LISBOA

This weekend was by far one of my favorite experiences I have had yet. A small group of us organized a trip to Lisbon. Early Thursday morning (5:20am) Carly, Alyssa, Sara and I set off for the airport. Sara and Alyssa’s host dad, Faustino Lopez, was kind enough to offer us a ride to the airport that early in the morning. It started off a bit rocky as Carly and I were late to meet them in the parking lot. Luckily, they had sat around for the 10 minutes.
We landed in Portugal after a 40 minute plane ride and found the local bus to take to our hostel.

Our hostel amazed us all. It was definitely one of the best hostels out there. It was a prime location – a 3 minute walk from the river, 10 minutes from one of the train/metro stations and 10 minutes from Rossio square. We walked in and the host greeted us with a big smile and in English! There was breakfast laid out on the counters, 4 Mac computers, free WiFi, and a big lobby area with tables, bean bags and a projector playing music videos and movies. They had a big wall with restaurant and sight-seeing recommendations and top things to do while in Lisbon. We were able to check in early and get settled before we headed to Sintra.
On our way to Rossio station, there was a crowd of men in blue “Tennents” shirts. They were gathered at this one bar and had already begun drinking – it was 10:30 in the morning. One stopped to chat with us and he told us there was a game at 6pm against this Scottish team – they had all flown out for the game! As a group we decided then and there we would make it back in time for the game.

We got on the train to this supposed “fairytale-like” place. Walking out of the train station, we decided to follow a couple people around because we had no idea where to go. Our whole trip we had plans of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go but never had the details of how to specifically get there. So we always wandered and were able to figure it out. The girls in our group who had been to Portugal the other free travel weekend told us we had to try and get the bikes for the day. We soon realized we were on a bit of a schedule if we wanted to get back in time for the game so we took the bus up to where all the places to visit were. It turns out that if we had taken bikes, we all probably would have died of exhaustion or from a head on collision with a car because the whole road was completely uphill and the windiest road ever! I did not feel safe on that bus.

I seriously had no idea what to expect when getting off the bus. At the time it seemed like one expense after the other: we paid for our train ride there, the bus ride up to the site and there was yet another “carriage” to get to the actual site. Carly and I decided to walk the last part of the way – it was a beautiful, uphill walk anyway. Totally worth it in the end because the palace was definitely one used to base off all fairytales. It was unique because of the Moorish influence – bright colors and tiling on the outside. It was perched high up on these mountains in Sintra gazing out all the way to the coast of where we had come from in Lisbon I believe. Carly and I were instantly overcome with the scenery and how many awesome photos we could capture. There was a back patio, a walkway around the sides of the palace and a terrace that looked over the palace grounds. We walked through the rooms in the palace and saw again the Moorish influence with the detailed wall engravings and colorings etc. We joked about renting out the palace and having our weddings at this palace. We were just in awe the entire time touring the palace. We basked in the strong Portugal sun for a bit before we started our journey back so we could get to the game.

We made sure to stop at a store on the way back to get jerseys for the game. It turned out to be more of a casual game between Sporting Portugal and a Scottish team – the Tennants. It was my first European game in general and being in the atmosphere itself was so much fun. Even though it wasn’t a big game, all the fan there were going all out cheering. The section for the Tennants was completely full and they were drunkily jumping up and down, chanting the whole time. It was really entertaining to watch. The pace of the game was also enjoyable to watch as well. It was a competitive game.

We wandered the streets close by our hotel for dinner and found an Italian place with tables set up outside. As we ate dinner, we befriended 4 Scotts who went to the game. They were the nicest people that we had had a conversation with in a while! We talked about everything from the origins of our names to Joe’s recent love affair. There was Alan and Joe who were 40 year olds and then Jordan who was our age and Alan’s son. We talked for a couple of hours at this restaurant and Joe ended up buying the four of us banana splits! Jordan came back to hang out at the hostel with us for a bit where they had social happy hours and movies playing etc. It is amazing to me how many interesting people we meet when we travel! Unfortunately Jordan was leaving the next morning so we could only hang out for the one day, but obviously via Facebook we will be lifelong friends. Facebook is also an incredible device out here. It is one of the only ways to communicate and stay connected with the incredible people you meet. It is crazy how universal it has become!

The next day we woke up early and headed to Cascais – the beachy town. We were a bit slow to get on the train to go because we went to check out the Lisbon cathedral before and walked around the plaza at the river’s edge right by our hostel. When we arrived in Cascais, there were no more bikes available to rent so we settled for wandering down the side streets and gasped as soon as we saw water and sand. We kept walking along the coast where there was a big marina. We struggled to find the main beaches and it turns out we walked in the opposite way we should have but as we kept walking we found Boca de Inferno which is this awesome point on the coast where the water comes up really high and you can walk right out to the edge – it’s hard to describe but you get an incredible view of the coastline! We decided to lay out on the rocks in boca de inferno and stayed there for a couple hours and roasted. It was complete perfection and just what we all wanted. Walking back Alyssa was slightly depressed because we didn’t get to ride Segways – a desire she has had for a while. Just her luck we walked passed a store that sold Segways and the owner was nice enough to let us each take turns riding one and teach us how to use them! He and his coworker were really generous and made 4 American girls’ days. As we were walking back to the train station we walked into them again and they offered to take us sailing the next morning. Carly and I were completely stoked at first and then thought more about it. I said to Carly, “I feel like that is something our parents tell us not to do with strangers we have just met.” We decided it would probably be a bad idea to go sailing with two Portuguese men we had just met.

We were told we had to go out to Barrio Alto at night in order to really experience Lisbon. We got kebabs for dinner and headed up the hill (hence Barrio Alto) to check out the “scene.” It was a bit early so we wandered into a store which sold records and we had a lot of fun asking the manager putting on different records and dancing to them from Frank Sinatra to Lil Jon. We made a bit of an “American scene.” Then next door was the best cupcake place!! The main guy who served us was really outgoing and talked to us for a while, gave us advice on where we needed to go and of course we exchanged Facebook information with him and his friends (they were both gay, but incredibly helpful!) When we left the cupcake place, everyone was finally out and about. The tiny streets were literally packed with people walking up and down and in and out of bars. I swear there must have been a cloud of smoke hovering above the area – people would just post up along the walls of the street and start rolling because smoking weed is legal there! We walked through the crowds for a bit. For the first time I realized that we were severely outnumbered – the ratio of guys to girls was very favorable for us. However, most of the people hanging in the streets were not the best to stop and have a conversation with. We stopped by one bar and happened to find some of the same kids who were staying at the hostel with us. We talked to them for a bit and continued wandering and were stopped by some gorgeous Portuguese guys. Once it got to 2 in the morning, the crowd was pretty restless. We wanted to go to one of the clubs the cupcake boys recommended but we were exhausted from walking around all day.

Our last day in Lisbon we took the train to Belem. There was a massive palace that we didn’t go in and it was right along the river. Our intentions were to go to a famous market they had, but apparently it was only held on Sundays so we were out of luck. We ended up walking along the boardwalk next to the river and posting up next to the monuments for a while. We visited the Belem Tower which was right on the water. As we wrapped up our travels in Belem, we grabbed a quick snack at this café, sat on their patio in the sun and enjoyed are last few minutes before we started to head to the airport.

Lisbon was by far my favorite weekend I have had here abroad. I think it is mainly because it far exceeded my expectations. I had no idea what was in Lisbon or what Lisbon is known for and we ended up having the best free travel weekend ever.