This weekend we headed to Lisbon, Portugal. Below is a quick gist of our happenings:
1) we are cheap euro travelers not wanting to pay for a cab at 5am (metro closed from 2-6am). thus, my friends and i took the last metro to the airport and slept there, sacrificing our comfortable beds for a germ-infested airport seat...all to save about 20 euro. it was an experience. money aside, i did it for the same reasons i do most things over here--that being, for the story. we survived, but my back consequently hurt for the remainder of the trip.
2) i was approached to buy sunglasses from street vendors countless times in the baixa neighborhood. the kicker was that in the other hand they had various drugs of choice. apparently, i give off some kind of vibe because they only approached me from our group.
3) portugal's beer > spain's
4) i will try a native beer every country i visit.
5) i had my first hot dog in two or three months...it came with fries that they served with mayonnaise, which i tried. my verdict, is i still prefer ketchup. hot dogs are one of my favorite foods back home. i enjoyed it very much.
6) we saw a monastery, churches, old buildings, etc. these are things i like to call the "euro norm".
7) i believe we walked through a communist demonstration. which leads me to my next point:
8) portuguese is impossible to understand. this is why i can only say i believe i saw a communist rally because i could not understand most of the words being said. either way, there were a lot of grungy people with red flags who seemed to be complaining about something. a good sign communism is afoot.
9) fyi--portuguese do not like when you speak to them in spanish.
10) an observation, and maybe not a great one, given my time constraint and a lack of visiting multiple locations in the country. still from what i noticed: here, you have a former superpower who is no more. they are not a tourist hot spot. and they have this more old fashioned, slow, and often somewhat reluctant attitude to emulate the progression of general europe. all in all, they sit content with their position, which i like.
11) we journeyed to sintra on saturday, which is about 40 minutes outside lisboa. my analogy is that it is as estes park is to denver. meaning, sintra is a quaint little town overflowing with character and charm. with this though, come streams of tourists. sorry sintra. sorry as well to estes park.
12) pena palace and the coinciding park were in sintra
13) they were amazing, except we walked in the park looking for this cross with a "supposed" great view. we never found it.
14) lisboa has a lot of hills. my calves hurt today.
15) the weather was fabulous.
16) finally, we saw the same tourists at several sites. small world. there was this red headed guy with a girlfriend who was way too good looking for him, an asian duo that always said hi to us, a few people from our hostel, and even this guy who was on our flight. he recognized me and one of my friends overheard him telling his friends (in a disgusted manner), that i was wearing the same shirt that i wore two days prior. that was a boldfaced lie. i had definitely not repeated shirts. however, he also happened to be on our flight back and guess who was wearing the same shirt that they had flown in three days earlier? guilty from his own complaint, as i would recognize that old final four t-shirt any day...
2) i was approached to buy sunglasses from street vendors countless times in the baixa neighborhood. the kicker was that in the other hand they had various drugs of choice. apparently, i give off some kind of vibe because they only approached me from our group.
3) portugal's beer > spain's
4) i will try a native beer every country i visit.
5) i had my first hot dog in two or three months...it came with fries that they served with mayonnaise, which i tried. my verdict, is i still prefer ketchup. hot dogs are one of my favorite foods back home. i enjoyed it very much.
6) we saw a monastery, churches, old buildings, etc. these are things i like to call the "euro norm".
7) i believe we walked through a communist demonstration. which leads me to my next point:
8) portuguese is impossible to understand. this is why i can only say i believe i saw a communist rally because i could not understand most of the words being said. either way, there were a lot of grungy people with red flags who seemed to be complaining about something. a good sign communism is afoot.
9) fyi--portuguese do not like when you speak to them in spanish.
10) an observation, and maybe not a great one, given my time constraint and a lack of visiting multiple locations in the country. still from what i noticed: here, you have a former superpower who is no more. they are not a tourist hot spot. and they have this more old fashioned, slow, and often somewhat reluctant attitude to emulate the progression of general europe. all in all, they sit content with their position, which i like.
11) we journeyed to sintra on saturday, which is about 40 minutes outside lisboa. my analogy is that it is as estes park is to denver. meaning, sintra is a quaint little town overflowing with character and charm. with this though, come streams of tourists. sorry sintra. sorry as well to estes park.
12) pena palace and the coinciding park were in sintra
13) they were amazing, except we walked in the park looking for this cross with a "supposed" great view. we never found it.
14) lisboa has a lot of hills. my calves hurt today.
15) the weather was fabulous.
16) finally, we saw the same tourists at several sites. small world. there was this red headed guy with a girlfriend who was way too good looking for him, an asian duo that always said hi to us, a few people from our hostel, and even this guy who was on our flight. he recognized me and one of my friends overheard him telling his friends (in a disgusted manner), that i was wearing the same shirt that i wore two days prior. that was a boldfaced lie. i had definitely not repeated shirts. however, he also happened to be on our flight back and guess who was wearing the same shirt that they had flown in three days earlier? guilty from his own complaint, as i would recognize that old final four t-shirt any day...
Lisbon [from Palace]
Pena Palace
closer
closer²
me + palace
*note significant hair growth. for anyone who does not know, i am diligently working on the return of my longer hair. it is close again to pony status in the back!!!
Another bridge [@ Pena Park]
Capes???
*the ground here is a typical portugal road. think how long it would take to make a road of all stones, usually arranged in some intricate pattern.
Sintra
inside the monastery
ceiling
standard wall painting
monastery
monastery [revisited]
~san fran
three
gone fishing...
da view.
last/first thing the explorers would see.
does not exist...just kidding
Sao Jorge Castle
city [from the castle]
i like the water here
a grave difference?
the norm
just another view
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