Advertisement
Published: November 8th 2006
Sleep….We Don’t Need No Stinking Sleep
The Trip We started our day by separating off with our respective parents. I left early, about 10am, with my parents and got brunch at Baker’s Crust. My official last meal in Richmond consisted of a Jersey Grinder (read Italian Sub) and a Crepe for dessert. Kel showed up with her parents at about 11:30 and we headed off to the airport after quick goodbyes with my fam’. Kel’s parents dropped us off at the airport at about 12:30 and then we were officially on our own.
We started our trip in true American style, our first flight, which was to Newark, was delayed! YAY!!! Thankfully the hour long delay effected us little since we were to have a 4 hour layover in Newark prior to leaving. I would have to say that I was very impressed with the international concourse in Newark, once we got there (say around 4:30). We went to the food court and ate at a “Portuguese” restaurant which was basically Mexican food with Portuguese labels on the menu. The food was Poo, but it filled us up. My father always tells me, “When
traveling you eat when you can and Pee when you can!” We did both in Newark. By time we got on the plane we had been traveling for 8 hours already and had only traveled maybe 300 miles. Exciting!!
I was incredibly unimpressed with the 757 we flew to Lisbon in, Continental claims to have a new set of planes but this wasn’t one of them. The seats were cramped, the overhead space was sparse and there was no power plug for laptops. This particular plane did not sit well in my opinion. Another odd thing about Continental, they are trying to compete in the increasingly competitive American travel market by being the only remaining airline to offer food in flight. While this sounds like a good idea, there are other things I find more important, like legroom. Either way, what’s really funny about this strategy is that they force food on people. People kept trying to sleep while the flight attendants would talk loudly asking people if they wanted whatever food they were schlepping on the people around them. Multiple times the guy next to me, on the aisle, was woken up by these rather pushy attendants because
they would run his leg over with the food cart as they whistled by to feed all these people who didn’t care about the food. In the morning, everyone’s asleep, and I was waiting in line for the bathroom. The attendants would wake people up by shoving a plate of luke warm food into their chests. It was fun to watch, but made me not want to sleep. Who know what would happen you could be happily sleeping one minute and have a plate of soggy croissants attacking your pectoral muscles the next minute.
I slept maybe an hour on the whole flight because I was in the middle seat, Kel and the guy next to me seemed to have no problems. My knees were hurting a bit from being stuck at a 90 degree angle for 6 hours so I was ready to go when the flight landed. The flight time was exactly 6:11:20, which was not too bad considering. Total travel time from Baker’s Crust to Poet’s House, about 19 hours…could’ve been worse I’m sure.
We’re Heeerrrrreeee The customs situation in the EU these days is a breeze. I probably would have known
that if I hadn’t just been in Jamaica. In Jamaica they make you fill out forms and they are very fierce about knowing when you are going to leave. They even want a departing flight number. In Portugal, no questions, I hand them passports, they stamp them. Its very simple. I like that….you go EU….you go!!!
We caught a cab to our Hotel/Hostel which was a fun ride. The weather here is gorgeous, about 69 degrees and sunny, so we had the windows down and enjoy the weather the whole cab trip. The cabbie, we’ll call him Gruff because that’s what he was, barely spoke English. He drove through town and added much color to our first experiences in Europe. He stopped in one intersection just to yell at another driver who was doing something stupid. It was great! He then turned to Kel and I and gruffly complained for 30 seconds or so in Portuguese. We laughed and had a good time, he seemed to enjoy himself too. Gruff was a good Taxi driver and got us uphill of our destination so the 5 euro tip we gave him seemed worthwhile.
We arrive in the little side
street, Rua Do Duque, and checked into the hotel. Our room has its own entrance and is nice. I’m really glad we took a step up for the first stay over because even this will take some getting used to for us. The bed is a double, haven’t ever done that as a couple, and the shower is too short to stand up all the way in, but its nice, clean and well located, so who cares about some inconvenience.
Some Sights Instead of crashing and screwing up our schedules with jet lag, I convinced Kel to unpack a bit and take a walk through our surrounding areas. Thanks to Rick Steves travel guides we had a preplanned walking route that we could easily accomplish with the little energy that we had.
Upon walking out our door we noticed that cats abound in the streets of Lisbon, There is this mangy cat that sleeps on a car right out side our door (see pic). We walked up to Elevador Da Gloria and started our descent through Barrio Alto and the Chiado (pronounced Shee-ah-doo) section of town. We stopped in the Sao Roque Church and then headed
down to Praca de Camoes which is a nice square in that Barrio Alto. We then headed up to a restaurant Rick Steves recommended in another square called Largo do Carmo.
This is a good place to stop and talk about Portuguese. It is exactly as strange as everyone says it is. To read it, it looks like Spanish, to say it you must Mix Spanish and French and to hear it sounds vaguely like hearing Russian. For one who at one point in time was nearly fluent in Spanish, it is completely foreign. I’d have to say that two or three week here will probably be a huge language learning lesson for Kel and I.
We went into the restaurant, called Leitaria Academica, and stood at the counter dumbfounded. I asked the owner if he spoke English (pronounces Eeng-Leesh) and he said basically no. Another guy at the counter helped us and we ordered a bunch of fried dumpling that had Vegetables (with a good amount of curry), Fish (My favorite), Chicken (good…very, very good) and Shrimp (strange…yet tasty). W e got two diet Cokes and proceeded to sit in the outside area and eat our food.
I have to say at this point I was feeling pretty run down, I was wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew so to speak. I was thinking, “Man, a year of knowing nothing is going to be pretty tough…can we hack it.” The food at Leitaria Academica, the friendliness of the owner and the guy at the counter completely blew away all those doubts. This is why we travel. We sat in the square for thirty minutes and just stared at the world around us. This is what traveling Europe should be, good authentic food, a great atmosphere and adventure all rolled into one. AWESOME!
We hen headed to a bar from the 30’s that Rick Steves recommended called Café A Brasileira. I ordered a Bica (espresso) and Pastel de Nata (Custard Tart). Kel and I shared our dessert and then headed on for more sight seeing.
We headed down to Rossio which is the main cultural square in the center of our part of Lisbon. There we sat a while longer and enjoyed the sights before heading back to our hotel. So you know, Lisbon is one big set of hills.
We had to walk uphill the whole way back to the hotel which made Kel completely worn out. Once we returned she immediately fell asleep and has been asleep ever since. Here is is 2:30pm and where you are its 9:42am. I haven’t slept more than an hour in the past 26 hours and am wearing down fast.
In short, this has already been a great day and dinner hasn’t even started. I hope to write again soon. Hope everyone is well and having a great day!
P.S. I am having troubles with the pictures at this point, so I will add them later. Sorry!
Visited Countries Map 
Advertisement
Tot: 0.228s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 93; dbt: 0.1376s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Haines
non-member comment
Jet Lag Loopiness
The jet lag must have really gotten to you b/c we all know you don't have pectoral muscles! Glad you both made it safely. Can't wait to keep up with your updates.