Day 60 Lagos to Lisbon via Tunes

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Today was all about travelling to Lisbon. Waiting for the train we engaged in an informative dialogue with a café (small business) owner about the state of affairs in Portugal (not happy Jan). Not only was he a well-educated person but he had worked for the government and financial institutions in Portugal as well as the US. We were able to learn a few things as well as have a few affirmed. Australia, don’t complain. The first half of the train journey saw us in conversation with a young NZ couple heading to Canada on a 2 year working visa; he a journalist and she a nurse.

We observe and engage with local people (travel = people, sights, food) to really try and find out about their culture/country. An observation that doesn’t require interaction is seeing how Portugal (the parts we have visited) is definitely number one for graffiti and not just on the outskirts; city centre elite areas are covered. There is a lot of disrepair so from our many conversations with various Portuguese we can say that Portugal is struggling. The GFC has taken much.

After checking in to the hotel which is dead centre of Lisbon city centre and in a very ritzy area we went for the obligatory short stroll and within minutes we were caught up in a huge gay parade. Huge. We made it through the throng of people to the city river front as did the parade. Food was sought and found and now it’s sleep time.

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