On Saturday we were all praying to get on the ice in Lisbon at the rink in the Praca do Comercio but the tent was not completely covering the rink and it was not in good shape . The 9 am game was postponed for another day and I was getting nervous after all I have just 1 day left in Portugal to earn that flag on my stick bag and really this would be a first for me . It would not have been the federations fault as I know this meant the world to these guys too . So instead of waking up early and heading to the rink , we slept in and headed to the beach (Praia de Carcavelos ) that was near Mauricio's place . The waves were absolutely mental and there were kite surfers everywhere , apparently it's one of the hot spots for surfers to come to get their groove on . Alas beaches are not my thing so don't expect to see any pics of me in a thong soaking up the sun ... I'm a hockey player !
Hockey is my forte and we went to the local rink where this crazy sport on roller skates . No it's not inline and has nothing to do with ice hockey at all ... This sport is governed by a federation called FIRS ( federation international roller skating ) it's a French federation so that's why the words are all backwards LOL ! We saw some kids playing and they were nifty little water bugs jetting around on roller skates ... Now I'm shocked as I didn't even think these roller skates were even in existence any more , last time I saw roller skates was probably in like 1992 when I last went roller skating back home before they tore down the roller rink in my neighbourhood . Yeah it's been a while and now I feel old ;) FIRS has nothing to do with the IIHF and from what I gather is threatened by our glorious sport ! Well I mean this sport has no contact , has a ball and craziest part is goalies stay on their knees all game zzzzz ! Nets are so small also . It's interesting but I wouldn't pay to see this stuff , but as I said earlier it was interesting to find out about this sport I have never heard of .
We started the day late so nightfall came upon us quickly . We went by the aqueducts (Agues Livres) to see it in its full glory and get up close and personal with it . It's massive and you can clearly see it when you fly into Lisbon . It's also quite old and is one of the few remaining things that survived the earthquake in 1775 ... I could be off by a few years but this earthquake demolished Lisbon and after there even was a tsunami which legend says happens every 250 years , which is pretty much due to happen . Personally I hope it doesn't as I'm getting quite attached to this stunning country and I do have to go back for some unfinished business in Elvas some day.... There is a rink in a bull ring there !!!!!
We went to pick up Rose from her salon (Le Chic) yes this is a shameless plug ;) she is Brazilian so what better meal to enjoy then a rodizio aka meat massacre LOL ! Fogo de Chao is a Brazilian restaurant in a mall ... As I said malls are a big thing here and the food is exceptional unlike back home . At the rodizio I tried pigs ear ... It had no taste and the texture was kinda yucky hard , I will stick to pork rinds ;) aside from that I got stuffed with beef , beef and more beef ... I love meat ! And if you are a vegetarian stay far away from these joints cause there is no kale shit here hahahaha !
When we left the rodizio we wandered a bit as the seating was quite cramped and we needed to stretch out and walk ourselves out of this meat coma . Of course we got to see one of the little ice rinks or ice cubes as Mauricio calls them :) it looked beautiful , for me as long as there is ice I am happy . As you can see in the pic above it was busy with kids doing this freestyle skating which is like figure skating but on hockey skates with LED lights attached to them ??? Yeah it's weird but if it draws kids into learning to skate then I'm sure they will be interested in trying out other ice sports like good 'ol ice hockey . After this we all needed to unzip our pants and let the belly out so we called it a day . At this point our ice time is confirmed for tomorrow morning . Mauricio created a Facebook event and sent it out to everyone .
More and more I am feeling like family with Mauricio and we are bonding like brothers ... There is no better feeling then fitting in with your host ;) thanks for another solid day Mauricio !
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