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Published: November 27th 2007
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Lisboa, Portugal
Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is gorgeous. It has everything. It was impressive to me in all aspects. Anything you can think of, it was there. Minus the food maybe, this was only just really good.
It’s incredible just how much of a good time you can have in such a short period. All my life I have had these obvious bursts of fun and exciting things, but most of the time just normal life. Here, it’s like the normal life is bursts of fun and exciting things. Not that I don’t appreciate normal life don’t get me wrong, but this is just standout incredible; such a dense experience.
We started our travels by taking a bus, quite small might I add, all the way to Lisbon. From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The other side of the Atlantic. We traveled all through the night, stopping every hour or so because the bus driver wanted to prolong our arrival as long as he could. We got there at maybe 7 in the morning, more or less. We had to wait at the reception of the hotel for them to clean our rooms and have them set
up to put our bags in them. We changed and brushed our teeth in the reception bathroom, weary from bad sleep. The heater on the bus I might add was SO hot. Literally burned a piece of skin on my foot. Great start, but everything that goes wrong when you travel turns out to be funny later. Funny yet?
We start off with our gregarious tour guide at the Royal Palace. It was nice. A lot like all the other Royal Palaces we’ve seen. It’s fun to see this stuff, but I’d rather gain a real sense of a place rather than just see all touristy things cluttered with tour buses and people taking pictures or tour guides holding flags. But when you’re in a place for only a weekend, sometimes you just have to suck it up and make do. It’s like saying you went to Paris and didn’t see the Eiffel tower because you were too stubborn to admit you yourself were a tourist.
Our guide explained to us some things about Portuguese life and customs. He showed us some of the artistic mosaics all over the city. Also, they have a bridge almost identical to
the San Francisco Bridge. New to me, I’ve never been to San Francisco.
After the Royal Palace we stopped at a beautiful cathedral. Yet another impressive cathedral in a beautiful city. Who woulda thunk?
Vasco de Gama’s grave was in there though, which was quite awesome to see.
Then he took us to Belen Tower, on the water. That was really cool to see. It was a starting point for many voyages. Built in the 16th century if my memory serves me correctly as a watch for who was entering the Lisbon harbor.
Then, right down the road was a discoveries monument: a sculpture of many of the world’s explorers on their way to discovery. Right beside that, was a mosaic of a map of the world including many of the routes that explorers took, a gift from South Africa to Portugal.
The fountains were beautiful.
The narrow crooked hilly streets remind me a lot of Rome, and Europe all together.
At one point we were lost and looking on a map, able to witness an older man playing the accordion for an older woman, who was dancing for him. Then we glanced
up to see that people were watching from their balconies. It was heartwarming. Like I said, bad luck in travel always lead to something good.
Afterwards, we had our first Portuguese meal, and had no idea what to expect. No one could really read the language, but it was pretty similar to Spanish so we survived. I had some roasted chicken, rice, a small salad, and homemade potato chips. YUM!
We headed up to the highest mountain, usually queuing Miguel to make us climb. Instead he had us take a historical trolley up. Children would jump on to the trolley as it was pulling away for a free ride. A few times I was convinced they were sideswiped with cars, people, and even buildings. Not to mention, this is all up a steep hill with cobblestone streets. People didn’t seem to make anything of it. Must be normal?
We got up to St. George’s castle, on the top. With a panoramic view of the entire city and the harbor. Beautiful. We watched the sunset and explored in the castle. A perfect evening. Not to mention that I was about to meet up with home friend Meagan.
We decided that night to keep it cheap and relaxing. So we got lost going to a supermarket for food, stopped at a McDonald’s (I was practically forced to… the embarrassing ugly American I am), and on our way home stumbled upon the supermarket to buy beer and wine. We celebrated our trip in our hotel rooms, being yelled at twice by the manager, each time just going into a new room.
My room smelled like a dead rotting carcass of an animal. Too bad we got back to our room so late, too late to take an action.
The next morning we complained to the front desk, and they said they would take care of everything.
Our guide took us to a different place, a little outside of the city. Another castle on top of a mountain. This time we took our bus on the single lane road with hairpin turns every five minutes. No cliffs this time though. It was the Penna Palace, an extravagant castle looking building with bright colors and exquisite details. There were great views of the city here too.
After this, we went headed towards the coast.
WOW.
This
is a place that must be pictured in magazines photographs worldwide. I’ll let you look at the pictures and see for yourself. This was also the most Western part of all of Europe. Cool. Next step, most Eastern.
We ventured down closer to the harbor and had lunch. I had Italian.
Coincidentally, I kept running into Meagan. Small world. It was awesome.
We went down to the beach close to something called the mouth of hell, or something like that. I can’t quite remember. It is a small cove which the water eroded itself into, and every time a wave comes in it makes a deep sound.
We got to see the sunset yet again. Again, I’ll let my pictures speak for themselves.
We had to take a train back into the city of Lisbon. We were early and sat around at an outdoor café on the beach. I remember a guitarist who was playing for free, that was awesome. We all started up a conversation with him and had a nice time.
We took the train back to our hotel and decided to grab some Indian food for dinner. I loved it! I
can’t wait to try it again.
So in Portugal, I only had one Portuguese meal.
We went out to the “docks” that night, which was a huge strip of bars and clubs on the water. It went on farther than I could see. It was so much fun. The group I’m with is really a unique group of people. I really wish that everyone could stay another semester.
The next day we headed home, making one stop in a small town. There was a monastery made completely out of bones. That was really cool to see. I saw one just like that in Rome.
It took us 17 hours to get home. By the end of the trip, my feet were swollen and my toes looked like little hot dog hors d’euvres.
All in all, amazing trip. I’d go back.
The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before. ~G.K. Chesterton
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Renato
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Some minor corrections
The "royal palace" is actually the parliament. And the "cathedral" is a monastery.