'First time abroad' and the Lisbon trip

---

---

For me this was certainly not my first time outside England but for Alex it was, he had only got his first passport in time for the holiday! The journey started out reasonably early from Heacham and we got to Stansted via car and a few trains. Nice and easy check in, despite longer queues in the bag drop line than the check in line, thanks Dad. Very smooth flight and after the mammoth distances of my adventures in the States, the 2h40 seemed like nothing. Alex loved flying for the first time and is still talking about the experience as if it is the best thing ever, I guess I'm just used to it.

So anyway, we arrived in Faro at about 3.40 and Duncan was there to greet us and take us back to the house where we would be staying until Monday evening. Lots had changed since I last saw the place but we weren't there for long as it was soon time to go out for dinner with some of Duncan's friends, some of who i had met before. The restaurant was an Italian and me and Alex both went for the combination meal: basically they keep bringing out slices of various pizzas and pasta portions until you fall off your chair backwards. After 16 slices of a great variety of pizza (including the usual suspects like hawaiian and pepperoni to sweet treats like chocolate, mint sauce and condensed milk and cinnamon) and some great pasta, I was full and happy that i had got my €8.5 worth and some!

Pretty relaxed day on Thursday, not too much of a lay in but then we just lazed around the lounge all day watching movies, including The Godfather which neither of us had seen and agreed this needed to change. A day of doing not a lot was followed by an evening of... not a lot. We had a meal out in the garden with Sarah and Duncan and then just spent a while talking before an early night before our early start on Friday.

We got up about 6 (twice in 3 days!) to get the first train of the day from Loule to Lisbon. The journey was very pleasant, just under 3 hours and interesting scenery on the way. The fun began when we got to the train station in Lisbon and had to work out how to use the metro ticket machines. I had one unsuccessful attempt before I realised the was an option to have English text, this made things much easier and we were soon on our way with 24 hour transport passes in hand. The whole underground was only done in the 1960s so is very modern compared to London and New York with lots of art work covering the walls. We had to use 2 lines to get us from the train station to the hostel and I was very impressed with the system. The hostel was easy to find and first impressions were very good although we couldn't check in until later but at least we knew where to go when we got back from our tour of the city. I had printed a day itinerary from a random internet page and the plan was to follow this with the help of google map directions. We got to the starting point via metro and then promptly got lost. The reason for this is we tried going from A to B to C by walking instead of the suggested use of trams. After our failed attempts (which we later found out took us only 1 street from where we were going) we decided to brave the tram. It turns out we had nothing to worry about, the metro passes worked for the trams too so we didn't even have to pay extra and the journey was scenic through the old town. We ended up missing our stop for the castle and so ended up going to the end of the line, which turned out to be a good thing as we got to see more of the city than by following the itinerary. Anyway, we hopped straight back on the same tram, this time going the other way, and received some funny looks from the driver. We didn't make the same mistake twice and got the stop for the castle but before we went there we diverted up to an old church and city viewpoint that caught our eyes. The views were stunning over the city and we could see the castle, bridge and a lot of the city from here. On to the castle and even better views from here. The building itself was also very impressive but the views alone made the entrance fee worth it. Down the hill to the Cathedral, I'm not really into looking at religious buildings but it was on our way so we popped in for a quick look anyway. After this we headed down to the waterfront and spent a while wandering around the area before heading for downtown (or so we thought). A combination of silly directions and an equal amount of personal stupidity meant that we got a bit lost once again and after hours of walking around, we decided that was enough. Back along the riverside for a quick hop on the metro to the hostel. Simple check in followed by a quick tour after which we signed up for dinner and then chilled in the cool lounge area until it was time to eat. The meal was very good and all participants sat around the table and got to know each other while we ate. For €8 we got soup followed by salad, couscous and chicken piri piri and then ice cream. All very good and we had a laugh with some Australian lads too. They were all off out but Alex was tired so we just stayed in our room watching some comedy online before going to bed.

Free breakfast in the morning followed by more relaxing in the hostel lounge. The place is very well run with cool, modern common areas and spacious bedroom. By far the best one I have stayed in and easy to see why it is rated so highly. We checked out just before 12 and hung around until it was time to get on the metro to get the 1.30 train back to the Algarve. The train took a different route home so we got to see different scenery even though the journey took a bit longer. Back to the house about 6 and then dinner followed by watching the tennis and Spain match. A very enjoyable trip and well worth the time and effort.

---