By Mehdy Ghannad
We woke up around nine to the sound of rain. It was coming down pretty hard and it looked as if our plans for the day would have to be altered. It was actually kind of a good thing because our schedule had been so packed and we needed to do some ‘office’ work at the hostel.
Louis logged videos all day, Mehdy hit the emails, and Grant caught up on some writing and did some research for upcoming activities. Even though it was our last night in Lisbon, we were feeling good. We had seen a lot of a beautiful city that was new to the entire crew. We were also fortunate enough to add a new member to our team for the remainder of our time in Portugal.
Diamantino was born in Angola and lived there and in Zambia until he was thirteen and moved to Portugal. Young, energetic, eager to help and fun to be around, Diamantino was an all around great guy and solid addition to the team. With a lot of experience behind the camera, Diamantino was able to help make sure we were getting the great shots we needed and helped us out immensely with the language barrier.
It was nice to pass our last night in Lisbon in a low-key manner. Up late and out early everyday mixed with out and about throughout those days made us quite the tired film crew and having that day to relax while doing work at the Living Lounge was exactly what we needed. Just before dinnertime we packed away all of the gear, cracked open a few beers, and passed the nighttime hours with our new friends at the hostel. We spent most of the time exchanging travel stories with a Brazilian girl named Olga, a Taiwanese girl named Sonyoo and a Danish girl named Elena. The group kept growing as people finished up dinner and threw on sweatpants, not wanting to battle the elements outside of the hostel. Luis, a Venezuelan who lives in Montreal joined us with his Romanian friend, Joana and her Italian friend, Simonetta. It was great being in such an eclectic crowd and it was the perfect way to close out our final night in Lisbon.
