Bairro Alto by New York Times

Michael Barrientos for The New York Times

Now Playing in Lisbon: The Late, Late Show
By ANDREW FERREN
Published: October 30, 2005

IT is midnight on a Saturday in the Bairro Alto, Lisbon's famously raucous High Neighborhood, but the only thing moving is the laundry fluttering in the breeze between the balconies of the grand but dilapidated buildings that line the streets. A few plaintive strains of fado, the distinctly mournful songs of longing that are said to define the collective Portuguese character, waft out of the small neighborhood restaurants geared to tourists. Some cafes and bars are open, but the feeling is that things are winding down, not up.

Don't be fooled. Navigating these lanes an hour later will require a very reduced definition of "personal space" to make any headway through streets teeming with enough high-spirited Portuguese youth to make one doubt - even granting that you may already be seeing double - if this can really be a country of just 10 million people.

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