The Briggses in Lisbon

22.09.17 — Lisbon

This week just gone was time for another trip to Lisbon after my last visit in February, but this time I was accompanied by my sister Ellie! Exploring the city from Wednesday 13th to Monday 18th, we spent a good few days wandering the city’s gorgeous winding streets and even hopped on a train to visit another town near the coast. Buckle up, there’s plenty of photos on the way!

We landed early on Wednesday afternoon and so headed out to get exploring straight away after we’d dumped our stuff in our hostel room. We covered an impressive amount of the city’s centre on this first day of explorations, wandering down to the waterfront and then up into the city’s western quarter.

Once we started getting a bit peckish we headed for a place that me and Izzy had visited back in February and had an amazing meal, Taberna da Rua das Flores. When we rocked up however, the wait had already reached an hour and a half! It’s definitely a place worth waiting for, so we decided to head elsewhere and vowed to return earlier the next day.

We wound up having a lovely meal at a place called Fábulas, where we found out that our waiter had starred in an advert for the local beer Super Bock, and Ellie tucked into a vegetable strudel which sounded strange but was quite delicious.

The next day we had breakfast at a little café near our hostel which became our morning haunt for our daily breakfast, before heading out to the oldest part of the city in the east, in an area called Alfama. This is the only area of the city which survived the huge earthquake of 1755 that destroyed most of Lisbon, and its age is definitely given away by its charm and its windy, narrow and very steep streets.

The traditional tinsel was out in full force

We really enjoyed traipsing up and down the various flights of steps and severe inclines of the area, as unforgiving as they may have been – we were saved from burnout by a decent breeze which was blowing in off the Atlantic! We even had a moment to compose ourself and bag a decent selfie before our hair was ruined said salty breeze.

Something too cool for us about punk, probably

As you can see above, I basically dragged Ellie into being a model to stand in front of some of the lovely backdrops which presented themselves to us as we traversed around. When I wasn’t instructing her to stand in front of brightly coloured doorways, however, we took plenty of time to soak in the views and enjoy the ambience – until the wind made us too cold, that is…

We also spotted some peculiar things in Alfama, including a gravity-defying pigeon and a “you tried” attempt at covering up an embarrassing bald spot on where the tiles had fallen off a building…

It's time to try defying gravity, I think I'll try defying gravity!

After a pit stop for some bruschetta and a quick coffee, we finally began to descend the hill and wandered past a few of the area’s churches and plenty more jovial street art along the way.

Lisbon is a city of beautiful colours and interesting shapes.

After returning back to sea level and an unsuccessful attempt at finding Ellie some vegetarian lunch on the TimeOut market by the waterfront, we eventually gave up and boarded a train to the far west of the city and the area known as Belém. There we stopped to snack on some pastries, had a quick bathe in the sun and had a good look around some of the buildings and monuments in their pretty surroundings.

I even managed to snap this photo of a rainbow’s fleeting appearance as the sun hit the spray which appeared every now and then when the fountain in the centre shot out a high jet of water. I was very proud of the shot, which even features a sliver of Lisbon’s famous bridge, but I think Ellie was getting bored of just sitting waiting for me to look at rainbows and so we soon headed back to the city centre.

Once back in the city we headed straight back to Taberna da Rua das Flores and managed to get a quaint little table for two after a mere half hour wait. We used said wait to go and get ourself one of Lisbon’s infamous custard tarts, so it wasn’t that bad, and then the food itself was definitely worth waiting for.

After our tapas dinner for two, we headed back to our hostel to get refreshed and then walked down the road to a rooftop bar that Ellie’s friend had recommended, and we were not disappointed. Sipping on a mojito and a martini overlooking the gorgeous hills of the city, we chatted away in the lovely evening atmosphere before heading back to the hostel to get a decent night’s sleep before the next day’s adventure – a day trip to Sintra.

Sintra is about 40 minutes on the train outside of Lisbon, and we discovered that it’s well worth the visit – just be sure to top up your travel card before you head to the train station in order to avoid the huge morning queues for the ticket kiosks! On arrival we immediately decided to stop for some lunch and to get our bearings, and so we made a plan of action over a cheese and ham toastie and a much needed 2L bottle of water – it may have been breezy but the sun still got us!

According to the farmer, a saint once appeared in this very cave.

We began by first heading up a hill through a lovely park, where we stumbled upon the above shine. After sticking our heads in led us no closer to working out what it was there for, a gardener approached us who spoke Spanish, and so he explained to me that it was the spot where one of the local saints had apparently appeared.

