A woman sit in a portable chair, selling fruits and vegetables by the metro station.

I had to go outside the city today, to one of the many commuter towns that border the capital. Odivelas.

A place I don’t visit often, even though an aunt lives there (we usually meet at my parent’s place, or at their beach place).

A woman walks by, buildings in the back.

Lucky me, there’s a subway line that connects our place to Odivelas. I thought I should take the subway, instead of driving. Much better in all sorts of ways. Faster. Cheaper. Environmentally friendlier. More entertaining.

A door with broken windows.

A tiny elephant (plastic?) on an abandoned shop window. Poor thing.

β€œAVISO” (WARNING), with any further context. Could be related to a number of things.

Except the walk from the station to the place where I was to shoot my assignment today. Fifteen minutes only, but the most depressing fifteen minutes of the month! Half an hour when we add the walk back, and that’s 30 minutes I’m not getting back.

Buildings. Ugly ones.

More ugly buildings, with cars parked in front of them. Ugly. Ugly.

I’m sorry to my aunt, and all the other many people from Odivelas, and I apologize for the snobbiness, but that is one UGLY town!

More buildings. Not as ugly as the ones on the other photos, but…

I got there pretty early, thinking I would walk around a bit and get some photos, but it was too hot. I decided to take my chance and entered an Indian restaurant, above a roasted chicken place. Both owned, it turns out, by the same nice Indian family.

Delicious looking chicken. It was pretty tasty too.

And SO happy I did. Ended up having a delicious lunch, a sure way to get into the mood needed for today’s portrait session.