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Published: December 1st 2006
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After saying goodbye to the "temporary" friends I had made in Porto, I hopped on the 12:10 train to Lisboa. The train ride took about 3.5 hours which put me into Lisboa around 4. I walked out of the station and set off to find the hostel using the map one of the people in Porto had given me. On the way to the hostel I was approached twice by people trying to sell me drugs. I think they see male backpackers and assume they're interested. I've talked to a couple of girls who have been through Lisbon and they were never offered drugs, but most guys were. I was also a bit surprised to see them openly displaying their product. I was offered hash first, which he showed me, and then he suggested coke, which he did not show me thankfully. The police were standing maybe 50 feet away, but they could have cared less.
I made it to the hostel in one piece after climbing a massive hill. The Poet's hostel was up a flight of stairs in a 16th century building, which was really neat. I liked the hostel as soon as I saw the inside. Their
The German
When he spoke, his accent was spot on for Arnold Schwarzenegger. common room had some of the same tile that I had seen so many times in Porto, and it looked ancient. As it turns out, they discovered the tile under several layers of paint when they were renovating the building. Pretty neat.
I walked to the grocery store and grabbed some food and took it back to the hostel to eat. In the kitchen I met an Aussie guy who was on a 4 week vacation traveling all around europe. I thought it was a bit much to see in 4 weeks, but he was enjoying himself, so I guess to each their own. We moved to the common room and were joined by an American girl who was in Lisbon for a conference, as well as a German guy. We all sat around drinking and chatting until about midnight when we decided to go find some food.
We walked over to the main bar area and found a place that was full of rowdy teenagers. The food was tasty, though, and the beer was cheap even if it was served in a plastic cup. We hung out there for maybe an hour before heading back to the
The view
From the hostel hostel. At the hostel we were joined by the receptionist (who had nothing to do at 1 in the morning) and all 5 of us stayed up chatting until about 4.
We got up around 10 when the four girls in our room started making noise. After getting some food, the German and I decided to go check out the coastline. While we were waiting for the train, we went to get something to drink at a convenience store. When I went to pay, the guy didn't tell me the price (I just got a soda), but I saw it for an instant on the cash register before he made it disappear. I handed him a a 5 and expected to get 3.50 back. He started counting out a ton of coins for change, so I was already suspicious. When he handed me the pile, I noticed there weren't even any 1€ coins. I counted them and he had only given me 2.50. I kind of held out my hand, and he didn't even look confused, he just dropped another two 50 cent coins into my hand. If he had made a mistake he would have probably counted it and then got more out of the register, but he knew exactly what he had done, and I caught him doing it. I hate it when people try to take advantage of tourists like that. I may not be able to speak portugese, but I can certainly count.
The coast was cool, although we never really found the Atlantic coast -- we were still along the bay. The weather was pretty nasty, and some rain was blowing in, so we gave up after a couple hours and took the train back. Because of the weather, I pretty much hung around the hostel for the rest of the day, and the same group of us hung out drinking until 12 or so before calling it a night.
I wasn't particularly impressed by Lisbon. Porto is a much nicer city, and if I were to go back to Portugal that's where I'd spend more time. However, I'm not sure I really want to go back. After being thoroughly unimpressed so far, I decided to give Portugal one more chance, down south in the Algarve.
So, stay tuned for Faro.
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André
non-member comment
hash
if it was in lisbon's center what they were selling to you probably wasn't real hash. that's why the police does nothing.