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Published: November 15th 2006
To break up my time in Spain I took a side trip to Lisbon, Portugal for 3 days. I caught an overnight train there from Madrid which got me there nice and early in the morning. While waiting to check in, I was talking to a guy at the hostel covered in bites. After a while he noticed that I noticed his bites and said that the bed bugs had bitten the crap out of him. This is the last thing you want to hear as you check into a new hostel, but luckily I managed to get though my time there without getting bitten.
After having some real problems with communicating in Portugese, I soon learned that my French was usually a more capable means of communication. It was good to finally put to use the four years of French classes that I had taken (specially as I hadn't, and still don't have, plans to visit France). Did a guided walking tour around Lisbon the first day and saw some interesting places, including the restaurant which developed the chicken recipes that are now used by Nando's, a bunch of old buildings and churches (getting very tired of these now), a
very old part of the city which has changed so little that the houses still don't have bathrooms and people use communal washing and laundering facilites. I also found out where the best places to spend my nights were. Spent that evening (Friday) with a Croatian/Australian girl I met on the walking tour at an area called Briaxa which is pumping on the weekends, trying some cool Portugese drinks and then heading to a club on the harbour to see Asian Dub Foundation and some drum'n'bass.
The second day sat around the hostel all day watching movies and chatting with the numerous Aussies that were in the hostel. It seems that no matter where you go, our country is representing on the international travel scene. Headed back to Briaxa and then spent all night a club called Lux which is apparently 50% owned by John Malkovich. It was pretty strange and filled with weird furniture including a giant chair that could seat three. Got home late and at 7am we were all told to shut up and go to bed.
Sunday was spent wandering around with my new Aussie mates and we checked out this old Moorish castle up on
a hill overlooking the city. We also had a drink at 'Cervejaria de Trinidade', Portugal's oldest beer hall. That pretty much wraps up my short time in Lisbon. It was a shame I wasn't able to make it outside the capital and get to places like Lagos but at this point was pressed for time to get to London and rejoin my travels with the boys.
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phil
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random fat climbing cannon is classic. she's lovin it! and what an ass!