Lisboa es de puta madre!

Wow. What a trip. I can't even remember what happened last week since the last few days have been so amazing. I left for Lisbon, Portugal, on Thursday afternoon with six friends from my program. We took at 5:00 p.m. bus and arrived there at about 1:30 after the time change. After a busy morning of running errands, I found myself a bit behind schedule, and had to quickly stuff my backpack full of the essentials and rush off to catch the metro to the train station, which actually is quite a journey. I made it in plenty of time, and we set off into the Spanish countryside with much excitement. Within an hour we entered what felt like the Spain of Cervantes and his legendary Don Quixote de la Mancha, although we were traveling west instead of south. The countryside is empty and beautiful, with mountains and olive groves, and the setting sun made me feel like I had traveled back in time. The trip went surprisingly quickly, as Julie and I chatted up a storm like usual. While I feel like I get along with everyone pretty well here, there are a small few with whom I really connect, and Julie is definitely one of those people. Like she said, there wasn't a a moment of boredom during our 9 hour trip to Lisbon. I brought fresh bread, apples, and brie, and she even brought some wine. It was definitely the classiest meal I've ever had on a bus... After telling many stories and jamming away to tunes on our ipods, we arrived at the bus station in Lisbon. The journey into the city was incredible, as we traveled over a 17 kilometer-long bridge into a sea of city lights. We caught two taxis to take us to our hostel, as the metro was closed. The first driver spoke Spanish and knew how to get to the hostel. After letting the others take the taxi we had flagged down, Melissa and I caught another. This guy did not speak Spanish or English, and had no idea how to get to the address which we had written down. Instead of trying our luck with another cabbie, we told him to step on it, and we were quickly thrown into a scene right out of The Amazing Race. Glad to still have our business, he quickly sped up in hot pursuit of the other cab which had disappeared in front of the red light for which we waited. How he knew which turns to make, I have no idea, but incredibly he found the other taxi, which was also speeding like I've never seen before. Through tiny cobble-stoned streets we flew, and a short time later we arrived at our hostel.
After ringing an obscure doorbell, we waited a few minutes in ernest before someone finally buzzed us in. We climbed the narrow stairway and made our way inside. After paying 37 euro each for our 3 night stay, we made our way up to the 6-bed room which we shared. Nothing fancy, of course, but it was a place to sleep, they gave us sheets, and there was an outdoor patio. We quickly crashed and awoke promptly the next morning. After a breakfast of cheap and delicious rolls from small tienda we found, we walked along the harbor right next to our hostel. We made our way to Lisbon's patriarchal cathedral, of gothic design, which was quite beautiful but in many ways lacking the grandeur of those I have seen in Spain. We continued to climb the winding city streets, and discovered incredible view after incredible view of the harbor and the city, each better than the last. I felt a bit like I was in San Francisco as the street cars passed by as well, only more beautiful. We made our way to an 11th century castel atop Lisboa's highest point, where we spent many hours exploring and admiring the indescribable panoramic views of the city. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen, up there with the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa as well as the Cinque Terra in Italy. We later descended to lower elevation in search of a much needed lunch, and passed through a few run down areas of rubble that held some incredible graffiti unlike any I had seen before. The artists have some real talent, and there was even a work by an artist who is well know in Madrid and throughout the world, according to Danny. As we continued to search for lunch, we stopped at a little pastry shop for a snack. I found yet another amazing pastry equal to that of Segovia, filled with cream and other deliciousness. It was also the messiest thing I have ever put in my mouth, however, and I felt like I needed a shower when I was finished. After seeing another beautiful cathedral near the water, we made our way to San Jorge's Castle Terrace, which is home to the graves of past kings of Portugal, many beautiful works of art, as well as another incredible view, the best of the trip. The castle is open on the top, and one can admire the basilicas and beautiful water which surround it. It was an absolutely fabulous day.

We finally settled on lunch at this small restaurant on one of Potrugal's many narrow cobblestoned streets. We were greeted my a middle-aged couple, and through speaking Spanish and hearing confused responses in Portuguese we managed to convey our orders to them. As the wife went to work nearby in the kitchen, we talked a bit with the husband and he offered us some maps of the city and explained to us how to get to the beach by train. The lunch of pork chops was fabulous, the first real food I had eaten in about two days apart from mostly bread and cheese. As we ate, we all realized that the people of Lisbon, in general, are much more friendly than those of Madrid, and I attribute that to the fact they live by the ocean. I really think that open water has an important calming effect on people, makes them slow down, and appreciate life more. I know it has that effect on me.

