The Last Days in Lisbon

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Our time in Lisbon Dwindles

The Gublenkian Museum

Yesterday we decided to take it easy since we were still a little tired from our long hike to Castle Pena. Thus, we decided to head to the local art museum and otherwise do very little.

The Gublenkian museum was opened in 1969 and has some really cool galleries. We greatly enjoyed the Chinese vases and furniture from 15th century France. Since we weren’t allowed to take pictures, you will just have to imagine the beauty we saw.

The hike up to the Gublenkian looked rather small on the map but turned out to be about a mile and a half up a 25 degree hill, which wasn’t so bad except our legs were tired from the day before. On the way down, it was much more agreeable to our legs and thus not very strenuous. We stopped on the way down at a supermarket in the basement of a department store call El Corte Ingles. The supermarket was amazing because of its size and because a lot of the food is incredibly fresh. We were here to buy Corn Starch, which for those of you who don’t know is a necessary ingredient in our travels because of its medicinal properties for people with Glycogen Storage Disease which Kel has had since she was born. I won’t go into details because I assume most of you who know us know about Kel’s corn starch needs. Our trip to the supermarket was successful and we left with three bags of Farihna do Milho.

Later in the day we sat in a café on a crowded plaza and had a beer while watching the world. These two hours were very relaxing with the exception of the local beggars who seemed to understand that we weren’t a couple to screw with but found many other patrons to be on their list of people to bother. Three older American behind us managed to get in a scrap with a guy attempting to aggressively sell magazines. The taller of the three stood up and told the guy to leave and then pushed the “salesman” which caused him to trip and knock over one of the other Americans glass of red wine. To say the least, the Americans were all very upset and proceeded to loudly converse on this topic for the next half an hour until their tour left. Some American travelers really do fall neatly into the stereotype that the rest of the world has of us. It’s sad!

The Zoo and Travel Prep

Today we decided to head out to the bus station to scope out our departure for tomorrow. This will be the first time either of us has caught a bus in Europe and therefore I was a little nervous about it. I wanted to make sure I knew the lay of the land prior to heading that way. Getting to the buses involves a short metro ride and then a quick change over to the bus station. It doesn’t seem all that difficult now, but will be much more difficult with our bags which are both over 40 pounds. It will be an adventure I’m sure!

It so happens that the metro station and bus station are right by the local zoo, so we decided to check it out. It was rather expensive to get it, about 14 euros a piece so we were hoping for something special. Since both us like zoos it doesn’t take a ton to keep us pleased, and this zoo was certainly up to the challenge. First off, European zoos in general have much less space between you and the animals, unless, of course, the animals are extremely dangerous and then they revert to what we would do in the States. Our favorite exhibits were the Gibbons (small monkey like creatures similar to Lemurs) and the Tigers. The tiger exhibit consisted of two cages, one with the big daddy tiger and one with the two babies and mom. The babies and mom were really great. We spent about a 20 minutes watching mom and the babies cavort.

The other major exhibited mentioned above were the gibbons. Kel and I have decided that if we can’t be reincarnated as sea otters (which always seem to be having fun) that we want to be reincarnated as Gibbons. These little fur balls were constantly swinging and chasing each other and having what looked like a blast. There was a mother with a baby clinging to her chest which was incredibly cute. I got tons of pictures of these and actually took some video. Unfortunately I don’t have the internet bandwidth to get video up, so you will just have to wait for me to get home.

Once we got back to downtown I decided to get a haircut. This is an adventure unto itself since I don’t speak the language of the guy getting ready to cut my hair. After some fits and starts at the beginning, the guy did a great job. He spent time talking to Kel and I as much as he could in a hodge-podge of English, Spanish and Portuguese. He talked about immigration in Europe and the US and about the Economy in the US. It was great and he did a superb job on my hair. I was very impressed and this little adventure turned out great.

Otherwise, today is all about travel prep and dinner. We will be heading out shortly to get some food and then will come back and pack. Tomorrow we are off to Evora where we will spend two days looking at old roman ruins in a much sleepier town. After Evora we are going to hear to Lagos which is a touristy beach town but is a must because of its direct connections with Sevilla, Spain.

We my not be able to post our blogs for the next few days. There is the strong possibility that they will have to wait until we get to Sevilla which should be Saturday if nothing changes once we get to either of the upcoming small towns. Do not worry if we don’t respond for awhile, we will the next chance we get!!

Thanks again for reading, we love you guys!!

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