Blogs from Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe - page 52

We went to the Castelo de Jorge this afternoon after we took the metro to get our tickets for the night train to Madrid tomorrow night. Everything here has to be done between 10 and 1 or after 3pm because EVERYTHING CLOSES so that you can go eat!! The castle is from the 12th century, most of the walls are still standing.....it's the view that's amazing 360 degrees around, you can see all of Lisbon and across the estuary. I could imagine ladies in long gowns and mantillas wandering through the castle whispering. Then we went to the cathedral and caught a part of a mass...with a priest with a good voice. The old city that we explored is built all on the hills with tiny winding alleys. Lots of the houses are covered in tiles. ... read more

We're in the capital of portugal. It's still early..only 11:30 so haven't done any sightseeing yet. We're staying in the Bates motel...3 floors up, you have to ring the bell to be let in and the manager sleeps right next door. The room doesn't have a good shower, the bathroom is the size of a closet, there's not phone in the room..there's a box and a cord but no phone..the tv's not plugged in and the airconditioning doesn't work..oh yeah, the lights out in the bath too. I'll write more later.... read more

All of it!! Sights of Portugal... read more

1) Portugal is definetly and defiantly not Spain. Before I arrived, I too would have been hard pressed to distinguish between Portugal and its larger Iberian cousin. Portugal does however, retain an immediate and distinct atmosphere of its own, although this atmosphere is hard to define. I suppose it seems somewhat Carribean or South American to me, although having never been to the Carribean or South America I'm not exactly an authority on the matter. But it is certainly multicultural and seems much more exotic than other european countries 2) Until I recieve conclusive evidence to the contrary I will continue to believe that all portugese people can sing very well. I mean really sing. One evening in Lisbon a group of people from my hostel and myself went to watch some Fado music. Fado ... read more

Hi again. Well, we made it back from our trip safely, & not a moment too soon. While we enjoyed ourselves immensely, we also overdid it a bit, & feel like we need a holiday from our holiday this time. Portugal was great though - quite different from Greece (which is all we have to base it on at the moment). People didn't bug you every 5 seconds to eat at their restaurant or buy their market products, which made things much easier, but at the same time, hardly anyone spoke English, & none of the road signs or subway stations had an English equivalent on them to know where you were going, so it was much harder to navigate around. However, the transport systems were still effective & easily enough understood after living in a ... read more