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February 11th 2008

Published: February 12th 2008

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Brotman

Big Doorway

This doorway just dwarves that woman

In case the refrence is lost on me when I read this again in 20 years, the trip is Lisbon and Sintra (kind of like Frank, except without the "a" and no connection to New Jersey). Both absolutely gorgeous towns with castles and lots and lots of hills. Lisbon = 'Frisco b/c of the large, orange suspension bridge, the hills and hilly streets, and the trolley cars. Both cities are also excellent ports with their respective oceans to their wests.
Onto the trip...

Friday 02/08/08:
Took a half day of work and jetted off to Lisbon via Luton airport. Crappy airport. You can get on the 1st Cap Connect from Farringdon directly from the tube, but you can't get off at Luton (to get to the bus that takes you to the airport) without paying 12-quid. I promise, more Luton complaints forthcoming on the trip home.
Easy flight in, apart from the small child who occasionally kicked my seat, culminating with a prolonged push just before landing. I did, however, get a chance to really get into the book I had just started, The Book Thief. It is fantastic. I also got the idea that, because I always like to

Nat Pan Roof

From the roof of the Portugese National Pantheon

pass books along, to write my name and the month I finish on the title page and ask every future reader to do the same. I think it could be a cool excercise. Portugal, oddly enough, has 4 lines at customs: Portugese citizens, EU citizens, citizens of Portugese-related countries (ie: Brasil, Angola?) and all others. I was the only person in my line on the "all others" when I first showed up. As soon as I got the the front, they pulled half of the line to my left behind me. I met 2 Aussie girls who teach in London who were on the same flight, got stuck behind them, and made it to the same hostle as me 2hrs later.
Friday night was a bit on the quiet side after that. I made it out to the older part of town, about a 10 min walk from the hostel, and had some fantastic fish for dinner with a local wine and cheese. I was starving, so I absolutely devoured it. I also went to look for some Fado, but the only places with it were very upscale restaurant-bars with 15euro covers and 10+euro drink minimums. Went back to the

City 1

View of the city with the large statue of Christ the King and the 25th of April Bridge in the background

hostel, chatted with some of my co-occupants (90% of whom seemed to be American students studying abroad in Spain), and crashed.

Saturday 02/09/08:
Got up early for a traveler, showered and made my way to breakfast, where I sat next to 2 American girls speaking Spanish to each other. As I talk to everyone in a hostel, I asked where they were from, what they were doing, where they went to school, and the one sitting next to me said she went to Colby. It turns out she had Spanish with Dave and knows him. It too David a few tries to rememer who the hell she was, but that's my brother for you.
My first spot of the day was a Saturday-only flea market that was absolutely horrendous, but was spread out on the hills streets around the National Pantheon of Portugal and had its own little charm to it. I did hit the National Pantheon right afterwards, too. It appears to be an old church that is a stunning white color and is a pure +, rather than the cross shape with the nave, altar and trancept. It had little rooms with blurbs about some heroes of

Nat Pan Door

Looking out the doorway at the roof deck of the National Pantheon

Portugese history and a way up to a roof-deck that offered spectacular views of the city and across the river. Good view of the large statues of Jesus with his arms spread out, which the Portugese seem to be really big on. Not as big as the on in Rio, but not small. Next was off to the Praca do Commercio, which is the main square at the southern end of the old town and is surrounded on 3 sides by arcaded government and tourism offices. Big open plaza that is still the center of the demonstations in town.
From there I went off to the castle, which is horrendously difficult to actually get into. Easy to see from my hostle, but the signs and the map just kept me walking in circles around it. Eventually, I found my way in, and made it as far as the courtyard. It has a commanding view of the city, particularly the medieval part, and is kept remarkable cool by all the trees in the main parade area. Soon, I asked a group of 3 girls to take my picture sitting on the parapet with the city behind me. The one who took

Commercios

Placa do Comercios

my camera asked why she should take my picture, what was in it for her? "Because I am devilishly handsome and you have always wanted to take a picture of someone like me," I replied. She refrained from throwing my camera over the wall, laughed and took my picture. She asked her friends if they wanted to join in the pic and if I would like a picture with the girls (of course I did), and told them they had to smile genuinely, or that people would know they were forced into it. We all had a good laugh, and parted with them wishing me a good stay in thier town. I moved along and as I made it into to courtyard of the original keep, I bumped into the three of them (Martta, Lydia and Jirona) again. This time, they stopped me and said hi, and Martta gave me her email to send her the picture of her, Jirona and I. After we chatted for a bit, they insisted that I come along on the tour they were giving. It turns out that they are sudents at the local college who (I guess for a part-time job), led groups

Me 1

Your handsome storyteller on the street leading from the Placa do Commercio to my hostle, right after being offered drugs by the same 3 guys at least 4 times

of Erasmus students around Lisbon. I had debated a 3-hr, 10 euro walking tour of the city that morning, but stumbled onto something much greater puerly by chance. So I had a wonderful time with the whole group of them, just chatting and shooting the shit as we walked around the south-central area of the city north of the river. We made it over to the west by tram for lunch and some more of the historical sights.
Lunch was very Portugese - steak with a fried egg on top, some fries and salad - with the whole group of students and guides. It took forever, but it was nice to just sit out in the sun and enjoy it. We actually lost 2 of the 3 guides after lunch, but Lydia was mighty cool and kept us all going. Out in the western part of town, we caught the Jeromic? Monastary, which is a gorgeous building with massive pillars and an almost proto-gothic feel with its vaulted ceilings. We then walked down the to river and saw the monument to the age of discovery and the Torre de Belem, which is the only remaining building of the complex that

