Bacalhao under the Ponte 25 de Abril: impressions from Lisbon.

摘要

Close to the conference center in Lisbon where the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) held its annual meeting 2008, a huge bridge spans the Tagus river. It is so high that pedestrians can actually underlook it, but they cannot fail to hear the intense noise which it produces day and night. In addition to the irregular trains running on a separate bridge hanging below the main road bridge, there is the constant noise of cars crossing the river over an uneven surface consisting of metallic platforms. The peculiar hum of the innumerable car tyres striking the edges between these platforms is so famous that one can listen to it on Wikipedia.1 The bridge is called the Ponte 25 de Abril, and was named after the date of the 'carnation revolution' during which junior army officers overthrew Salazar's dictatorship. The pillars of the bridge on Lisbon's side of the river stand in a part of town which curiously mixes old and new, and during one evening I found a place at a table in an oldfashioned Portuguese restaurant some 200 m from our modern design hotel. The few other guests-all middle-aged men-sat with their backs turned to the door and their faces looking up to the television screen, which of course showed a football match.