After getting slightly lost trying to work our way out of said park, we eventually found the small centre of Sintra, and walked up to one of the many castles and palaces. We decided not to go in this big white one, and instead sat on a bench just outside, taking in the views and munching through a bag of warm fresh popcorn which Ellie had bought from a lovely street vendor.

Before heading to Sintra, I remembered that I’d seen a multicoloured palace whist researching which I thought we should try and visit, however we couldn’t seem to see it anywhere on the surrounding hills. After a quick Google search we discovered that the place that we wanted to visit was called Palácio da Pena, and so headed to the tourist office to ask how we could use public transport to get up there – this was a trip on a budget!

After having to miss the first bus as it was full, we eventually made it up the hillside and were dropped off at the gates to the grounds of the palace. We then had to part with more money than we expected, but once we’d found the palace itself we soon realised that it had all been worth it – the architecture was magnificent and the views were truly something else.

Whilst I was taking picture after picture of the palace’s colourful walls and beautiful blue tiles, Ellie wandered off and found a little door which I would have probably missed. She came back to tell me about it leading to a little path called the “Wall Walk”, so we both headed through it to check it out.

It turned out to be one of the most impressive yet terrifying moments of the entire trip! We found ourself walking around the perimeter of the entire palace, which offered amazing views from atop its hilltop location. The only thing was that the wind at that altitude was pretty relentless, and we were both soon very cold and very terrified of being blown over one of the perilously low walls of the wall walk…

Once we’d had a few minutes taking in the views of the moorish castle and the landscapes beyond, we soon hurried along the wall walk and back to the other, sun-bathed side of the castle, where we basked in the warmth for a good moment, before eventually descending back to grab the bus back into the centre of Sintra.

Once we’d got the train back to Lisbon, we headed back into the Barrio Alto area of the city, which is the perfect spot for an evening meal or a few drinks in one of hundreds of tiny little bars. Tired as we were, we decided just to eat, and found a restaurant with some pretty amazing views over the water and the infamous red suspension bridge. There we tucked into a lovely selection of tapas, but soon found ourselves back at the hostel and in bed as Sintra had well and truly knackered us out.

The next day we were back in the centre of Lisbon once again, and yet again found ourselves faced with a ridiculous amount of steps. I assured Ellie that it would be worth it though, as we were to ascent to the viewpoint named Senhora do Monte, which offers unparalleled views over the many hills of the city.

The wander to our next destination at the other side of the city had us once again on our feet for a decent amount of time, but we were sure to break it up by stopping for some lemonade and having the quick break – even if it was just for me to take yet more photos.

The patterns and colours of the city are something else

Once we were lower in the city, it was time to head back up the hill on the other side, so we decided to be kind to ourselves and grab the metro up there. Once we hopped off we were soon greeted by an impressive sight, looking straight down a large grassy avenue down towards the front of the city. For the second time in a day we felt on top of the world!

After this we headed downhill slightly to pay a visit to another place which Ellie had found by doing a bit of Instagram stalking, some botanical gardens called Estufa Fría. Not expecting much more than ;a few plants in a glorified greenhouse, I was pretty blown away by the scale and magnificence of the place. One minute we were wandering through a cool selection of fauna, and the next minute we were in a big heated greenhouse chasing each other round a selection of cacti. For Ellie, a biology student, this place was heaven!

Once we’d had our fill of greenery for the day, and wolfed down a nice cool ice cream in the building heat outside the gardens, we headed back to the city and had another lovely meal at Fábulas. That evening, and seeing as it was a Saturday night, we heeded back out the Barrio Alto district and had a late night drinking caipirinhas, beers and even a cheeky glass of wine in the lovely nighttime ambiance of the city.

The Sunday morning we were once again back on our feet bright and early, heading back into Alfama as we’d enjoyed our wander around it so much a few days prior. From there we eventually headed down to the waterfront and hopped on a bus up to somewhere I fancied visiting, the tile museum.

The tile museum wasn’t exactly Ellie’s favourite place that we visited, but I enjoyed browsing the various patterns and colours and finding out about the technical process behind making the various types of patterned tile that can be found across the city. One room which was quite impressive was the golden chapel, which took us by surprise as it wasn’t what we’d expected to find amongst rooms full of tiles.

This golden chapel wasn’t what we’d expected to find amongst rooms full of tiles.

Eventually I got a bit too thirsty and Ellie’s craving for pizza got a bit too strong, and we wound up having a comforting pizza lunch at a local greasy spoon. We headed back into the city once we’d loaded up on calories and tried some pretty grim Russian chocolate, and I had a plan of how to get us back up into Barrio Alto to have some dinner at the restaurant with the lovely views over the water – one of the city’s infamous yellow trams!

