4th Thursday in November. Also known as Quinta-feira. Or, Thursday. And it looks like a Thursday. The same people out and about, the same traffic, the same rush hour on the Metro.

Typically, we invite people who haven’t a place to go to our home for Thanksgiving . Those who don’t have family nearby and those who are visiting from far away (Wash U students). Sometimes it’s 8, and sometimes 15. Depends on the year.

Obviously we are perfectly set up here to recreate that experience, with a couple of exceptions: 1) we have yet to cook anything beyond an omelet in our kitchen with the tiny oven and still-new-to-us induction hob, and 2) tracking down the ingredients that make up a Thanksgiving meal. Sure, a turkey is findable. As are potatoes, if you don’t mind that they aren’t the best type to mash for dinner. Cranberries? That’s a hunt. As is stuffing. No pumpkins. Only one kind of apple to make your pie with. Since we’re still recovering from Covid (Amy slept super late yesterday and then had a massive nap), this isn’t the year.

So we signed up for an expat Thanksgiving meal of 60 people in Cascais, home of our ill-fated 25th anniversary lunch. The event was organized by some folks who run Americans and Friends PT, a Facebook group we’d joined when we first started seriously contemplating our move. We were looking forward to it.

The commuter train from Lisbon to Cascais had lovely, if rain-streaked, views of the gray, choppy ocean. And, a bonus - a friend of ours also headed to the dinner turned out to be in the seat next to us. After a nice 15-minute walk through town we were at the event and met up with other friends. This was looking good!

Setting: museum courtyard. Lovely, if not homey. The statue in the back/left wall? We guess Vacso de Gama who, oddly, is winking at the viewers. Artist’s choice? Dust in his eye? Who knows … Photo by Amy.

And they did do a great job sourcing food. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce, check. The looong buffet had a stunning number of dishes.

Buffet line at the end of the meal. Photo by Amy.

Imagine a Thanksgiving meal prepared by people who have never eaten one themselves, and that should give you a rough approximation of the quality of the food. The turkey was very well cooked. Let’s leave it there.

The walk back to the train station. Photo by Amy.

Our way back occurred during Portugal’s first game of the 2022 World Cup. Every bar and restaurant had tvs and patrons avidly watching. Most, however, were not full? World Cup anyone? Hello? People that we passed were watching the game on their phones or tablets. We will undoubtedly cover the Portugal World Cup journey at a later date. So far, though, living in a football-crazed location has been different than what we expected.

From Lisbon, we are wishing you the happiest Thanksgiving.

Scott & Amy