Portugal! (Lisbon)

After a weekend stuck in Berlin, lamenting over our lost things and what we don't like about Germans and Germany, Annie and I knew that we had to get out. Since we still had our return flights from Lisbon to Berlin, we decided that we might as well buy new flights to Lisbon for the sake of our sanity. The U.S. Consulate was also super helpful in this situation, being able to give us emergency passports within a day.

On Tuesday morning, we arrived to a sunny, blue-skied Lisbon, so happy to finally be on our vacation.


[On the streets of Lisbon in short sleeves!]

We made reservations at a pretty cheap hostel near Marques de Pombal (not pronounced at all like it is written), that included a nice breakfast and internet. Since our room wasn't ready when we got there, we dropped off our stuff and decided to look around town. We started by walking to the Placa de Comercio, where the old palace is. The streets and houses were extremely pretty, but relatively modern.


[at the Placa de Comercio]

From there we headed up into the old Islamic neighborhood, where the facades of the buildings were all covered in tiles. Annie had heard about a bi-weekly flea market in the area, so we set out to find it. Right by the old Pantheon, we found tons of street vendors (from hobos probably selling stolen stuff they found in bars to legitimate businessmen) selling their items. We only ended up buying some buttons and a couple of souvenirs, since not speaking the language barred the whole understanding how much things cost process.


[tile-facade buildings]


[a little part of the flea market]


[by the Pantheon]

We then kept walking up a hill and got a beautiful view of the city. Like Valparaiso, Lisbon is built on hills, right by the water (a river, not quite the ocean), and the whole town made me miss my old home a lot. The buildings were worn down and homey, just like the old English architecture in Valparaiso, there were palm trees, friendly people with dark complexions, sunshine, the ocean... All of Portugal seemed to have an interesting mix of European and Latin cultures. If only I could have understood Portuguese with all the Spanish I know...


[looking over Lisbon]


[view of Lisbon... with the Mediterranean look]

Having seen a castle up on a hill all day, Annie and I walked until we found it. It ended up being a castle built in the 11th century by Moors when they ruled Portugal. the old castle was very pretty itself, but the views of Lisbon were much more interesting.


[at the top]

After that, we attempted to find a late lunch/dinner. But, our vegetarianism got in the way - all the restaurants we found only had meat or fish on the menu. Since we hadn't eaten all day, we definitely weren't planning on settling for sides of bread and salad. We decided it might be better to check the touristy stuff in the center of town. We ended up having luck finding an Italian restaurant run by South-East Asians that had vegetarian options. It was great to sit down, have a nice meal, and drink so Portuguese wine after a long day of walking.


We woke around 8 or 8:30 on Wednesday, got ready, had a big breakfast, and headed out to check out the rest of Lisbon and surrounding area. We started by going uphill towards the Parque Eduard VII, where we came across Lisboners walking their dogs and some interesting statues.


[at Parque Eduard VII right by Marques de Pombal]

We had a plan to take the 28 bus from there, since apparently it is good for sightseeing, and would take us to the Torre de Belem and the Belem Neighborhood, downstream from Lisbon's center. After wandering around, taking numerous buses., magically showing up at the transportation headquarters, finally buying a 24 hour transit pass, and finding the 28 bus, we finally made it to Belem.

Located west of Lisbon's city center, Belem has the Monastery dos Jeronimos, the museums of art, archeology, and maritime museum, as well as the "Cultural Center of Belem." If we had had more money, I'm sure we would have been able to explore these better.


[Annie and I in front of Monastery dos Jeronimos]


[enjoying the sunshine]


[Annie and I at the Torre de Belem]

The symbol of Belem, the Torre de Belem, is an old watchtower that used to sit in the middle of the Tujo River until an earthquake changed the course of the river. It reminded me of some prison that would be romanticized in a Pirates of the Caribbean film.


[The Monument of Discoveries... looking to conquer!]

We then walked, in the sunshine and along the water, to the Monument of Discoveries, commemorating the role Portugal played in the Age of Discovery. They also had a huge map on the ground of the world, showing where Portugal established colonies. Of course Annie and I couldn't resist having some fun with it!


[Longing for Valparaiso!]


[That's Maryland!!]

Across the river from Lisbon, a huge Jesus statue overlooks the city. It is based on the very famous one that looks over Rio de Janiero in Brazil. We took a ferry across to a very different place from the Lisbon we had seen. In an old, dirty outdoor bus station, we found to bus that would take us to Cristo Rei. We bought very cheap round-trip tickets and drove uphill through a much poorer, run-down city.

We finally made it to Cristo Rei (being only two of four tourists on the bus), a 100m tall statue. It cost 4 euro to get to the top (via elevator and some stairs), and was worth the views of Lisbon. It was clearly not a touristy place, I guess since it was so far from the center of Lisbon, but was still pretty cool.


[Annie and I at Jesus' feet]


[Lisbon!]

When we got back to Lisbon, we took the metro home, and had officially used all four types of transit methods that Lisbon had to offer. Obviously less developed than the system in Berlin, but still very good for getting around.


[Annie and I getting ready to go out!]

For dinner, Annie and I decided not to take any chances and found a vegetarian restaurant online that was pretty close to our hostel. (The internet is your friend while travelling!) It ended up being a buffet, with lots of different salads, hot and cold dishes, and even some typical Portuguese dishes cooked with veggie substitutes.

After eating so much great food, we headed to the Bairro Alto (High-up Neighborhood), where there are supposed to be a lot of bars and clubs to check out the scene. Although there was a lot to be offered on a Wednesday night, it was bizarre how many people were just hanging out outside different locales and not really going in anywhere. We headed home pretty early in order to be able to head up to the beaches and Porto the next day.