TOUR DAY FOUR

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SEVILLE --> LISBON

(new years eve)

Today, we started off with a very very long bus ride across the border of Spain to Portugal. The scenery was much the same - the expansive Spanish country side seemelssly merging into the green sloping hills of Portugal. Though I must say the trees were not arranged in the perfect straight lines like the olive trees around Spain.

There was no border security - as per the agreement of the EU nations. But there was a whole expanse of no man's land - complete limbo between Spain and Portugal and just countryside. Probably helps keep a civil and peaceful relationship along the border.

In fact, in this limbo was a service station which was still considered Spanish and thus with cheaper fuel prices than Portugal - a station that the Portugese often make the trip towards to make us of the cheaper prices.

Jorge, our tour director, mentioned that we would know when we crossed the border when the roads got worse. Now, I must admit that they weren't quite as well maintained and smooth as the Spanish words - and much narrower (most noticably as our big tour bus tried to manouevre through the streets).

It was yet another hour or so into the centre of Lisbon (the westernised pronunciation of Lisboa). As the next day, new years day would have meant all the businesses would be shut down and thus dampened the sightseeing plans of the tour, we dived straight into exploring the city.

Our local guide hopped onto our bus to begin the tour of the city. The buildings had gorgeous facades - colourful and beautifully tiled. It was quite an old city, a little derelict if I must admit and quite covered in in graffiti. A shame as the city was quite culturally and historically rich and definitely showing through the buildings.

The city is separated in various sections or districts. One of our first stops was Santa Maria of Belem - the cathedral in one of those districts. It was a beautiful cathedral. The architecture was beautifully detailed and intricate - the beauty not dulled by the fact that we had seen so many cathedrals while in Spain. We were also able to see the remains of when a monastery was hosted there - the courtyards they used for recreation, the rooms for confession and others of the like. Then the church itself was beautiful with the remains of Chris Columbus housed there with a great monument (they're slightly obsessed with Chris Columbus in Portugal). The altar was beautifully gold and beautiful. Then there was a great big massive organ, antique and beautiful yet again.

There was also a museum stemming off from the cathedral. There we saw various crown jewels and trinkets from the church and gifts to Portugal. It was fantastic.



This particular district - Belem - was famous as the port that many Portugese explorers departed from. There was a huge monument erected in their memorial - a great like alabaster type work of basically a tall ship with sailors/explorers on it. We watched the sunset around it so the photographs were absolutely fantastic and just made the monument that much more impressive.

Before it was a huge sqaure, the floor decorated with mosaic tile patterns and an impression of the world map. Tied in the whole exploration theme very nicely.

We also drove through Alcantara - a previously industrialised area of Lisbon - now turned "hip" youth-centric area. The old factories had been transformed into pubs, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. All along the water as well so would be a fantastic place with a great nightlife. (oh and just checking my facts on Wikipedia, i know remember - it was mainly dominated with discotheques. oh how i wish we had discotheques)

This was via the seaside route - a nice scenic road. And then through the city centre there was this tunnel with a fantastic colourful wall decoration. It was a decision of the mayor to paint these walls to relive unhappiness and road rage during traffic jams. A great idea, I believe because it truly put me in a good mood.

We also drove through Baixa - the oldest district of Lisbon. This is the city centre - downtown Lisbon if you must. Buildings were there erected first to resist earthquakes after the disastrous earthquake in 1755. (facts from Wikipedia - forgive me.)



At last, we drove back to our hotel. Here, we got settled in for our two night stay (with some great English movie channels) and our tiny balcony (despite the too-cold weather) to truly enjoy it. On our way there we had begun to be delayed by certain road-blocks being set up for that night's new years eve celebrations.

We ventured back into the city for a group new years dinner. We passed this main square (couldn't tell which one it was as it was getting dark) to get to our restaurant. We were using two spaces - one that actually looked like the full restaurant, fully-equipped with a kitchen and all. There was one of the Insight tour groups. Next door, however, where we were seated, looked more like somewhat of an abandoned space and the waiters were constantly going next door to fetch our food.

There was an array of wine available. There was even a port type shot as appetisers. THe food was pretty good - specialties of Portugal provided such as cod fish. It was lovely. Krystal and I chimed into a table with some...older members of our tour guide. The meal itself was really nice and the company quite entertaining.

Then we headed back to the hotel, past the old main square that was supposed to be all crazy with new years celebrations (awkwardly it was basically empty - only about 20 people i swear). Apparently people are too hard hit with recession.



For our own celebrations, we were merely in the hotel lobby - that had a tiny bar (albeit with some lovely bartenders who were really nice). We drunk champagne and were supposed to eat raisins as the bell tolled but we didn't even hear any bells. The countdown came upon the television screen from Portugal's Big Brother and that was about it for New Years.

Yay 2012 :D

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