Advertisement
Published: September 6th 2007
Canon at the Castle
I was a little freaked out given the heights but all in the name of a good photo...We finally found where to drop our car in Lisbon and gladly left it there to grab a cab to our apartment. The apartment was very modern and right in the heart of the Bairro Alto district in Lisbon. It is one of the oldest parts and set high on one of the hills. Think Newtown meets the Cross in Sydney. It seems quiet during the day but there are funky shops all through the alley ways and at night it lights up with bars and restaurants everywhere.
After our stressful time trying to drop off the car we were all in need of a drink. We grabbed some beers to drink while we all showered and then took a roadie (one for the road) out in search of a restaurant. Here´s where it gets interesting......
On the way we stopped off in some shops in the Bairro Alto (which I now know is quite dodgy in parts) and I felt rude drinking my roadie in the shop so stepped outside while Robyn, Jess and Dan looked in the shop. A dude who was sitting on a step outside the shop must have seen me standing outside drinking and
with my bag and called a mate.
All of a sudden this guy ran around the corner, yanked my bag off my wrist and kept running. I think I thought 'bugger this, my camera, mobile etc are in there, I am not going to lose them!' (or maybe I didnt think anything and this occurred to me afterwards) and I ran after him (in indian thongs with no grip and a dress).
I chased him down a street lined with restaurants screaming 'catch him' and a guy heard me, jumped out and somehow grabbed the bag back off the guy and gave it back to me!
I was very lucky that I got it back, and the guy didnt try to hurt me. The guy who got my bag back was older and bigger than this kid so I can only think he got scared and gave the bag to him. I have been sooo careful whilst travelling through Europe but in hindsight this was a stupid thing to do and I let my guard down. Lesson learnt!
What was astounding was that Robyn, Jess and Dan had no idea what had happened and when I
Busker with very cute dog
NB the little bucket in the doggies mouth to catch coins. I thought it was adorable and a little sad but gave the guy some money. I soon realised it is a common act with many buskers using their little dogs to work too . Aww.... walked into the shop they were oblivious to everything. I guess they were playing music in the shgop and I didnt start screaming until I went down the other street so that's why.
After wards I felt fine - more angry than anything and still a bit shocked I chased after him! I didn't feel so confident when it came to walking back to our apartment which was a couple of streets from 'bag snatch alley' I freaked out a bit. Needless to say I didn't feel all that safe in Lisbon since but was determined to have a good time!!
The next day we set off for some sightseeing and I fell over on the way. I fell down a flight of slippery steps and landed heavily on my bum. I was lucky I only fell down a couple of stairs and freaked out a little as I am still sensitive about the broken foot incident and hurting myself as I know how easy it can be. What with the bag snatch the night before and the fall, I cracked and burst into tears!!!
Luckily things looked up in Lisbon from that point onwards. Robyn and
Dan took Jess & I to their facvourite patisserie for coffees & pastries and then to the Lisbon castle for breathtaking views of Lisbon. We did the obligatory photos on the canons and clambered around the castle in the baking heat.
We then headed to Torre de Belem which is Robyn's fave thing in Lisbon. It is a castle like building which was actually used to defend Lisbon during the 1700's. We decided to do the tour and ended up being the only ones (story of my life on tours) but the guide was a Portuguese girl who was born in the Gong and who sounded Aussie! The poor girl got a million questions from us as we wanted to learn more about the Portuguese explorers and history. She was very grateful and answered all our questions and even gave us a quick history lesson! The Torre is gorgeous and was built so as the Portuguese sent off the explorers close to this point and wanted it to be beautiful as it was often the last thing the explorers would see of Portugal, and (on the rare occaision that they returned) the first thing to welcome them home. It
was built in manueline style, which is the Portguese interpretation of Gothic style - using features of Gothic but blended with elements of Moorish architecture. Stunning.
After the Torre we headed down the river to the nearby monument to the explorers. You can go inside it and get a lift up it, which was great as we had already climed up to the castle and the Torre de Belem, and also all the hills in Lisbon! The view was amazing and the outside of the building is pretty spectaculr too - there are huge statues of well knowne explorers, and other people who were involved in their voyages eg nobles, navigators, poets etc.
When we got down it was a race to Pasteis de Belem, which we had read has the best portuguese tarts in Lisbon. We had no idea what time it closed but I guess 7pm like a lot of other places (it is actually open 8am - midnight every day for future reference!). Lucky we got ther later as there were no queues out the door, but we ordered tarts and headed to the park to eat them. They sell so quickly that when you
buy them they are still warm and they give you cinnamon and icing sugar to put on top. Heaven!!!
We headed back to the apartment to get ready to go out. Robyn & Dan wanted to go back to Ramira which was a restaurant they found last time. It is a marisqueira, specialising in fresh seafood. They had called a couple of times and got no answer so we didnt know if they were closed for holidays. Given it was the 1st Sept and most businesses closed for August we had high hopes. Sadly when we got there it was indeed closed.......so we headed up the road to another marisqueira we had spotted. We ordered crab and the big prawns again and it was nice but not the best we had. Luckily (for my readers) we all left our cameras at home after the bag snatching so there are no photos of us with plates of food!!
Sunday saw Robyn & Dan head to Sintra for the day while Jess & I stayed in Lisbon to see more of the sights. We did a walking tour on Sunday morning and surprise surprise, we were the only ones on
it!! It was good although a little long and would have been good to do on the first day! Highlights were going up in the lift near the Bairro Alto that was designed by Gustav Eiffel and the views from up the top, as well as a tram ride, taking in some sights in Lisbon. She also showed us some areas and squares we had not seen yet and told us some interesting facts.
We grabbed some delicious lunch and headed over to the Jeronimos Monstery, which we had spotted from the top of the explorer monument the day before. Again, it is built in manueline style so was beautiful and just lovely to walk around inside in the coolness as it was a very hot day. The highlight for me was a display they had built which showed the timeline of the monastery, and laid alongside this was Portuguese history, and also laid alongside was world history. Fascinating, although by the time I got to it I was knackered so didn't have much patience! I was also captivated by the family tree of European royalty which showed royalty from all countries and how they were interlinked. Not having
studied a lot of European history in high school, it is always very confusing when you go to a palace and hear who lived there, but I never saw the bigger picture to see how they all went together.
As the monastery was conveniently located near the tart place, we had to sample some more in the shade of the trees. We then headed home to meet up with Robyn & Dan and headed out into the Bairro Alto for dinner. We found a restaurant called Bizarro and I think it was named that due to the eclectic mix of food served there. I think itr was Portuguese mixed with Mõroccan, but whatever it was, it was delicious! I had a cumin rice sausage for entree (was yummier than it sounds) followed by a stuff sea bass. The portuguese know how to do their seafood!
We then headed into the laneways for a mini bar crawl. It isn't hard, there is a bar every 2 buildings! We started to order capirinhas, which in Lisbon had rum that tasted like tequlia and were very strong. Needless to say after a couple we were all very merry! We headed home
(careful to avoid bag snatch alley) and crashed. The next day the others left quite early for their flight and I had the rest of the morning to chill out in Lisbon. I still have mixed feelings about Lisbon and not sure if I would go back. I don't really feel safe there and maybe the answer is to stay somewhere different next time. There is certainly a lot to see and do there, and I would love to go back and shop there with a full bank account!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.174s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 14; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0715s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