After lunch, we made our way to La Plaza de Comercio, where we randomly discovered a departure point for a city open-topped bus tour. Although it was a really touristy thing to do, we settled on it as we had been on our feet all day and still hadn't seen most of the city. It turned out to be a fantastic idea, as the tour included a ticket to hop on and off the bus anytime of day for a full 24 hours, and it stops at all the important points of the city. The open top provided a great way to get a general sense of the city, its layout, and we ended up seeing many areas that would have been nearly impossible otherwise. We hopped off down by the water a ways from our hostel to see el Torre de Belem, a Portuguese defensive structure built to defend the port, as well as the Monumento de Descubrimiento, dedicated to the Portuguese conquest of South America. We timed it perfectly, as we were able to sit on the edge of what used to be thought of as the end of the world and watch the sunset over the water.

After returning to our hostel, we crashed. Twelve hours of being on the go required a siesta, and only a few of us forced ourselves out of bed around 10:30 to continue on with the day. Julie, Danny, Melissa, and I walked around some of the plazas in search of a good place to have tapas, and settled on a place about 20 minutes from the hostel after some beautiful views of the Plaza de Comercio at night. We later looked for a good bar, but were clearly in the wrong part of the city, and decided it would be best to get some sleep before another really busy day.

Although we were asleep around 2:30, and the others since 9:00, I awoke first the next day eager to get moving. After a little coaxing of the others, we made a trip using the tour bus to
la Basilica da Estrela, of 18th century Barock design, and the most beautiful church in Lisboa. We decided to cut our church/museum viewing short and head to the beach in Cascais, about 30 minutes outside of Lisboa by train. After navigating the metro system a bit, we found our way. What awaited us was the most pleasant surprise of the trip. And absolutely gorgeous day, a beautiful beach, and the whole day to spare. We had lunch at an oceanside cafe, sipped a few Portuguese beers (much better than those of Spain), and relaxed on the warm sand in between short dips in the chilly water. In typical European fashion, there were far too many topless elderly women for my taste... We spent a little time walking though the little seaside town, Danny bought some of the famous Port wine, and at sunset we headed back to the hostel very very satisfied.

After a long walk back from the train station, we showered, tried some of the fabulous Port, and planed our route to Las Docas, a group of legendary bars/discotecas down by the waterfront. The bus we thought would take us there only got us about half way, so we had a bit of a walk, but on the way we found this little latenight food stand on the side of the road where many locals were hanging out. We made friends with the middle aged couple manning the stand, talked in a mixture of Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and ate the most delicious hamburgers I have ever tasted, covered by every conceivable topping. (It might be due to the fact I haven't eaten a hamburger in 2 months, but I'm pretty sure they were just delicious). We headed across the street to las Docas and went into a discoteca that looked promising. We were a bit early at 1:00 so it wasn't very crowded, but we quickly headed to the empty dance floor and got the party started. Within a matter of minutes, we had coaxed the rest of the room away from the comfortable, posh, seating arrangements and the place quickly filled up into a giant party into the late hours of the night, when we decided it would be best to return and get a couple hours of sleep before we headed home. Afer an hour and a half of sleep, we awoke, quickly packed, and followed the bus directions I had asked for from the hostel manager the night before. We got there very early, sipped on a few cups of espresso, and made our way onto the bus, which was equipped with very comfortable leather seats. The trip back was long and hot, as the AC seemed to not be working and there was constant traffic from the holiday weekend. We stopped at a few roadside rest stops and as I ate a few snacks on the grass, I looked around and was strangely reminded of South Africa. The mountainous and dry landscape, the rest stop very similar in appearance, and the fact that the majority of the people on the bus were immigrants from I'm assuming west African countries. After almost 11 hours, we made it back, tired, hot, dreading classes the next day, but very very pleased with the trip. Portugal is very similar to Spain in some ways, but seems to lack the grandeur and luster of its brother to the east. You can tell that the empire was once grand, but it is also possible to see the fall in decadence and power, and the city reminds one very much of the fallen empire that is Portugal. In general, however, Lisbon is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and I can only hope to make it back there some day. It's late, I haven't slept much, and I have another 6 hours of class tomorrow, followed by grabbing a coffee with a Tulane student with whom I'm leading a University English discussion section to plan some activities for our first class on Wednesday. I also have a meeting Wednesday to find out about teaching english to younger kids to make some much needed money. The dollar/euro exchange rate makes it disappear quickly, and living here is definitely not cheap, especially if you want to travel. My trip with Heather and Jessica to Segovia this weekend is all set except I need to read up on the city. I've also booked a hostel for Norway at the beginning of November, so I;m pretty much ready for that trip as well. I love traveling here, and it's nice to have these weekend escapes, but I find myself missing Madrid if I'm gone for too long, and feeling like I'll miss out on things if I leave too much. Dominik is back from Germany and Alfonso returns from a long weekend at home in the Basque country on Wednesday. Emma has already planned a "family" ultimate frisbee game in Retiro Park on Wednesday and it will be nice to spend some time with everyone here before I leave again this weekend. Okay, that's all for now. It's bed time.