Hello all!
I have just come back from what was supposed to be a rather boring business trip to Lisbon, but turned out to be a hilarious experience, in which spearfishing, drinking and hysterical alternated, thanks to one of participants of this forum - Marco. (Marco I owe you more than one, as well as a trip to the Volga to shoot catfish and much more)
First I and my colleague Nabi went to Lisbon to attend a conference on maritime security for and I must say it was a rather demanding event - trying not to fall asleep as participants droned on all sorts of things related and (more often) unrelated to piracy for four straight days.
All the fun would take place in evenings and at night, of course, albeit we did sneak out for daylight sightseeing and obligatory photos in front of landmarks. You should be all thankful that these pics, including those for which I posed with my very large Caucasian cap on, drowned along with my camera off during my first day of post-conference spearfishing, and I am not going to post them, forcing you to look at them. Again, I should thank Marco because no spearfishing would have taken place in the first place without him. It took even him about one hour to locate one of the three offices where they issues spearfishing licenses to foreigners and the lady who received us at this office spoke no English. Marco also kindly took us in his car from Lisbon to Cascais when the conference was over and even more kindly drove me around to spots where we spearfished together. Unfortunately, it was raining, windy and as a result the ocean was uncalm and visibility was low so his friend had to cancel a trip on his boat to some secret spots of his. But even without that I enjoyed the experience a lot, diving off the shore in Cascais with Marco. IMHO the Portuguese oceanic coast appears to attract more fish than the Med or less spearfishers. Hence, you could find decent fish even at 3 meters!
The first day was brutal - the previous time I dived as on New Year's eve in a frozen ass river outside Moscow - so I was short of breath and lost my camera and burnt my lip and chin against some kind of a mean weed while Marco worked the stones, spearing a few decent fish, including a muletta, and a very sizeable octopus!. Also I didn't have enough weights on so I had to cling to all stones to try stay at bottom. But the next two days - I progressed in spite of the brutal hangover I and Marco) had after a loooong evening of drinking and misbehaving (I woke up next morning with phone numbers of two ladies I could not quite remember and a phone full of SMS that I sent to one of them in Portuguese - so you can imagine the fear and loathing I experienced when trying to remember what Marco could have actually taught me and I used in those SMS, given that I usually try to learn the worst explicit language first))). The third day was the best - I speared a few fish, including a Badejo and a Salema. The bigger one I got in a cave of stones while the smaller one I speared, sitting in an ambush on the bottom. I also scratched a good mulleta's forehead from a range of less than a meter - lack of practice! Marco also kindly gave up the sea bass he speared so we were able to roast them for a small dinner with some very good wine that Marco gave me as a present. (FYI: local restaurants won't agree to cook fish for you the way they do in Greece/Republic of Cyprus)
On all three days I used a 70-cm Beuchat all the time while the 1-meter Omer was collecting dust at the hotel - visibility was too low - about 2-3 meters. The water temperature was about 15 degrees so I dove in a 5-mm Picasso and felt comfortable in water. I also felt very much at home and comfortable on shore too, thanks to Marco's hospitality and the hospitality of the Portuguese people in general - they may seem a bit reserved, but if you talk to them - they smile and are very helpful. I also felt safe too in Cascais as we rambled the streets at very late hours. (The sense of safety and security was enhanced by a surveillence camera installed at the level of your groin in between urinals in one of a local restaurant's bathrooms. At least as far as I and Nabi understood the Portuguese the sign next to the camera said "video surveillance is being conducted for your own security. " I would not be able to repeat that phrase in Portuguese, but I do remember the two phrases that Marco taught me and that I think is sufficient to get by and get along in Cascais. One is Não consigo deixar de pensar em ti" - "I cannot stop thinking about you." And the other one is "Quero fazer amor com o teu burro" - I would like to make love to your donkey.