This tram wasn’t a tram per se, but an elevador, named as such as it takes passengers up and down one of the steep hills rather than just along the flatter streets. We hopped on, got squished like sardines, and were soon rattling our way up the slope to a spot I wanted to visit for lunch.

The trams might be quite touristy, but they are a charming mechanical marvel.

That evening and all too soon it was our last night in the city. To celebrate we headed back to the rooftop bar a little earlier than the previous time, meaning we had time to grab a caipirinha and then watch the sun set over the city.

The next morning we’d to pack our things and then left our bags at the hostel, as we weren’t flying until quite late and had plenty more to pack into our final day! The first thing on our list was a visit to the oceanarium, so we made our way to the north of the city on the metro and when there found ourselves wandering towards the place under some menacing looking skies.

Cloudy skies over the water — Cloudy skies

Who doesn't love a garish paint job on a bench? — A quite garish bench

With our tickets already paid for online, we were quickly jumping all the queues and inside the oceanarium’s exhibition. The first one was a gorgeous look at underwater plant life by Japanese artist and “aquascaper” Takashi Amano, but this was merely a prelude to the rich array of ocean life which we found in the main building, a strange looking concrete structure seemingly floating over the water of the docks.

Let's name the species that live in the sea!

Ellie had a whale of a time nosing around the ocean life (sorry for the pun), and then after a quick lunch in a nearby shopping centre we headed back to the city centre. Ellie had a very important purchase to make at H&M, I completely forgot to buy some custard tarts to bring home (damnit), and I paid a quick visit to the city’s photography museum. There was a lovely exhibition on with photos from various stages of Lisbon’s history, but all too soon it was time to grab some dinner before picking up our bags and heading back to the airport.

After landing at Liverpool Airport and then driving along the motorway in the early hours, I managed to get us back home in one piece and we eventually managed to hit the pillow at about 3:30am. What a slog!

As tiring as this all may have been however, we both had a lovely time visiting the city together and I am definitely looking forward to visiting Lisbon again sometime in the near future. I was also happy to have taken Ellie on her first city break, and am happy to report that she enjoyed it so much she’s considering doing more in the future. As a brother then, it would appear, my work here is done!

Future Iconography

21.09.17 — Burnley

The other day my mum’s friend and her young daughter came to visit, and we all wound up in my room having a snoop around the decor. If you’ve ever seen how my room looks, you’ll know that I have a set of shelving which showcases a photo frame, a green phone and two clocks in sequence. The phone handset is actually connected to an old MP3 player which makes it ring loudly once every 15-20 minutes, and when you pick the phone up there’s quiet hold music playing 24/7.

This is relevant to this blog post on iconography, I promise…

Whilst all gathered in my room, the phone happened to ring, and my mum’s friend went to pick it up. She made a comment about the old-style phone, and then said something which got me thinking: that her daughter of 11 years probably wouldn’t know what the old-style phone actually was.

I’m dubious about how much truth is in the idea that an 11 year old wouldn’t know what an old phone receiver looked like, but it certainly took me back to the debate about the infamous floppy disk save icon. We’ve heard stories about younger people being presented with floppy disks and wondering why somebody had made a physical copy of the save icon, and I profess that when I see the icon I relate it in no way back to a floppy disk.

What I have noticed however, is that there seems to be a separate group of icons which may one day fall victim to quite a distinct problem. I’ll take some of icons on my iPhone as examples below: namely the phone, camera, and video icons. These are all perfectly understandable for all users at present; but consider something: all these icons rely on mental associations to real-world physical counterparts in order to make sense.

The camera icon relies on a user knowing the shape and form of an old-style phone receiver (like the one in my room), the camera icon relies on the user being familiar with the shape of a traditional camera, and the video app icon requires they know what a clapboard is. This is all well and good in a world in which the majority of us have had experience with these objects, but what about those being born into an increasingly digital world where exposure to these kinds of objects (especially defunct ones such as floppy disks and large old phone receivers) is increasingly limited?

Apple themselves seem to be aware of this paradigm, having changed their voice notes icon from a rendering of an old-style microphone to a more graphic sound wave. It could be said that this was just a move aligned with Apple’s big push to ditch skeuomorphism which occurred with the release of iOS7, but the skeuomorphic elements of the design were actually removed prior to iOS7’s release.

