I have definitely been falling behind on posting lately! Things have been quite busy around here. The past couple weeks were midterms- 4 exams the week before we left, along with papers and labs and homework- but I finally have a bit of a break now, turned in the last paper last week. Anyways, on to the more interesting stuff...we went to Portugal last weekend! (Well, 2 weekends ago) It was absolutely AMAZING and completely necessary after such a stressful week. Our flight was early Friday morning, and we didn't get back until Monday morning, which gave us a good full 3 days in the city. Getting back to Madrid Monday morning and heading straight to 6 hours of class after 3 hours of sleep was pretty rough. But it was worth it. So here's the run down of the trip- we did SO much so I will most likely forget some things, but here goes.
FRIDAY
So we landed in Lisbon around 10:30, made the trek to find the metro station and figure out where we were going, and checked in at our hostel around 11:30 or so. We stayed at Lisboa Central Hostel, which was awesome- everyone there was super friendly and helpful, they had breakfast for us each morning (homemade crepes actually:)), they had organized events and stuff, there was a nice living room, dining room, kitchen...definitely a step up from our last hostel.
We met up with some friends at the hostel, and then all of us headed out to explore. It was pretty gloomy, unfortunately, but still absolutely beautiful. The city is a bit like San Francisco, in that all of the streets are hilly (TONS of uphill walking!), they have little 'cable car' type things, and there are a lot of neat looking, colorful buildings lined up next to each other. Our plan for the day was to make it up to St. George's Castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge), but of course we had quite the adventure before we actually found it. You would think, that with as big and important this place is, it would be easy to get to. Not so. Even with the maps, we found ourselves going every direction except for the right one. But it worked out, because we were able to see almost all of Alfama, which is the famous older part of the city. And we did end up making it to the castle, which was worth the wait. At first we were hesitant about paying the 3 euros or so to go inside, but we did it, and I am so glad we did. The views from the top were breathtaking- you could see the entire city, the river, the bridge, all of the buildings- it was unreal.
Too many pictures...I can't choose! Well, the castle itself was amazing- castles are one of my favorite things to explore in European cities...I remember when I went to Carcassonne, France with my parents, going inside the castle- up all the stairs, through all the little passageways, in all of the secret rooms, up all the towers- was my favorite thing. So although this castle was not nearly as large as Carcassonne, I still had a great time exploring and walking through it. So when we were ready to leave, we saw this staircase heading down- and since we had come up to get there, we figured a staircase down had to be the way out. Well, after walking down ALL of these stairs (mind you, it was a lot) we looked up and realized that we were at a dead end. It was simply a long, never-ending staircase leading to a little lookout point. So we then of course had to make our way back up all of those stairs, which was pretty interesting. The boys decided to race up them- I think they regretted that decision pretty quickly.
Well after our adventure at the castle, we walked around some more, stopped at a restaurant for some wine and cheese, and made our way back to the hostel. After a nice nap, we got ready and went out for dinner at a place called 'Restaurante Chú Chú'. I had the salmon, which was absolutely delicious. Portugal is known for their seafood, and i must say, it definitely lived up to the standards.
Once we were all full from dinner, we decided to check out the famous 'Bairro Alto.' It really was something to see- different from anything I'm used to. So it's basically just this one area in Lisbon that completely transforms at night. There's a TON of bars, and most all of them have really good prices on drinks, which is nice. People go from bar to bar buying drinks, then bring them outside and just hang out in the street with everyone. So we joined in, and needless to say, had a very successful and fun first night in Lisbon.
Saturday morning we got a later start, but still managed to fit in SO much. First, we went to this flea market that they have every Saturday, and did a little bit of shopping around with all the good deals and handmade jewelry/clothes/etc. The boys loved it. ha. Then, we had this great plan to go on this walking tour at 3, but unfortunately, even though we made it in time, it turned out they had changed the times from what the flyer said, so we had to wait until the next day. But it all worked out, because we explored on our own and walked down to one of the main squares, the Commerce Square, right by the river. Even though the weather wasn't great that day, it was still beautiful to see.
As we were heading out and trying to find a bathroom, we see this sign, advertising the "Sexiest Bathroom on Earth." Naturally, this spiked some curiosity, so we checked it out. Turns out, you had to pay one euro to use it, which of course we just had to do, and it was probably the funniest thing I have ever spent one euro on. They had tons of colors of toilet paper, fancy wooden stalls that each had their own toilet, mirror, counter, and calming music playing, a huge yellow sink, and decorations. I really didn't find it 'sexy,' but hey, it was an experience.
Our next stop was the more modern part of Lisbon. I had no idea that Lisbon has so many different parts to it- every place we went over the course of the weekend was different from the last, and I would never have guessed that it was all within one city. Anyways, this modern area was right along the water, which was gorgeous. There was a large mall which we spent a little time in, some really cool architecture and statues all around (which we really enjoyed taking pictures with), a neat garden area that we walked through, and the famous Oceanarium (which we saw from the outside, but it was too late/we didn't want to pay to go in). There were also many restaurants along the water- we ended up eating at one for dinner and I was able to try a dish with Portugal's famous codfish- I had a mixture of codfish and cornbread, which I was unsure about at first but turned out to be absolutely delicious. It was such a relaxing evening- it was a lot more quiet in this area than the central part of the city, and it really made me appreciate the beauty of Lisbon and take everything in.
