Well... where to begin for Lisbon
We arrived by train on Monday and after about 30 minutes we finally figured out how to get to our hotels. Luckily Sandy and I had a hotel near the other four girls we were with... However, as we came to discover, it was quite the hotel. While our friends had the cozy Comfort Inn, we were stuck with the Excelsior. As grand as it may sound, do not be fooled. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it was pretty gross. Lets just say it felt a little worn out, and my comforter smelled like dead skin.
But anyway, Noel, one of the girls we were with, was meeting her mom and sister in Lisbon, they had just flown in from Boston and they were going to hang out with us in Portugal, take the train back with us, and then stay in Madrid for a week. So we had a total of 8 people, including myself.
The first day we realized that we sounded kinda weird speaking Spanish to the Portuguese, because they all speak English. It was awkward because we were all so used to ordering or buying things using our Spanish, but really English is very prevalent over there. After lunch we watched a bit of a protest in the middle of the main street (it was apparently over unemployment, see video) headed over to the botanical gardens (or as I called it the secret garden, because it took a while to find), then worked our way down to the center of town and did some shopping/sightseeing along the way.
Our friends who had gone to Lisbon last week said they had amazing cheap seafood somewhere downtown and we managed to find the same place that night. I had the salmon, and it was the best salmon I think I have ever had! Notably we were on the Atlantic, so the seafood should be good, but this was phenomenal!
After that we were pretty tired so we walked back to the hotel and called it a night
The second day we took a bus tour, which I am glad we did because we got to see parts of the city we wouldn't have traveled to otherwise. During the bus tour is when I realized that Lisbon must be a sister city to San Francisco because they looked so similar, the same dock looking areas, with the train tracks by the sea, and the Golden Gate Bridge!
We walked all over town and had lunch outside. We had the pastery that Portugal is known for, they are called Natas. They are these custard/egg filled pasteries that weren't bad. We also watched some street perfomers who had little dogs that sang along with thier music!(see video) Later that night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had to wait an hour for our table because we had 11 people because our other friends came into town that day, Rick, Chante, and her friend from Rome. On the way to the Hard Rock Chante lost her wallet, but at the time she wasn't too concerned about it.
Dinner was awesome and very filling. I commented at dinner that I had never been to the Hard Rock before and I will never go back, just so I can say that, "I have only been to the Hard Rock in Lisbon." People went out that night but Sandy and I just went back to the hotel and chilled.
Sunday was interesting, we usually NEVER have three full days in a place, so Sunday we were like.. oh what do we do? And although there were plenty of things, it was POURING rain. So most of our plans got shot down because of that. Also, nothing is open on Sunday, except for this huge mall, so we went there to get food and be out of the rain and just window shopped until it was over.
It was pretty weird actually because it was the first mall I have ever been in in Europe, but it was cool. Luckily it stopped raining so we didn't have to be sooo lame. We went and chilled downtown, sat and drank coffee in the main square and watched all the street people, and got harassed by a few.
The best way I can describe Lisbon is that it is very similar to Spain, but it is a little more run down. It is how I imagine Spain must have looked before it joined the European Union. Anyway it is an amazing country and I really can't wait until I can go back one day. I really want to check out Porto and Lagos I would just love to explore that whole country.
I had an awesome time, I totally recommend Portugal to everyone, it's pretty cheap too!!
Chau
