Becca, Brittany, Caroline, Lauren, and I left for the airport after our class on Friday. It is so annoying that we have class on Friday, seeing as I am pretty confident we are one of the only study abroad programs in the world that forces such a thing upon us. RIP 3 day weekends, miss you already.
Anyway, we took the bus to the airport and it was really easy to get there. Security in Europe seems so much more relaxed than in the US, which was very nice because as much as I enjoy the full body scanners at O'hare, I actually don't at all. I'm glad Barcelona seems more simple travel wise. We had a pretty long wait for the plane to arrive, so naturally I read on my nook which is my new favorite thing EVER(thanks mom!). The flight was good and easyjet is MUCH nicer than I ever expected(very similar to southwest where you choose your seat). When we arrived in Lisbon, we were all super excited for our passports to get stamped. However, they obviously don't have customs because that would make too much sense. Sadly, my passport will forever be missing its Lisbon stamp(although somehow the Americans we met in Barrio Alto all got theirs stamped and I am insanely jealous). Anyway, after my first passport disappointment of 2011, we headed to our hostel. We took a bus and proceeded to follow their "great" instructions of "look around and at the top of Av. Da Liberdade you can see a building with the inscriptions 'Diario de Noticias." After this, it explained that the hostel was on the street directly behind it. There were numerous problems with these directions, but the main ones being 1. When it is pitch black and you are on the opposite side of a square, you can't see signs 2. Look around is not an adequate means of describing how to locate monuments in foreign country. Thankfully, our lack of directions was a blessing in disguise because we happened to stop to ask for directions at one of the many bakeries in Lisbon. I got delicious cake for under a euro and we finally found our home for the next two nights.
As we opened the door to the Hostel, a friendly British man welcomed us. His crazy demeanor was funny for about 5 minutes until we realized the following:
1. He was 99.9% black out drunk seeing as he had presumably been drinking Ginja(a typical cherry infused liqueur) all day long.
2. He was the slowest moving man ever. Check in took an hour...totally normal right?
3. He made fun of my last name and when he tried to do this, it definitely sounded like he said "you have a crap name"...rude, black out brit, rude.
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| Black Out Brit: A picture is worth a thousand words |
Finally, we checked in and dropped off our bags. We spent a great deal of time trying to find a restaurant from our detailed itinerary(see bellow because we are going into the itinerary making business to get some extra money for spring break...but for real. This also had directions on it, but they were deleted because this post is already ridiculously long(aka if you are still reading this and not related to me or someone who I went to Lisbon with, I'm impressed)
OUR LISBON ITINERARY
FRIDAY
6:45 PM: Land in Lisbon and go check in to our lovely Hostel.
8:00 PM: Go to dinner at Cais da Ribeira, Cais do Sodré Armz A-2, Lisbon
10:00 PM: Gloria Live Music at R. do Ferragial, 1200 Lisboa, Portugal.
11:30 PM: Barrio Alto: Bar hopping.
SATURDAY
8:00 AM: Wake up and breakfast
9:00 AM: Leave Hostel (go to Alfama)
9:30 AM: Castle of Saint Jorge
10:30 AM: Explore Alfama and see Miradouro das Portas do Sol
11:30 AM: Bellhem Tower at Avenida da India, Belem.
12:30 PM: Find local café for lunch.
2:15 PM: Barardo Museum at Praça do Império, Belem.
4:00 PM: CAKE TIME/MORE EXPLORING.
5:00 PM: Go to ais do Sodré ferry terminal and hop one of the regular boats across the river to Cacilhas.
After debarking, walk to the right for about 10 minutes along the thin waterside path to arrive at Atira-Te Ao Rio on the rustic whitewashed riverfront restaurant is the perfect spot to sip a glass of white port (3 euros) while watching the sun cast its final rays on the 25 de Abril bridge and the venerable hilly cityscape of Lisbon(stolen from NY TIMES)
10:00 PM: Barrio Alto Round Two.
SUNDAY
8:00 AM: Wake up and breakfast at Hostel
9:00 AM: Depart from Hostel.
9:30 AM: Santa Justa Elevator at Rua de Santa Justa.
11:30 PM: Pick up stuff, grab food at café, and go to airport.
For the most part, we stuck to this itinerary. For dinner, the restaurants name was changed so it was really difficult to find. However, although it was probably one of the most pricey dinners I've ever gone to without my family, it was worth it. We had delicious bread, white wine, and roasted cod with black olive pesto and parmigiano cheese.
After our delicious dinner, we attempted to find a Fado House where American music would be playing. We couldn't find it, so we decided to head to Barrio Alto for the night. Barrio Alto is amazing; it is very similar to Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the sense that there are no open container laws and the whole area is basically a party in the streets. I had the most delicious drink with fresh strawberries and sangria that only cost one euro. Life is good in Lisbon. After a fun night, we somehow got a cab with 5 people(They are really strict here about that, so its a big deal) and headed back to our hostel. At one point on the drive, a man tapped on our window and we all were pretty sure that we were going to die(turns out, he just wanted to tell us our door wasn't fully shut), but besides that it was great.
The next morning with got up and had our included breakfast that was pretty good. We walked to St George's Castle and hiked to the top. From the top, we could see a beautiful view of Lisbon. We also met a man who said he had 23 cats, which was really odd, but nothing surprises me anymore. After the castle, we went to Belem Tower which is the most beautiful sight in Lisbon, in my opinion.
After this, we went to a modern art museum and directly following had amazing falafel and these famous custard tarts that tasted like french toast. One thing we had heard about Portugal is that they have the best chocolate cake in the world and if you know me at all, you know I love Portillo's chocolate cake a little too much...aka Jamie Cohen and I frequent Portillo's solely because of the cake. I was determined to try it and see if it was as good and although it was delicious, it was not actually cake. It tasted like brownie batter mousse pie, which was fine by me and was definitely worth the time. After our great journey for cake, we walked along the river and took a ferry across the river at sunset. We went to a small restaurant recommended by The New York Times to try cheap Port Wine, which tastes nothing like wine and I thought it was disgusting, but worth the experience. The sunset was obviously gorgeous and afterwards, we went out for a nice, cheap dinner. Although we had planned to go out, we were way too tired and went to sleep early. The next day was spent walking around the city, grabbing food of course, and heading to the airport. Lisbon was an amazing first trip and definitely a place that everyone should consider going.
Since being back in Barcelona, a lot has happened. Watching the Super Bowl in Spain from midnight to four in the morning was definitely a worthwhile yet extremely tiring experience. Super Bowl Monday is a struggle, but it was interesting to watch such an important sporting event in America in Europe. The only problem is that Europe DOES NOT get American commercials, so I was devastated because nothing is worse than mediocre Spanish commercials when you are expecting to see the best commercials of the year. It was also so difficult to stay up until almost 5 a.m. after traveling for a weekend. I was really close to falling asleep and watching a bunch of locals and Green Bay fans cheer at the end of the game was almost as bad as being kept awake for so long(sorry I am a bad sport and still so mad they won), but even with all that being said, it was worth the experience.
Today, we went to Park Ciutadella for a field trip. It is pretty much the Central Park of Barcelona and gorgeous. When you are walking around a beautiful park on a sixty degree day instead of sitting in class, it is kind of hard to be upset about anything whatsoever. It's great. Since this post is a short novel, I am going to go do my spanish homework or at least attempt to and hopefully I'll write a shorter post after this weekend.
Adios!
-Lauren
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