That night, our hostel was putting on a pub crawl through Bairro Alto, so we thought it would be fun to join. Turned out such a great night- the guy from our hostel who took us, Ricardo, was hilarious and also taught us some interesting facts about the city. We met some new people, an Australian (of course), and then a few other people who were traveling around. Went to 3 or 4 different bars, got some drinks, danced, and just enjoyed ourselves all night.
Sunday morning we woke up relatively early, because there was a lot we wanted to fit in to our last
day. We started off at 11 with a walking tour- it was one of those tours that is free, and then you tip the tour guide however much you want at the end. It lasted for 3 hours, which was a bit lengthy, but we got to see so much of the city and learn a lot of cool facts and history about Lisbon. We saw this old church that was severely damaged during the 1755 earthquake- has no roof and cracks all over, but is still standing. We walked up to a beautiful viewpoint of the city, where the famous old elevator is (luckily for my sake, we walked up to see the view instead of taking the elevator:)). We went to Rossio Square, one of the most famous plaza areas in the city. We also stopped to take Ginginha Shots, which are these shots of this sweet cherry liquor that they serve in a chocolate shot glass, so you can eat the shot glass after. They're known for this in Lisbon- and as you can imagine, with my love for chocolate, I was quite happy. After walking around much more of the city (and climbing every staircase that exists in Lisbon) and seeing many more beautiful sights and buildings, the tour ended back at the Commerce Square. Except it looked a little different from when we were there before, because it was an absolutely gorgeous day on Sunday- so we got to see everything with blue skies.
After the tour, we hopped on a train to Belem. We were starving when we got there, so we got some lunch and decided to have a picnic at a beautiful park nearby. It was very tasty and super nice out, so it would have been a great idea to eat outside...except for the fact that we were bombarded by flies the entire time- which was a tad unpleasant. After our lunch, we started exploring, and found Jeronimos Monastery, the Tropical Garden, the 25 de Abril Bridge (which looks exactly like the Golden Gate), and then went to what we at the time thought was the Tower of Belem. We paid a couple euros to go up to the top, where there were gorgeous views, and admired the outside, which had some really neat and detailed designs on it. Welll....turns out, it was not the Tower of Belem that we went up. It was the 'Discoveries Monument.' But we did not figure this out until we were back home, when I stumbled upon a picture of the Tower of Belem and thought, hm, that does not look like what we went up. How embarrassing. But we still had a great time and saw some pretty cool stuff. haha. Before we left Belem, we of course had to stop at the famous Pasteis de Belem, where they have the 1 euro (1.05 actually) pastries that they are known for. There's always a super long line out the door- but we waited, and they were definitely worth it.
As if we hadn't already done enough for the day, we went straight from Belem to Cascais Beach, which we had not yet made it to. The train ride was kind of lengthy, but we made it to the beach just in time for sunset. We didn't stay too long, but it was so nice to finally be back at an actual beach. We ventured down on to the sand by the water, explored the city for awhile, stopped for some sangria, and jumped back on the train. Long story short, our train ride back was quite the adventure- after the guy checking our tickets told us we had the wrong ones, made us get off at some deserted stop in who knows where, had to buy new tickets, then wait about a half hour for the next train to come...we finally made it back to the main city. At this point, we were starving- it was almost 11 at night. We went back to find one of the restaurants that our tour guide had recommended earlier, which was a great decision. We got a seat outside on a landing of the staircase, and had an absolutely stunning view of the city at night while we ate. The food was also scrumptious, and the waiters were super friendly- it was a perfect meal to end the trip. (This picture just does not do it justice)
By the time we made it back to the hostel, it was almost 1 in the morning, and we still had to shower, pack, and all of that. Needless to say, Court and I got about 3 hours of sleep before we had to wake up at 5 am to catch our flight. But it was so worth it to get a full extra day in the city- we were able to do so much. The trip overall was a complete success- I would tell anyone to go to Lisbon...there is so much to do and see, and it is such a unique city.
Well, sorry for this post being so late- we've been back for a week now, not much new- just been going to class...explored some more of Madrid this past weekend, and this coming weekend Mom and Dad arrive! So I'm very much looking forward to that.
I'll try and be better with my posts- adios amigos!
That first night we just spent catching up, and enjoying each other's company- went and got a nice traditional Spanish dinner near Sol- tapas and vino...it was perfect. Sunday was tour day- we spent the entire day walking around the city. I showed them the Royal Palace, Retiro Park, Gran Via, Plaza Mayor...you name it. We had lunch at Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world, which was a really cool experience. The food was delicious, and we got to eat downstairs in the most authentic area which had such a neat ambience. After a long, exhausting day, we rested at the hotel for a bit then got a low-key dinner. I headed back for my school week and they left the next morning to head out to Sevilla, Córdoba, and Granada.
On Saturday, we walked around Moncloa, the area where I live, and I showed them my house and they got to meet Conchi, my host mom. We all went out to lunch together, and spent the afternoon talking and getting to know one another (which was quite the struggle considering the language barrier...it really tested my Spanish skills as I played translator!). That night we went to go see a Flamenco Show, which was such a great experience. It was a small place- only about 5 other tables full of people, so we got a pretty personal show. The dancers and the music were both amazing- it reminded me of tap dancing in a way, which I absolutely love. So there was a point in the show when they asked for volunteers to go up on stage...so, I decided to go up. I got to dance up there on stage with them while they taught me how to do the traditional Spanish flamenco dance! It was amazing. Afterwards, Court and I took Mom and Dad to Dubliner's where we met up with the group and all had some drinks together, which was a blast.