City 2

Me at the parade ground of the castle in Lisbon; city behind

stood at the mouth of the river to control access up it. Beyond it was simply the Atlantic. Because the monastery was on the otherside of the highway from the other 2 sites, we had to walk over a pedestrian bridge to get to them. A French girl who, like me really wanted to see the torre more than the others, asked which direction it was in; I pointed (correctly) in the opposite direction from the one we were walking in. She flipped out until I told her there was a foot-bridge we had to cross. Oddly enough, it turned out that there was another one right where we had wanted to be, anyway. Lydia caught a bit of flack for that.
We all soon parted ways, and I headed back to the hostel afer picking up some post cards and a magnet. At the hostel, it was my usual self. I chatted with some more people, then found some interesting ones who were heading out that night and I ended up joining them. 4 American girls studying in Madrid and 1 Aussie. I shot off to call Bethany (it took me forever to find an internet cafe and they

New Friends

My new Portugese friends

charged an arm and a leg for the call). It was still good to talk to her, though, even if only briefly, and catch up on things real quick. I grabbed a kabob for dinner and headed back to the hostel to start drinking with my going-out buddies. Based on the suggetion of Martta, I kept pushing Lux, which has been the place to go out in Lisbon for the past 25yrs or so. We made it there about 12:30 and it was pretty empty, but the place had a good vibe. It picked up, and I really wanted to dance, but I kept getting ignored by the girls and had no luck with the locals, so I managed to get outside for a bit and chat with people and do a bit of dancing, but still left a bit angry. When we all left it was about 4:30 and the line out the door was at least 100yrds long. Absolutely stunning.

Sunday 02/10/08:
Sunday morning began like many do in hostels around Europe. I didn't want to get out of bed at 7:30, when I woke up, and I overheard the following conversation between 2 girls in my

City 3

The Rossio sqaure from the castle

room:
"Meridith, it's 7:45"
"Shit! Give me 5 more minutes to sleep"
I ended up eating breakfast with these 2 after my shower and it turns out they were turned away from Lux for being too drunk after hitting up the Barrio Alto disrict, and were glad that at least one person in the room made it there. They headed off to the airport, and I headed off to Sintra. It was only a 40 min ride on the local communter train, and it showed as the journey was through urban sprawl until the last 10 min or so. Cheap fare, though, and the trains run every 15 minutes.
Sintra is a gorgeous city, in addition to being a World Heritage Site. It has 2 castles on 2 hills high above the town. The first was build by the Moors around the 1000's and is nearly all crumbled. The amazing thing, though, is how it is built like it had naturally formed out of the existing rock at the top of the hill. It is wonderful the walk around and offers great views of the city, countryside, and the ocean from its height. The other castle was built only a

Statue & Keep

A pretty, unexplained, statue of a woman in front of the castle keep

few hundred years ago by a Porugese king who like the spot and wanted to build something that meshed a few architectual styles together, Moorish, medieveal and more local styles all came together. The inside was, of course, ornate and reminiscent of Portugal's once vast overseas colonies. It too, offered tremendous views and overlooked the Moorish castle. The subsequent kings and queens of Portugal expanded the grounds to include gardens and sculptures. This place was a palace, not a castle.
I tried to walk down into town from the Moorish castle, but the path was blocked for repaving. I ended up taking the bus back into the historical center and had a very nice conversation with a couple from Liverpool. I met a lot of English in Sintra, actually. The town itself has a bit of a touristy feel, but it isn't so overwhelming. It's a very small place that is little more than a square and some streets leading off of it. I grabbed myself a nice little bite and went walking around a bit more. I bumped into a couple from New Zeland and offered them a picture-taking trade. When I asked the guy when he was taking

Indians

For some reason, wherever I go in Europe, there always seems to be a group of plains Indians playing music in a town square

mine if he would do it like thiers was, his wife jokingly said "oh, so should I be in it?" I told her that my girlfriend might get a bit jealous and after we shared a quick laugh, we went out separate ways. Oddly enough, I bumped into them again. At which time I said that it was dangerous to ask me questions like that as I might just say "yes." So we decided to take a picture. There was also a woman from Australia with them. The first woman made a comment about her and so I suggested she join us in the picture. They were more than willing, but asked me how I would explain it to the g/f. They then ran off to see the palace and the castle.
I proceded to wander around a bit more, finding a gorgeous little hotel with the valley below it on one side and the castels above it on the other. After that I took the train back into Lisbon and made my way to the airport. The flight was easy, although the airport has no controls on who gets on in what order for the Southwest-style EasyJet. As easy

Monastery

Inside the stunning Monastery; it has sort of a proto-Gothic feel

as Luton was getting out, it was bad getting in. The line for passport controls was backed up so far that we didn't even split into out groups for 20min. I eventually got through and took the 12:20 EasyBus back to London and was home by 1:30.

Add Lisbon to the list of cities I have fallen in love with.

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