Photo Journal: FIT UK In Lisbon
Parting the water with FIT in Portugal...
8 Dec 2014
Words and photos by Fred Murray
Sometimes it can be a nightmare trying to coordinate organising a trip while at the same time accounting for multiple people's schedules. This trip was one of those ones which seemed to be on the books for at least half a year but it was just impossible to make it happen during 2014's warmer months. Thankfully a small slot of free time appeared in everyone's calendar and it was on, with the capital of Portugal, Lisbon as the city of choice for the FIT UK squad. It wasn't just the Brits representing FIT on this one though, as Canadian power house Jordan Hango was also on hand to provide bike riding expertise, much to everyone's approval, especially after seeing his crazy section in 'Holy FIT' a few months before.
A day before we set off to Lisbon, I received an email from Peter Adam regarding the weather that awaited our imminent arrival and despite the shockingly bad forecast, he was optimistic as ever. Upon arrival and things didn't look good... it was already pouring down when we took a taxi to the apartment and the sky looked like there would be no let up. The older i've got I realise more and more that 99% of the time things will work out one way or another, but I was still quietly pessimistic about the upcoming week's weather. Needless to say, we got stuff done in between the downpours and flash floods. Yup, flash floods... After waking up and getting ready to leave, the old girl decided to give us all she had and a group decision soon leant towards a tourist day. Before long we were in a bar to escape the rain and after Olly finished his weird looking steak the back of the building had turned into a paddling pool with water coming through the ceiling. We were about to leave the bar to continue our sight seeing when we saw the river outside where the street used to be. I've never seen so much water just taking over the place, and i've also never seen rats swimming down the street before. I kinda felt sorry for the little guys but they didn't seem to mind.
Anyway, that's my lesson learnt - don't let a bit of rain, or a lot of rain, put you off. If you've got a good crew who can keep spirits high you'll always have fun. That and sessions in Bar Liverpool with an extremely excited Ben Lewis...
Olly Rendle was one of the smart guys who bought a five Euro umbrella early on. For the rest of us it was a battle to save face. "Nah, fuck the umbrellas, this thin hoody with do!"
We hit a stroke of luck when we found ourselves in a restaurant and bar during the flash flood. Despite the roof leaking and the staff running around with towels and mops, they still kindly poured us some beers during mother nature's house arrest.
"Weirdest thing I saw on the trip? Probably Benny L in Bar Liverpool!" - PETER ADAM
Ian 'Bengo' Bengochea and just one of thousands of examples of Portugal's love for a good tile.
"Best thing I saw was Olly chatting up a chick and only getting a hand shake!" - Phil Martin
Lisbon is also known as the city of seven hills... we can vouch for that.
This area of Lisbon seemed to have so many spots in such a small area and it was super productive that day. Ben found these concrete benches and after a group effort to move one of the beasts, this rollercoaster icepick was on.
Rain, rain, go away...
Seriously though...
"I had a good laugh riding the skatepark, although I know that's controversial!" - Olly Rendle
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