A Weekend in Lisbon

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Well here goes..... the first proper blog!!

It's still 5 months until we go properly but hopefully this will give you a taste of things to come.

Not really sure exactly what to put on here so I will just keep typing until something makes sense.

We had to get up at 4am to make the thrilling drive from Cheltenham to Luton Airport.

A few hours later and we were winging our way to the hotel with a taxi driver who was moaning about global warming....... oh and we passsed two traffic accidents in the 10minute journey!!

The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and wandering around the centre of Lisbon. It was a public holiday so there was a lot of locals doing the same as us.

That evening we learnt a very harsh lesson about the dining habits of the Portugese. When we tried to get something to eat at about 10.00pm it became apparent that everywhere was full and trying to accomodate 8 jolly foreigners was not something any waiter was keen to do!! Hence we went through the embarassment of having a McDonalds at midnight!

Note to self: Always book a table when eating in Portugal.

The following day we were very traditional tourists for the morning, visiting Castelo de Sao Jorge and enjoying some spectacular views over the city. This was followed by more wandering around the small streets of the Alfama neighbourhood and lunch in a very local restaurant surrounded by pictures of Hollywood filmstars!?!?

After heading back to the hotel for a quick wash and change we headed off in search of food and drink(with a reservation this time) We ate a lovely dinner in a small restaurant only slightly bigger than an average living room!!

This was followed by a trawl of the bars of Bairro Alto and after many beers and Absinth(thank you Frank!!) we eventually staggered home at about 4.00am.

Our final day was spent generally trudging around the area of Belem feeling a little worse for wear. The weather was beautiful though and Belem likewise with a very small village feel to it.

Overall an excellent weekend and writing this has got us very excited about eventually getting on the road full time!!

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Photos

View from the Castelo
It had been raining about 30mins before and then bright sunshine giving some great light

A grin before the grimace
Frank and Rich ordered the green stuff!!

A Row of Pain
Absinth - it's not watered down Frank!!

Christmas Lights
Every street had a different set of lights. They love Christmas in Lisbon.

Comments

[sue E]

Good effort
Most amusing account of your trip to Portugal and we look forward to the reports you will send from your travels.

[Purple Monkey Dishwasher]

Heys guys
I saw your comment in the forum about travelling from the UK to OZ - I've thought about it myself, and in doing some research I found this Bus service that does the trip (okay not all of the trip, it's not the sought of bus that converts into a boat ;-)) Here is the website (http://www.ozbus.co.uk/), maybe in plotting a trip you could follow their route somehow? anyway hope it helps, cheers Ben (www.travelblog.org/bloggers/purple-monkey-dishwasher/)