PS You can find some of the pics by Marco and me - here (the beautiful landscape shots are by Marco!)
moscowhack - ÐŸÐ¾Ñ€Ñ‚ÑƒÐ³Ð°Ð»Ð¸Ñ (ЧаÑÑ‚ÑŒ II) - "Quero fazer amor com o teu burro"
I have just come back from what was supposed to be a rather boring business trip to Lisbon, but turned out to be a hilarious experience, in which spearfishing, drinking and hysterical alternated, thanks to one of participants of this forum - Marco. (Marco I owe you more than one, as well as a trip to the Volga to shoot catfish and much more)
First I and my colleague Nabi went to Lisbon to attend a conference on maritime security for and I must say it was a rather demanding event - trying not to fall asleep as participants droned on all sorts of things related and (more often) unrelated to piracy for four straight days.
All the fun would take place in evenings and at night, of course, albeit we did sneak out for daylight sightseeing and obligatory photos in front of landmarks. You should be all thankful that these pics, including those for which I posed with my very large Caucasian cap on, drowned along with my camera off during my first day of post-conference spearfishing, and I am not going to post them, forcing you to look at them. Again, I should thank Marco because no spearfishing would have taken place in the first place without him. It took even him about one hour to locate one of the three offices where they issues spearfishing licenses to foreigners and the lady who received us at this office spoke no English. Marco also kindly took us in his car from Lisbon to Cascais when the conference was over and even more kindly drove me around to spots where we spearfished together. Unfortunately, it was raining, windy and as a result the ocean was uncalm and visibility was low so his friend had to cancel a trip on his boat to some secret spots of his. But even without that I enjoyed the experience a lot, diving off the shore in Cascais with Marco. IMHO the Portuguese oceanic coast appears to attract more fish than the Med or less spearfishers. Hence, you could find decent fish even at 3 meters!
The first day was brutal - the previous time I dived as on New Year's eve in a frozen ass river outside Moscow - so I was short of breath and lost my camera and burnt my lip and chin against some kind of a mean weed while Marco worked the stones, spearing a few decent fish, including a muletta, and a very sizeable octopus!. Also I didn't have enough weights on so I had to cling to all stones to try stay at bottom. But the next two days - I progressed in spite of the brutal hangover I and Marco) had after a loooong evening of drinking and misbehaving (I woke up next morning with phone numbers of two ladies I could not quite remember and a phone full of SMS that I sent to one of them in Portuguese - so you can imagine the fear and loathing I experienced when trying to remember what Marco could have actually taught me and I used in those SMS, given that I usually try to learn the worst explicit language first))). The third day was the best - I speared a few fish, including a Badejo and a Salema. The bigger one I got in a cave of stones while the smaller one I speared, sitting in an ambush on the bottom. I also scratched a good mulleta's forehead from a range of less than a meter - lack of practice! Marco also kindly gave up the sea bass he speared so we were able to roast them for a small dinner with some very good wine that Marco gave me as a present. (FYI: local restaurants won't agree to cook fish for you the way they do in Greece/Republic of Cyprus)
On all three days I used a 70-cm Beuchat all the time while the 1-meter Omer was collecting dust at the hotel - visibility was too low - about 2-3 meters. The water temperature was about 15 degrees so I dove in a 5-mm Picasso and felt comfortable in water. I also felt very much at home and comfortable on shore too, thanks to Marco's hospitality and the hospitality of the Portuguese people in general - they may seem a bit reserved, but if you talk to them - they smile and are very helpful. I also felt safe too in Cascais as we rambled the streets at very late hours. (The sense of safety and security was enhanced by a surveillence camera installed at the level of your groin in between urinals in one of a local restaurant's bathrooms. At least as far as I and Nabi understood the Portuguese the sign next to the camera said "video surveillance is being conducted for your own security. " I would not be able to repeat that phrase in Portuguese, but I do remember the two phrases that Marco taught me and that I think is sufficient to get by and get along in Cascais. One is Não consigo deixar de pensar em ti" - "I cannot stop thinking about you." And the other one is "Quero fazer amor com o teu burro" - I would like to make love to your donkey.
PS You can find some of the pics by Marco and me - here (the beautiful landscape shots are by Marco!)
moscowhack - ÐŸÐ¾Ñ€Ñ‚ÑƒÐ³Ð°Ð»Ð¸Ñ (ЧаÑÑ‚ÑŒ II) - "Quero fazer amor com o teu burro"
