We arrived in Lisboa at the Oriente station which apparently is famous for the architecture. It was pretty cool. We got in a half hour early which was a nice surprise. We made our way to our hostel in the cleanest metro I've ever seen. The hostel was a little hidden but we found it with little trouble. The receptionist spoke portugese, a little english, and a little spanish. Between the three languages we were able to communicate. It was a very clean hostel. After we got all settled in, we took a walk around the area of our hostel. We stopped at a bakery and got Pastel de Nata which is like a cream pastry that's very famous in Portugal. We were all pretty tired so we hit the hay pretty early.
In the morning, we hit the beach for some fun in the sun. It was fantastic weather, water, and sand. Lisa, Matt, and I were the only ones brave enough to get in the water. Again i was like a little kid on the beach jumping into the waves. The water was chilly but i got used to it. I then laid out for a little bit and took a walk out onto the dock. I climbed on the rocks to get hit by the waves which was fun. I now have a nice bruise on the top of my foot from misjudging the distance i needed to move it on the rocks. We then were starving and hit up a seafood restaurant on the beach. I had grilled cod which is the most famous dish here. It was a little salty but still very good. After our 2 hour lunch we took the train back to the hostel. After a little rest, we headed to do some sightseeing. We went to the oldest building in Lisboa, the cathedral first. It was build in the 12th century. It resembled a mini notre dame cathedral. Then we headed to the castle probably my favorite besides the beach. We could scale the ramparts and towers. It at the highest point in Lisboa so you can see the whole city. We also got to see the sunset which was incredible. I was surprised by the lack of safety features though. It would be very easy to fall off the walls. Not a good place for small children. I had a blast though. We got separated because matt, lisa, andrew and i had to climb every little wall and tower. On the way back we heard this obnoxious screeching coming from a tree. It turned out to be a peacock in a tree. There were some girls that i would guess were from canada that were just fascinated by this bird and couldn't figure out how it got up there. Andrew told them that they had opposable thumbs and climbed up. One of them actually believed him. Then they decided they wanted to see it fly. So they were looking for something to throw at it. All they had was one of the girls flip flops. She tried 4 times to throw it and couldn't get it high enough. Then I yelled "put your body into it!" and she did...but let go to late and it went behind her and landed on the umbrella of a cafe table. Almost unable to stand from laughing we left. I don't know if she ever got it back but she had a flight that night i believe so that would have not been fun if she couldn't get it back. But it wasn't the brightest idea in the first place. Then we were starving and craving pasta. We found this italian restaurant. It was very good considering everyone that worked there was indian. They were very nice and very interested in why we were in europe. Again we were very tired and went to bed pretty early.
Saturday we got up early and headed to the part called Belem. There we went to the top of the monument of two discoveries. There you get a nice few of the river tajo headed to the atlantic. We accidently got caught up into a tour group in one of the exhibitions and noticed that there we refreshments. The exhibition wasn't very interesting so we took some treats and went back up and it was chained off. Apparently we weren't supposed to go to that exhibition. Oh well. No one noticed. Then we went to the Tower of Belem which was built in the 1500s to guard the port of Lisboa. It was the last sight the conquestors would see before they sailed away. Again Lisa, Matt and I had to climb everything we could. The interesting thing was there was the skinniest spiral staircase ever to get up the tower. And with people going up and down it was a little scary. We managed to only get stuck a few times. There was the coolest little corridor on one of the levels that you could barely walk through that led to a little room. I want a house like that. I'd never get bored. So then we went to the Berardo museum of contemporary art. There were some...how should i put it...interesting paintings and videos. There were some that i liked, some that i didn't and some that looked like a 2 year old rubbed their fingers in paint and then on paper and others...i don't want to know what goes on in their mind. We then ate some foods. I had swordfish. It had just arrived that day. I loved it. It was much better than the cod i had had the day before. Then Matt, Lisa, and I headed to the Monastery. It was built to commemorate Vasco de Gama's journey around the African coast to India. It is on the sight that he and his crew prayed before sailing away. It was built right after he returned with great success. The cathedral inside had very detailed architecure and had the caskets of Vasco de Gama and famous poets. The actual monastery had a very nice garden and some magnificent art. After the monastery we went to the coach museum that had a collection of royal. In addition there was an exhibit about the king that was murdered with his first born son. It was very interesting. Then with some convencing from Matt we went back to the museum because he wanted to watch some of the videos again and see some of the other exhibits. Two of the other exhibits were just as wierd. The one about photography was interesting but there were so many pictures that it got old fast. And it was like a maze and i was very confused because all the rooms looked the same. With the help of Lisa I made it out alive. We then headed back to the hostel and met the others. We went to a traditional portuguese restaurant with Fado music. One of the singers was an 8 year old boy with an amazing voice. He was so adorable. We gave him 2 euros for a tip. I had a whole golden fish. It was also ridiculously good. After our meal and show we headed to check out the night life in Lisbon. We headed back not too late because we had to leave pretty early in the morning.
The next morning I got up and got ready. I headed to breakfast and had a conversation with an australian surfer. then a german man came in and was eating with us as well. Half way through eating he said "is that the washing machine?" and i realized he was talking about the table shaking. and i responded "no that's my leg". He laughed and said "your leg can shake the whole building? I thought there was an earthquake or something" Andrew got a big kick out of that one. I then got a cup of coffee that was luke warm so i put it in the microwave. When i opened the door after i had heated it i learned the glass tray was not on properly when the whole thing slid out. And as smart as i am i decided to try to catch a scalding cup of coffee. guess what? you can't catch a liquid. So then i burned my hand on the coffee and everything still fell on the floor. Good news is that nothing broke but i did embarass myself in front of everyone there. Andrew also enjoyed that one. We headed the the bus station and got on our bus to badajoz. We had a couple hours in badajoz to eat and we had a nice lunch at a restaurant. The rest of the trip was good. When i got home, i skyped my parents, ate, and went to bed.
Today 6 am came way to soon but i got to my internship and continued my translations. It sounds like they are trying to get the things i need to finish my titrator project. So hopefully all will turn out well if they get them. It was a pretty relaxing day but i'm still pretty tired because it was long. I think that so far lisbon is definitely my favorite place i've visited. I would love to go back some day. The ocean air is great, and it's a very relaxed atmosphere with amazing food. Below is a slide show of my weekend. Enjoy!
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| Lisbon! |
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