Lisbon, Day 1 Redux

This is the second time I have visited Lisbon.  Last time, it was a day or two attached to my observing a NATO exercise that had a big Canadian component--a previous iteration of Trident Juncture.  I spent my time in Lisbon mostly in the old part of town with the castle and tram and such.

This time, I am here for ERGOMAS--the European Research Group on Military and Society.  I think there are more sociologists and anthropologists here than political scientists.  Which is a good thing because on of the CDSN promises is to be multidisciplinary.  While ERGOMAS is not a formal partner of the CDSN, its secretary-general happens also to be a co-director of the CDSN--Irina Goldenberg.  I will be presenting some of my research and looking forward to getting feedback from non-poli sci types (not that there is anything wrong with them).  I will also be interviewing some of the attendees for #BattleRhythm, the new CDSN podcast that will be dropping its first episode June 25th.  I will be going on to the European Initiative for Security Studies in Paris next week to again present and to network.  They are a European version of the CDSN, so we can learn from each other as we are both new networks.

Before ERGOMAS starts and as I adjust to the time zone, I rambled around town going from the extreme eastern end to the southwestern end, seeing stuff I had not seen before.  Before I get to the highlights (pics), two travel notes thanks to the same person:

• if you have no idea what it takes to be in the emergency aisle, don't pick a seat there.
• when every other window is shut so people can sleep on a redeye flight, you should shut yours too.

Yeah, the same woman did both things--causing folks to have to rearrange after getting seated and then causing people near her (me) not to sleep as much as they would like.  Otherwise, the flights were fine.

 I went to the Parque das Nações, which had more restaurants than I thought (I should have looked around more) but a great view for eating and drinking.

 I had no idea the steak would come on a hangar.

 I went to the world renowned aquarium, which did more than its share of noting what was going extinct.  At the end, several sculptures to remind us of what we are doing.  This mermaid is made of plastics that were found in, on, or near the sea.

 The Tower  of Belem is a UNESCO sanctified site.  Twas built to defend the city and it is very pretty and very busy.  It had something I had never seen before--a screen that tells folks whether it is an up or down time in the very narrow staircase.

 The military museum's take on the past---not great. The posters of today portray colonial and imperialism in ways that reflect not much reflection. 

Holy civ-mil.  This poster seems to suggest that the political system let down the armed forces.  By decolonizing and embracing democracy.

I have been to many military museums, and this one was lame in two dimensions:
1) really not much to see
2) no attempt to consider the past critically.






on the bright side, they change guards nicely: