Last Day in Lisbon

We decided that after a couple of days  of sightseeing, we would just take it easy today and walk around Lisbon’s Old Town and do some people watching.  We spent the morning wandering, stopping at a couple of parks along the way, and found a nice view of Lisboa at the top of the hill.  We also managed to find the way to get to the top of the elevator to Old Town by walking instead of paying for a ride up; a handy tip the guys at the hostel told us about!

Weird Hostel Experience #2

This morning I noticed a rather large family checking in (3 young girls, 2 women, and 1 man) and I thought it was strange to see an entire family at a hostel since I associate hostels with younger people who are still in school or recent graduates.  During the first dinner, we were definitely the oldest people here! 

Portuguese Tarts @ Pasties de Belem – My New Favourite Treat

We bumped into Uwe at breakfast today and found out that we were heading in the same direction - the district of Belem to check out the Jeronimos Monastery – so we traveled together again.  We went to catch the tram, but it turned out the tram to Belem was not running today so a tram driver told us we should catch bus #40 across the Plaza.

After waiting 25 minutes, we became frustrated with the bus system and decided to share a cab with another random person Paul met at the bus stop who was also going to the Monastery.  We never learned his name but he told us he’s a history professor from a college in Chicago, here on his sabbatical and he gave us a few good tips on places in the world he has traveled to.

Dinner Experience #3 in Lisbon

Sigh – when will the food start tasting better?  Tonight we went in search of a restaurant that got some good reviews on the Internet about it’s Portuguese style chicken but only to find said restaurant deserted and quite pricey.  We decided to walk around and find something busier since going to the busiest restaurant we could find for lunch had worked out well.  We ended up at a restaurant where a South-African man (possibly the owner) kindly explained the menu and there were several people eating on the patio, including one couple deeply engrossed in their make-out session!  “PDA” (Public Display of Affection) is taken to a whole new level in Europe…. (horse is impressed as he edits)

Supermarket Surprise!

Yesterday I decided to stop by the supermarket for the first time and I learned that you can buy drinks and stuff for very cheap in Portugal!  We thought that the restaurant prices here were very reasonable with most pop/water being only 1 Euro,  lunch specials for 5 Euros, and dinner entrees for around 8 Euros, but after going to the supermarket here I’ve learned that the cost of food is generally quite low in Portugal. 

Daytrip to Sintra

Today with our new friend Uwe from Germany, whom we met at the hostel, we decided to take a train and daytrip to Sintra (about 45 min from Lisbon) because several other guests at the hostel said Sintra is a must-do day trip.  We’ve pretty much decided to rely on other people’s recommendations for what to see/do so far because we came to Europe without planning our activities so that we could have a flexible schedule.  Considering how enjoyable this daytrip was, we might want to reconsider using guidebooks and any planning in general….

Dinner Experience #2 in Lisbon

Tonight for dinner we went in search of one of Portugal’s main specialty dishes – cod fish.  The guys who work at the hostel recommended a restaurant nearby, although they didn’t know the name (it seems most businesses here are referred to by location and not names).  Luckily it wasn’t hard to find because it was right beside a “peep show” you couldn’t miss due to its blazing neon lights.

Tram Ride in Lisbon – An Interesting Experience!

For 1.40 Euros/person, I would recommend to anyone to try out a tram ride.   If for no reason other than to experience it!  Lisbon has some of the most narrow streets I’ve ever seen and I could not imagine trying to park here!  The trams travel along specific tracks alongside rows and rows of parked cars, and from what I’ve seen, if you park even an inch too far from the curb, your car will be side-swiped by the tram as it travels along!

We watched the tram driver honk and yell at several cars which were pulled over in no parking zones because they were in the way of the tram track and one of these cars had no one in it.  So after a minute of honking, the tram driver decided to keep going.  I swear you couldn’t even put a finger in the space between the tram and the side of the car but the tram managed to get by without causing any damage! Definately an eye-opening ride…!

Trying to Learn Some Portuguese

For some unknown reason, I had thought that Spanish was the prevalent language in Portugal until I got on the plane.  Boy was I wrong!  The Portuguese have a completely different language of their own, although I’m sure some of the words are derived from Spanish or vice versa because there are some similarities. 

Weird Hostel Experience #1

Being fully and totally in jet lag mode, I woke up this morning at 4:30 am and tossed and turned for a bit, then sat up thinking maybe I would get up.  I noticed someone was sleeping in the top bunk of the other bed in the room and when we went to sleep last night, that was an unoccupied bed.  I leaned over and checked the bottom bunk of our bed where Paul was sleeping, and noticed he wasn’t there, so I figured he wasn’t able to sleep in the bottom bunk and moved over to the other bed.  The room was still pitch black and the breathing pattern sounded basically the same as Paul’s  -  although it seemed odd that he would move to a bunk bed where someone else was sleeping on the bottom.