Happy New Year from Lisbon

I barely managed to extricate myself from a serious clinch with a travel friend in time to catch the overnight bus from Seville to Lisbon, and send a cyber kiss to you cherie *mwah - mwah*. Eurolines decided, in their infinite wisdom, to schedule a traveller friendly departure time of midnight for the bus from southern Spain to the Portugese capital, and to top it off the bus was scheduled to arrive in Lisbon at 5:30am Portugal time. I´d like to meet the genius who thought up that timetable ... Not! Anyways, it´s all good and I was surprised to see my Chinese comrades from the dorm room we shared at a Granada hostel were also on the bus. It can be a very small world sometimes when you're on the road.

And so I´m here in wonderful Portugal, and after waiting ninety minutes for the metro to open, I wearily climbed aboard and soon got ensconced in a quality hostel smack bang in the city centre. Lisbon is a beautiful city, and I realise that after six weeks in Western Europe I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but my impressions of these magnificent cities are truly from the heart. For an Aussie there is nothing to compare with the cities in mediterranean Europe, and they never fail to impress. Then again, they don´t have any kangaroos so at least we still have something over the Europeans! Lisbon is very hilly but if you're feeling the pinch you can always jump on one of the convenient trams for a bit of motorised assistance in tackling the many steep climbs. The oldest tram is from the 1880´s, and Lisbon is a city of great history and tradition.

I settled into my hostel quickly, and was lucky to spend a very special New Year's Eve in Lisbon. Everything came together so nicely here with a brilliant hostel owner making me feel welcome, and then I met the Spanish hostel guests. They arrived as a large group of eighteen people from Granada who planned their New Years Eve well in advance, and the entire hostel's guests for the big night consisted of the Spanish, a lone Mexican girl, one jumping kangaroo and a Japanese guy. The Spanish cooked up a huge banquet to celebrate the New Year and one of the dorm rooms was magically transformed into a restaurant for the evening. This was the start of a great New Year's Eve in Lisbon.

At midnight Spanish time we all waited for the countdown while tuning into Spanish TV from one of the guest's laptop computer. Then everyone downed a dozen grapes for good luck in the upcoming New Year which is a Spanish tradition I wasn´t aware of, but it was great fun to be involved. Then we grabbed some whisky and coke and headed to the main square in time for the New Year fireworks an hour later. The square was absolutely packed with revellers and the atmosphere was truly exhilarating. A band was playing on a giant stage erected for the festivities and we partied along with the crowd on quite a mild evening. The Spanish really know how to kick on, so then it was off to Bairro Alto which is a famous street for clubbing. We milled around on the street for a time polishing off more drinks, and eventually we went into a club to dance along to great songs, and a bit more partying. I think I finally crawled into bed around 6:30am after a memorable New Year's Eve spent in good company.

New Year's day was spent by the hostel guests resting and recuperating, which I capped off with an excellent Indian meal over a few beers. But you can´t spend all your time lazing around when on holidays, so the next day it was time to jump on an early train for a day trip to the magical city of Sintra, which is barely an hour out of Lisbon. This hilly town was a personal favourite of Lord Byron and home to the Portugese monarchs during the summer months. The tourist information centre in Sintra gets travellers sorted in no time, and a bus round trip will take you to all the sights for just four euros. The lady at the counter explained that one palace was closed because it was wednesday, and I just stared at her blankly. Mate, I don´t have a clue what day of the week it is when I´m travelling but I did appreciate the heads up from La Senora.

The Palacio da Pena was the highlight for me, and within the palace the monarchs´ rooms have been recreated in the traditional style of the times. Sintra is a great little town to stroll around, and the historical centre is filled with gorgeous little cobble stone streets as expected in this part of the world. There are villas and gardens aplenty to explore and it´s all within easy reach of the capital. When I stopped off for lunch in the city I ordered a ham and cheese roll with a coke, and was charged two euro and sixty five cents. As you can gather, Portugal is a considerably cheaper travel destination than her neighbours in mediterannean Europe, and the weather has been surprisingly mild given it is now the middle of winter.

The Portugese provide a special welcome to visitors in this gorgeous country, and on the Atlantic coast the capital city of Lisbon is a must see travel destination. I´ve enjoyed friendly banter with the locals, good food at affordable prices, and outrageously cheap beer. The main supermarket on New Year´s Eve was packed to the rafters, but I was happy to queue patiently for 45 minutes, because after all my six pack of beer cost the princely sum of one Euro and fifty cents; now that´s a price worth lining up for in my books! In Portugal travellers come to discover the country that discovered half the world where,............. basically all of you should be here now!

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake." Robert Louis Stevenson

Top 3 Hotels/Restaurants
Goodnight backpackers - Lisbon, Portugal
Sur Sangam restaurante Indiano/Italiano - Lisbon, Portugal
Berlenga Restaurante - Lisbon, Portugal

Top 3 Sights/Activities
New Year´s Eve celebrations in Praca do Comercio - Lisbon, Portugal
Nightclubbing in Bairro Alto - Lisbon, Portugal
Palacio da Pena - Sintra, Portugal

Book of the month - Next by Michael Crichton

As I continue my travels, until next time it´s signing off for now

Tom

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