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Published: November 14th 2006
Portuguese breakfast
pasteis, café com leite, e cigarrosday two began with the both of us awakening to what sounded like water dripping from the ceiling onto the floor at the edge of our beds. sure enough, there was indeed water coming from the ceiling. as it turned out, the person above us had let the water in the shower overflow, hence it proceeded to seep through the floor and into our room. we could've changed rooms, but whatever, it really wasn't that big of a mess, and they made the people stop showering in that bathroom upstairs...
anyway, besides that quasi-trauma, our day started out once again with a delicious pastry breakfast, although this time we chose the famous Pasteleria Suiça in Rossio. Had ourselves almond croissants (made me crave my mother´s almond puff pastry) and amazing coffee while sitting in the Praça de Figueiro and just soaking it all in. Like any good European café breakfast we finished it off with a cigarette. I have to mention that because of the warmer (read: perfect) weather, the flies were definitely out and about, hence they joined us at every meal which was just lovely.
after o pequeno almoço (breakfast) we headed towards the Alfama, the old
Portuguese school children
fun group of kids we saw during our lovely breakfast in the Praça medieval quarter and one of the few sections of the city to service the major earthquake in 1755. its a series of winding, hilly streets lined with buildings covered in Azulejo, beautiful tiling the city is famous for. it was a bit of a hike, but not too bad. near the top was an incredible lookout point over the old part of the city and out into the ocean. needless to say we spent some time just gawking there. continuing onward, we entered into O Castelho do São Jorge, the old fortress at the top of the hill. From the top one could get a 360 degree view of the entire city. The views of the city just kept getting better...
for lunch we decided to seek out A Brasileira, a famous old Lisbon café supposedly frequented by all the intellectuals and the like. We literally stumbled right upon it and proceeded to have a nice little lunch of more delicious coffee and sandwiches. I was proud of my ordering in Portuguese, as well as my asking the waitress if she would take a picture of us. Right next to the outdoor seating was a statue of Pessao, Portugal´s
typical Lisbon
we thought we´d take a picture of the lady hanging her laundry most famous poet (though i can´t say i´ve ever heard of him).
next we hiked up to the northern part of the city to see the Calouste Gulbenkian musem. Calouste was a rich Armenian man who decided to spend his life in Portugal. He has his own street, etc., and the museum is filled with nothing more than his possessions. It was slightly ridiculous the incredible artifacts he had from all over the world in there, from Persian rugs to works by Rembrandt. Getting in free with our student ID´s was an added plus. on the way back we stopped at Corte Inglés (the one is Lisbon is way nicer than the one´s in Madrid...its a deparatment store that has everything, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the chain) to get something to drink and some chocolate to nibble on (read: inhale).
then it was back at the hotel to watch our favorite Portuguese soap, Floribella, and then change and get ready for dinner. The evening´s dinner was our ¨expensive¨meal, hence we made ourselves pretty and headed out to find a good restaurant. We had planned to go to this place recommended in the guide book
Alfama
looking down into the medieval quarter but we´re convinced it doesn´t exist. We found somewhere else and proceeded to have an excellent meal. We started out with the standard bread, butter, and olives followed by a creamy shellfish soup and a bottle of the house white. For our main course we each got dourada grelhada with garlic-y broccoli and potatoes on the side. delicious, and all for a mere 15 euros each.
we were pretty exhausted from the day´s activities, so we ended up pretty much staying in and finishing our fanta with vodka while watching these random US shows that we´ve never heard of. good times...
Saturday, our last day, was a bit of a failure but since we were in Lisbon, it was still wonderful. Breakfast was once again at our favorite pastry place, though this time a got a Henriquinho, which was a little cakey thing with a nutty creme and covered in crushed nuts as well. It was good, but I was hoping for something more flakey. our main goal for the day was to go see these castles about an hour outside the city, but we were stupid and read our guide book wrong and wasted a good hour
Azulejo
here´s the tiling i´m talking about attempting to find this bus station that didn´t exist. we proceeded to eat our feelings at McDonalds...
after that was done with, we decided to head over to Parque das Nações, the former grounds of Expo ´98. It was west of the city and surprisingly really cool, with an oceanarium and a big shopping center and other stuff like that. We proceeded to sit along the water and write postcards and just soak up some more sun before heading to chilly and rainy Madrid (at least that´s what it was like when we left). then it was back to the city center for some last minute shopping. I got some tile coasters and some more postcards, then stamps to send them with.
i had literally run out of money by that point, and katie had 10 euro left on her that we were to split, so dinner was cheap at this indian place that also had kebabs. we each got a chicken kebab and split some garlic nan bread. by the time we were done it was already time to pick up our bags and head to the train station. we waited for around an hour to board
Rather gorgeous
menagerie of statues and churches in the Alfama and then said our final goodbye to this wonderful city....alas...
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Susana
non-member comment
Little Correction
the name of the poet portrayed bay the statue in A Brasileira it's not João Pessoa. It's Fernando Pessoa :)