Skeuomorphism, for those unaware, refers to the act of “making stuff look as if it is made of something else” – see how the old Mac Calendar application used to resemble the leather cover of an actual diary. Yuck.

This rather seems then to be a move towards making an icon which is more easily understood in the 21st century, where large recording microphones are uncommon, today more a reserve of audio recording specialists. The sound wave would be recognisable to those living a near exclusively digital lifestyle, as the UI of the application clearly presents this graphical interpretation of sound when it is used – it has become more ubiquitous than an actual physical microphone for this purpose.

Of course I am not saying that a new generation will suddenly cease to understand the meaning of such icons, as the meanings will continue to be known through what Microsoft describe in their blog post as “ubiquitous meaning”, or something which is “universally accepted as a true representation regardless of its symbolic meaning”. As an example they present the octagonal red road sign which is accepted as representing “stop” even though as a symbol it is not (when you think about it) actually related to the physical act of stopping.

It could be argued that the save icon is a modern day example of an icon which has moved from being a physical representation of an act, i.e. saving a file to a floppy disk in days gone by, to one of these more ubiquitous meanings. Nowadays everybody simply uses the floppy disk icon to represent the act of saving, and so it has become universally accepted as the save symbol, with hardly anybody who sees the symbol actually considering the actual physical object it represents.

Will the same happen to the phone symbol, the movie symbol, and the camera symbol? Has it happened already? It would be interesting to carry out an experiment to see if users, particularly younger users, are able to explain just why they know, for example, that the music symbol represents music. Would it be because they recognise it as a musical note from a bar of sheet music?

It would be very interesting to peer into the icons used in the future and see how and if they adapt to a world in which the objects which they once literally represented in order to be understood have now become defunct. I predict that it will be especially poignant with the internet connecting more and more people of different cultures and languages. It does indeed seem that the same digitalization which necessitates pictorial communication is also beginning to change how the meaning is conveyed, moving from symbolic meanings towards more ubiquitous meanings.

With the digital challenge of having different users speaking different languages, it seems that designers will have to increasingly rely on universally understood icons to be understood rather than the perils of specifying a word for each language – it’s much easier to put an icon of a bin than try to translate the word “delete” into every language in the world. Emojis (which are basically a form of icon) are now often used between two people speaking between different languages, as it aids understanding where words fail.

It seems ;that icons are now having to graduate from being merely decorative accompanying elements into a vital part of communication, and it’ll be interesting to see how they change with the times.

Village Life, Village Drama

02.09.17 — Burnley

Living in the village I call my own can sometimes be a little dull, but every now and then a lovely moment arises which makes me appreciate it a little more. The other night we headed out for a stroll over the hills behind my house and stumbled upon a lovely sunset and a group of sheep which decided that I was to be their leader and so began to follow me…

Another day I got all Mary Berry and decided to make some buns, but 50 buns later I decided it was time to use the spare cake mix on something else, and so found a couple of small tart tins and made a mini Victoria sponge – we even drove out to get some fresh cream for it.

It hasn’t all been quite so plain sailing in the village though, as my mother managed to cause chaos by managing to pop one of our car’s tyres on the way home from the shops. This meant that the entire neighbourhood had to listen to the drama unfolding on the street as my mum and sister arrived atop a recovery lorry…

Amongst all this I’ve been working hard to get my new website built, and I’m pleased to report that it’s coming along nicely. It’s been a bit of a drag though, there’s papers all over my room full of numbers and calculations and the week has been filled with a lot of swearing at my laptop as CSS declines to behave as predicted…

I’ll soon be bringing you some previews of the design, so watch this space! This weekend however is time for a bit of relaxation and maybe a trip to Blackpool to check out the new illuminations. What a childhood throwback!

Burnley Canal Festival

30.08.17 — Burnley

This weekend me and my dad faced a bit of a conundrum, as the Colne R&B Festival, the Burnley Canal Festival, and the Higham Scarecrow Festival were all happening at the same time. After some very intense discussions, we decided to head down to the Leeds-Liverpool canal which winds through Burnley and check out the festivities there.

After a wander down the longest piece of straight bearing canal in the world, we turned a corner and began to approach the hub of the Canal Festival, a newly regenerated ex-industrial site called Sandygate.

Approaching the areawe came across more and more beautifully made up canal boats, starting as we passed The Inn on the Wharf, a pub by an old loading station along the waterfront.

Unfortunately this was Saturday night, and we’d to be back home before 6:30pm in order to wake my mum up and take her to work for the night, and so we soon made an about turn and wandered back along the banks.

