Sardines and Octopi

Question

_{This is part 21 of the puzzle series Around the World in Many Days. Each part is solvable on its own.}

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Dear Puzzling,

The thick black lines in this grid form a LITS puzzle. Shade an orthogonally connected area in the grid so that each of the boxes marked with black lines contains four shaded cells in the form of either an L, I, T or S tetromino. No 2x2 square can be fully shaded in the grid, and no two tetrominos of the same type can share an edge.

Today I am in a modern riverfront area of an old city. I have visited a huge aquarium, crossed a very impressive bridge, and struggled to finish enormous plates of seafood. Can you guess where I am?

Love, Gladys.

Crossword on Penpa+
LITS on Penpa+

Across
5. A real Canadian province mostly besieges the United States with backing of cannons and long guns (10)
7. Cindy dances with southern government official (6)
8. Part of Napoleonic Empire (4)
9. Central part of dictator's army unit (4)
11. Action hero is backing, getting by some cattle (4)
13. Maybe the words of a criminal admitting guilt stopped halfway to show religious imagery (4)
15. Avoid peace being disturbed with addition of soldiers at the front (6)
17. One of the Pythons, appearing near city in Italy, stole diamonds and racecar? (10)

Down
1. Scottish couple leaves beautiful chicken for a fox? (4)
2. Papa's facing large dude playing dirty pool? (6)
3. Structure of the five-part Rondo for a Banana Plant (5)
4. She was loved by the son of an Olympian, a famous musician and a communist revolutionary (6)
6. Told to Zeus, Apollo and Helios? (3)
10. Make use of PC you built around chip of Celeron (6)
11. Windows maybe broken by villain in Disney film to get little golden statues (6)
12. Love interest of Leonard Nimoy, on vacation, provides backing for female trumpeter? (5)
14. Zip file unpacked after end of transmission (3)
16. Bob and Mike hugged by immature setter? (4)

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Gladys will return in In It for the Long Haul.

Answer 1

Gladys is at

Parque das Nações, in Lisbon, Portugal.

LITS solution:

We have a few givens to start with:



Now, we know that the I at the top cannot touch another I, and the only way to do that is to make an L occupying the top left corner of one of the two rings it touches. If that L were in the outer ring, however, there would be no way to create a tetromino in the inner ring that didn't create a 2x2 square or an I touching another I. Therefore, that L has to be in the inner ring, and there's only one way to create a tetromino in the outer ring that only touches one square of that L:



Now, we have a similar problem with the third ring in. The top left corner cannot be shaded, else it would create a 2x2 square, and there is only one square left to connect to the shaded region at the top of the grid, extending to the right to create an I tetromino:



Once again, we can't connect the I to another I, so it must be an L, and it can't go in the top left corner without making a 2x2 square, so it must go in the top right:



Finally, there is only one way to connect the two shaded regions without creating a 2x2 square, and it's to add a T tetromino like so:

Crossword grid:

Crossword clues:

Across
5. A real Canadian province mostly besieges the United States with backing of cannons and long guns (10) - A + R + QUEB(US)E(-c) + _S
7. Cindy dances with southern government official (6) - S + YNDIC*
8. Part of Napoleonic Empire (4) - _NIC E_ &lit!
9. Central part of dictator's army unit (4) - CORE (~co 11. Action hero is backing, getting by some cattle (4) - O(X)EN<
13. Maybe the words of a criminal admitting guilt stopped halfway to show religious imagery (4) - I CON(-fess)
15. Avoid peace being disturbed with addition of soldiers at the front (6) - E(S_)CAPE*
17. One of the Pythons, appearing near city in Italy, stole diamonds and racecar? (10) - PALIN (D) ROME

Down
1. Scottish couple leaves beautiful chicken for a fox? (4) - PRE(-tt)Y
2. Papa's facing large dude playing dirty pool? (6) - P + UDDLE*
3. Structure of the five-part Rondo for a Banana Plant (5) - ABACA ddef
4. She was loved by the son of an Olympian, a famous musician and a communist revolutionary (6) - PSY + CHE
6. Told to Zeus, Apollo and Helios? (3) - SUN (~sun - i.e. "to Zeus, Apollo")
10. Make use of PC you built around chip of Celeron (6) - O(C)CUPY*
11. Windows maybe broken by villain in Disney film to get little golden statues (6) - O(SCAR)S
12. Love interest of Leonard Nimoy, on vacation, provides backing for female trumpeter? (5) - PEN + N_Y (from The Big Bang Theory)
14. Zip file unpacked after end of transmission (3) - _N + _IL_
16. Bob and Mike hugged by immature setter? (4) - PU(M)P

To find Gladys,

Read the letters in the cells that are shaded in the LITS puzzle, and get PARQUE DAS NACOES!

And if you didn't understand the title,

this message from Chris Cudmore in The Sphinx's Lair is relevant (thanks to oAlt for the reminder lol)