I could be one of those old ladies living in an apartment relatively high up with a window and/or a balcony where I could sit and watch the rest of the world go by. There would have to be an elevator, though.
This is looking down from one of our windows on the water side of the apartment. There are people way down there on the street.
Our apartment didn't have big balconies, but you could step out a bit to look down -- or to hang your laundry. Doing laundry while Trout was sleeping was a form of entertainment for me. My mother would be so proud.
These lines were on rollers. I couldn't quite reach the laundry from this window, but I could from the one above. I could pull the lines to hang more items or to take things in.
Every apartment from the ground floor up seemed to have these lines. The good part about being above the ground floor is that no one could steal your laundry. The bad part is that if you drop something, it's a long way down and back up to retrieve it. Fortunately, I didn't drop anything.
Just around the corner from us was one of the most authentic Fado venues in town. We tried for reservations on the Wednesday night we arrived, but they were booked solid. Amazingly, we were able to get reservations for Saturday night.Reservations were a must because there are only 26 seats in the place. I know, I counted them. The way it works at Sr. Fado is that you make a reservation for dinner and it includes the Fado after. After dinner, they shut the doors, turn off the exterior signs and play until around 01:00 in the morning. Naturally, we closed the place down. The link above is to someone else's blog. Thanks to Dr. J for the good pictures and the film clips.
The female singer you see below is Ana Marina, the wife and co-owner of the place. She also does the cooking. Her husband, Duarte, plays guitar, takes the orders and does the serving. They are only open on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights when they perform. They spend the rest of their time on their farm north of Lisbon where they grow much of what they serve in the restaurant.
These pictures are dark because I didn't use a flash. This guy is playing a Portuguese guitar. He also sang. In times past, men usually didn't sing, but now it is more common. He was a great player and singer.
Duarte, to the right in this picture is the co-owner. He plays guitar. He always seemed to have his head down, so I never got a good picture of him.
He's in the middle here, but you still can't quite see him.
Here's the older Portuguese guitar player singing.
And here is Ana Marina singing. They were both great, but never sang together. 
Sometimes entertainment for us is just going someplace special, sitting on the street and watching what's going on. A Brasileira is a 100+ year old restaurant. It's in a little square off the trolley line, but we walked to it. 
After what I would call a so-so meal in the basement, we came upstairs to find some street musicians.
So we sat down to have something to drink and take in the scene. After that we took the subway home. The stop was right there in the square and we rode all the way home to the stop at the train station down the hill from us.
I didn't take any pictures, but we also went to Sr. Vinho. It is a much fancier place with space for more people, but there were only 18 of us in the audience. We went on a Monday night, so that's probably why. There were several performers and all were good, but to my eyes and ears, I preferred the smaller and more intimate Sr. Fado.