On the Sunday we headed back down once again though, as we never really made it to the square where the event was actually taking place. Parking up in an area nearby, we wandered down the hill and over the canal and found ourselves in the heart of the action!

On our way down we wandered amongst the abandoned buildings and mills of Burnely’s bygone industrial age, but I found beauty in the decay and stopped a while to take some photos.

I found beauty in the decay and stopped a while to take some photos.

Once I’d bought a bottle of water ready for a day cooking in the sun, I found my dad in his usefully yellow t-shirt and we began to explore the festivities. I enjoyed a spot of line dancing, watched an array of artists make an array of cool crafts things, and even stopped for a while to watch the awesome Rajasthan Heritage Brass Band – their music was infectious!

After wandering down to the water and watching people have fun going out for a quick canoe in the canal, me and my dad reconvened and grabbed some bao – Chinese steamed buns filled with fried chicken and succulent pork. Heaven!

After eating the weather was getting decidedly English and a raft of grey clouds seemed to be blowing over, so we headed back to the car and I spent the rest of the evening having a lovely relaxing bath – a rather blissful weekend if ever there was one!

In other news I am progressing quickly with the coding of my new website design, and I’ll be asking people to test it out pretty soon! Get in touch if you’re interested – I am particularly interested in people with non-Android and non-Apple phones. More updates on this soon…

Dad’s Birthday Travels

22.08.17 — Lytham

Just this weekend was my dad’s birthday (age withheld), and so we decided to head off out to do a few bits and bobs between my mum having to sleep and work night shifts. First up was a visit to our favourite local chippy for a good old fashioned fish and chips, Grandma Pollard’s in Todmorden.

Just in case having fish and chips couldn’t get any more twee, this chippy has an old bus parked up around the back that you can enjoy your meal on, and so we scrambled aboard and perched on one of the tiny little pews to enjoy the greasy goodness.

After this we jumped back in the car and drove up to a spot I haven’t been to for many years, Hollingworth Lake, just over the border in Greater Manchester. We arrived in what felt like ;the downpour of the century, and so didn’t have the chance to grab an ice cream, opting rather to have a quick nosey before heading back to Burnley. Our trip back was interrupted though by quite an impressive sight – a huge bright double rainbow!

I seem to have managed to miss out the second and slightly more faded rainbow, but if you look in the top left corner of the image below you should be able to just make it out!

After dropping my mum off at work for the night, me and my dad shot over to Yorkshire and enjoyed a lovely evening of tapas and sangría at The Tapas Bar in Todmorden. The quaint little bar served us a variety of delicious food – we both slept well after having filled ourselves up with seafood, chorizo and pinchos!

On Sunday my mum was once again busy sleeping after working through the night, so it was up to me and my dad to get out of the house and do a little something to celebrate. We decided to head for Lytham on the east coast of Lancashire, taking our cameras along to see what we could see and hopefully have an ice cream (I really wanted an ice cream this weekend).

After parking up and wandering to the seafront, we stumbled on a collection of rusty old machinery and boats which had seemingly been abandoned along the banks of the Ribble Estuary. I climbed over the railing along the promenade and headed in to investigate…

The line of rusting wrecks seemed to stretch on forever.

The line of rusting wrecks seemed to stretch on forever, so I began to wander towards a couple of beached boats closer to the water’s edge. I was soon however slipping all over the shop on the wet mud, and at one point nearly ended up falling on a stranded jellyfish – disaster averted.

As the rusty collection came to an end, I passed by a good few stricken boats which had long been forgotten about. Ever inquisitive, I stuck my camera in some of the windows and got a little shutter happy.

Shortly thereafter I heard some strange engine noises coming from dry land, and so I headed back up the slope to return to the footpath. I found myself suddenly walking through a makeshift car park on a large patch of usually empty grass, and it soon become obvious that we’d stumbled upon some kind of event.

It soon became apparent that we’d unwittingly come along on the weekend when they were celebrating the Lytham 1940s Wartime festival! The attendees wandering around in period costume gave the game away, but I soon came across a couple of Spitfires which I thought was pretty cool – I recently watched the film Dunkirk and it was quite breathtaking.

After a quick snack by a recreation Soviet army camp, we stuck our noses in the Lifeboat Museum for a quick look around and then headed into the town centre to grab a bite to eat and do a little window shopping.

Full of dried apricots and Pringles, we eventually headed back to the car and I drove us home – 43 miles and I didn’t hit the curb once. Success.

Oh yeah, and because of the long queues due to the big event in Lytham, I didn’t even get my ice cream. Gutted.