Phew. These days are going to be long!!
I was woken up by a banging door at around 4am and couldn't get back to sleep, so after heading to bed at 1am, I could do with a nap. One benefit was that I did get a chance to hit the gym here and will try and make that the start or end of my days, since it is just there.
Last night though, I was able to get out of the hotel for a quick bite to eat and a walk around a few streets with the other facilitators. Lisbon seems like a place that I would like to spend some more time and bring my wife, especially since they like to dance here and I reckon we could find some decent Kizomba places. I took my camera with me and snapped a few shots while walking, so this will be a rare photography post from me, instead of walls of text.
The first one is from the bathroom in my room, which might not be strange to many, but after living in Finland for 20 years, it has been a very long time since I have seen a hot and a cold top, as they only use mixer systems for sinks and showers.
We ate at a place called the Timeout Market, which had a large court with many different types of food on offer from small vendors - plus plenty of red wine to choose from, as well as other drinks. We had been recommended to try the octopus hotdog, so most of us gave it a go and it was pretty good, but the bread of the hotdog could have been a bit better, and the potato crisps on the side were very, very greasy. The grilled octopus was great though.
Then it was just off for a walk to see what we could see, before heading back to the hotel. We caught an Uber into the city, as our location is about 15 minutes away, but it is not too bad, with the fare being around €12.
What is nice about at least where we were walking, is that a lot of the buildings are old and they are all different. Many have seen better days, but they are charming with a patina, creating grades and complexity in their appearance and while eclectic in range, all fitting together in a way that is somehow calming and homely.
I didn't manage to get a photo yet at least, but the trams on the roads are really cute. Old-school and smaller than normal, so they look like they are an upsized toy. If I get to come back here one day, I will take a series of shots with just them.
Being Sunday night, there weren't that many people around the streets, but we did manage to find a busker playing in a square with a little bar, so we sat down and had a drink, listening to who I think was a Brazilian, sing slow love songs in Portuguese.
It was really nice to sit down with the colleagues in this kind of setting, as in this group, we have known each other for quite a while and we were able to speak freely and have fun teasing each other a lot, as well as dive into more personal discussions about society and relationships. And for this group, we didn't have to talk much at all about work-related stuff, unlike some people who don't know how to speak with colleagues about anything other.
This morning, we ate breakfast together with my supervisor, who is also the organizing person for the entire event, and we were straight into work. The breakfast was great here, but paired with constant work conversation, it wasn't overly enjoyable and after, we then went straight into four hours of planning, run-throughs and set up of the tonight's start and the next three days ahead. There is a mountain of content and a lot of finicky little points to remember, so I will have to go through it all again by myself tonight and take additional notes, as the details just don't stick.
And, because the details don't stick, while there is plenty of decent red wine around, it looks like I am going to have to wait until the last evening to have more than one or two, otherwise I won't be delivering anything coherent throughout the days. That is okay by me, but I have I am 99% sure that these fridges in the hotel restaurant are going to get a pretty good workout over the coming days, with a few hundred sales people from around the world visiting most nights.
Sure, this isn't an ideal trip away, but there are some upsides to being here and I like the feeling of just being somewhere different, talking with people "out of character and context" as people are a little less their business selves and a little more in a holiday mood, so the discussions flow freely. For internal communication and collaboration, these kinds of events are invaluable and I think that the way this has been organized, it will make an impact on the organization going forward, rather than just be a information dump and drinking session, as it was "back in the day" when it was organized by others.
It will still be good to get home though.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
