Lisbon

If there is one thing I've learned about traveling... it's not a good idea to create expectations of cities. Things could be better or worse but will definitely be different than what you thought. Which brings me to Portugal. We had heard that the beaches are amazing, the cities are busy and fun, most Portuguese are really nice and the men are not shy about their cat calls. All of this was true... but definitely not in the way I pictured.

The city of Lisbon is indeed busy but is very poorly constructed so things are impossible to find. It has very steep hills so "parallel" streets can go down one and up the other. The sidewalks (if you can call them that) are extremely narrow, broken cobblestone paths, pressed up against the buildings and are very unkept; cluttered with trash, food and weeds, which of course attracts every one's favorite pigeons, leaving their signature markings as well :-) The castle is in the center of town but because of tall buildings and hills, it's impossible to see unless you are far away. Houses are now built against the castle walls so even if you're on the same street, you can hardly see it. There were some amazing views of the city from the castle and we walked on top of the walls like the guards did. Aside from a restaurant and screaming school groups, there wasn't much up there. We visited the castle on Friday afternoon and walked around downtown Lisbon a bit, near our hostel. Arriving at 11am, after a 14 hour train ride (I'll tell you more about that later), we were pretty tired. Coincidentally, there was a student from Thousand Oaks, studying in Bilbao with a different program who was staying at our hostel. He was by himself for the weekend and seemed pretty homesick so Kaitlin and I invited him to dinner with us. The food in Portugal is better than Spain! We ate at a restaurant that cooked from a grill! I haven't seen a grill in 3 months now. It was a beautiful sight. haha The type of food is similar, but the Portuguese prepare it a little different and there is more flavor!

Saturday morning we wandered around Lisbon again, growing increasingly annoyed because the city was so confusing. There are trolleys that run up and down the main streets but don't help much. They have one door (for entering and exiting), are really small, overcrowded, and rickety so your body gets thrown around a lot. There are no signs signifying the stops, causing us to be more confused. haha It was a beautiful day but there wasn't any where to sit either! The few cafes were packed. Lisbon is in a large bay so the views were beautiful, but the beaches are inaccessible. Finally we decided to take a 30 minute metro along the water to a beach area called Cascais that the owner of the hostel and our new American friend recommended. You should have seen our faces when we stepped off the train. It was hilarious. Cascais is absolutely beautiful! The beaches, marina, shops, buildings were amazing and it was a little bit warmer. We felt like we had left the country! After walking around for a bit we ate lunch, bought a volleyball and played a little on the beach. Kaitlin played volleyball up until college so we were SO excited to play! We found a "tex-mex"place and were even more excited that the "Mexican wrap, grilled" was none other than a quesadilla.... with chicken, sour cream and salsa! It tasted like America! Best of all, it was spicy! Anyway, we loved Cascais so much we went back the next day and had the best Indian food I've had in my life. The Muslims controlled southern Spain and Portugal for a long period of time and their culture is still widely seen in this area.

Our hostel was wonderful. A young Swedish guy just opened it in March and him and his sister live there full time, taking care of everything. It's a big, 2 story apartment converted into separate rooms so the bathrooms, kitchen and living room were communal but everything was clean and safe. We shared a room with two Italian girls who have lived in London for a year. One of them said her favorite cities in Italy are Rome and Florence! Lisbon can be a creepy city but we felt really safe and at home in our hostel, which made all of the difference in the world.

For the most part, people were friendly. Everyone understood Spanish and most knew English but we chose to speak Spanish. The men were gross and constantly yelling at women. Our train ride was llllllooooonnnnnggggg. We got on in San Sebastian at 10:20 Thursday night with a room to ourselves. We didn't have a sleeper room but there were couch-like, bench seats. A few people came in and out along the way but we never left our room... mainly because we were too scared haha. The people checking tickets came in after every stop which made constant sleep impossible. Somehow I managed to rest quite a bit!

Although this is probably my most pessimistic post, I had a good time! It kind of felt like a European version of Mexico. The city itself is run down and dirty but the high tourist beach areas are very nice. I doubt I will return to Lisbon, but the other beaches in Portugal (the real beaches that you can sit on) I would like to see. Warmer weather always makes things more enjoyable!

This weekend I am going to Switzerland! It's sort of still up in the air who's going, but we'll see! haha We are flying into Geneva and taking a train to Interlaken. So much for warmer weather! I'm excited to be adventurous in the Swiss Alps!