Climbing the steps to the top of Lisbon

Beauty is a Fall Day in Lisbon

Last Night

Last night we strolled around the Baixa (pronounce Buy-Sha) district prior to dinner. Dinner in Lisbon doesn’t really start until 7pm and even then most people aren’t eating yet so, we took our tie heading to dinner. We just explored the area and looked at all the shops. Its easy to see why Europeans are more fashionable than Americans are, there are inexpensive (and expensive) clothing shops everywhere. Also, its interesting to compare what Capitalism has done to American business in compared with Europe in general. There are restaurants everywhere, some of them small than the average American bedroom. Its amazing that so many little places, its surprising they stay open.

We ate dinner at Mrtinho da Arcada which is off the Placa da Commercio which is right on the waterfront of the Tejo (pronounced Te-Zhoo) river. Our dinner was fabulous and was a great cap off for our beautiful first day. I had Squid and Shrimp while Kel ate Grouper. The food was wonderful, the wine was wonderful….everything was just wonderful.

We then headed up to Barrio Alto for some strolling through the small suburban streets where bars are on every corner and in every alley. To walk through an area like this in America would be frightening but here, everything felt safe. We stopped at a small wine shop and had a glass of Port (which comes from Porto, Portugal originally) and had some olives. We talked to the guy working there who was from Sao Paolo Brazil and then headed back to our room. It was only 10pm but we had slept a total of 5 hours in the last 48, so it was definitely sleepy time. I subsequently passed out while Kel read a little and then we slept 12 hours straight.

A Day of Climbing Stairs

We started our morning off with a stop at a small pastry shop off Placa da Restauradores and had a ham pastry and a diet Coke. From there we headed straight towards the oldest section of Lisbon which is called the Alfama. At the top of the Alfama rests castle Sao Jorge ( said Zhorzh) which was created when the King of Potugal married an English Queen, thus the sensitive King named the castle after England’s patron saint, George.

To get to the top of the Alfama one must head straight up hill. Lisbon is similar to San Francisco in that it has tons of hills, steps and trolleys (Which we may take later in our adventures). Therefore, to get to the Castle Kel and I climbed about 200 steps. This escapade was tiring but completely worth it.

At the top of the castle you get an amazing view of the city and can even see the urban sprawl which heads miles beyond the part of town we spend our time in. Across the river from Lisbon proper rests a statue which is a very close cousin to the famous Christ statue which resides over Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. We spent the better part of two hours at the castle, exploring, resting and seeing the sights.

When experiencing a foreign country, there are many things that stick out to you but there are surprisingly many things that remain the same. One honorable mention from the day that remains the same was the group of traveling high school students from Italy which was prancing around the Castle while we were there. One extra cool student was blasting his iPod and singing to everyone his own special version of Master of Puppets by Metallica. While that particular song is a classic of heavy metal, there is noting funnier than hearing someone with an Italian accent singing it. One honorable mention about things that are different, we noticed a pigeon with a bracelet on his right leg. At first we though maybe this was an animal attempt at European high fashion, and then came to the conclusion he must be on parole and therefore had to keep his ankle bracelet on for tracking purposes.

After the castle we headed down the Alfama and got some lunch at a small restaurant on a side street. Kel had chicken, I had octopus. Both were hearty and filling which is what we needed after all those stairs. We then went down to the waterfront and back around to our hotel. We stopped on the way and bought some groceries which we hope will enable us to save some cost and eat some snacks in the room on the cheap instead of eating out all the time.

We heard about the election outcomes from Tuesday and were amazed to hear the democrats seemed to rebound from their recent difficulties. Since we are completely out of touch with the world, we will need you guys to let us know what crazy political, and non-political, happenings occur back home. Send us emails, we love them!!

Later peeps, hope you are all having fun too!

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