Lisbon, Portugal - Day 1

This past weekend I had my first out-of-Spain adventure and it was quite thrilling. A group of five other girls and I decided to go to Lisbon, Portugal for the weekend. I've never really had any strong desire to see Portugal, but it's close to Spain and not terribly expensive so it seemed like a good idea to go for a weekend. I am so glad I went! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and truly one of the most enjoyable trips I have ever had.

The journey began at the painfully early hour of 4:50AM. Our flight left at 6:55 which meant we couldn't take the metro because it wouldn't open in time for us to make the plane. This was a big bummer because it meant I had to pay for a taxi to the airport. My host mom pretty much saved the day by allowing my friend Natalie spend the night so that we could share the taxi in the morning. This was particularly nice because Spaniards are very private about their homes and do not invite people over with the same ease as Americans. It was really fun to have a friend in the house and we stayed up way later than we should have watching House. I think we got about 2 hours of sleep.

The ride to the airport and the quick flight to Lisbon were uneventful, but the taxi ride from the Lisbon airport to the Backpacker's Oasis Hostel was hair-raising! The streets of Lisbon are narrow, cobble-stoned, and hilly and our taxi driver sped down them as if he were a racecar driver. One of my friends was actually clinging to the door and couldn't suppress a gasp after one particularly forceful turn. I'm happy to report that we all survived and the drama of the cab ride quickly faded once we saw what an awesome place we were living for the weekend. The hostel has won all sorts of awards and is super pretty (wood floors, balconies, lots of windows and a very nice living room, dining room, and bar). We arrived at about 8 and our rooms were not ready (surprise, surprise) so we scarfed down some of the free breakfast and then passed out on the couches in the living room. No doubt, what with our luggage strewn about and the six of us taking up all of the available couch space, we made quite a site.

After a few hours we had recovered sufficiently to begin exploring. Lisbon is not a huge city so we set out from the hotel with our map and began to wander in earnest. The day was beautiful (sunny and over 80 degree) and everywhere we looked there were pretty apartments covered in the ceramic tiles that are a trademark of Lisbon. We hopped on a tram (a ride almost as exciting as the one in the taxi) and got off when we got to a place that looked interesting. We saw an old church, a basilica, and countless pastry shops. Our wandering left us exhausted so we grabbed lunch in a little cafe and returned to the hostel to officially check-in. At this point I felt as though I was ready to collapse from exhaustion and was ready for a nap, but others were rearing to go so after another hellish ride on the tram we agreed that more sightseeing was a possibility if we stopped for coffee and some of Lisbon's world-famous pastry. We entered the first cafe we saw and spent the next hour snacking. It's difficult for me to explain just how good this pastry was, but believe me when I say that my cream-filled puff ball (I can't remember its actual name) was divine. Feeling better, we took the metro to the Gulbenkian Museum. It's an art museum that began from the personal collection of Calouste Gulbenkian, an oil tycoon who came to Portugal in 1942 to escape WWII. The collection was very impression and I got to see artifacts/art from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Eastern Arabs. There were also a lot of European paintings from the 15th-17th centuries and a room filled with all this antique furniture that looked as though it had once belonged to royalty. Definitely worth a visit!

Back at the hostel, we tried to nap, but since my body completely over-reacts to caffeine, the coffee from earlier just meant that I spent an hour and a half on my bed trying to remind myself how tired I was. Oh well. The hostel offers an authentic Portuguese dinner every night for only 5 Euros and we decided we could not pass up a deal like that. Dinner was late, but we commandeered the dining hall table and kept ourselves thoroughly entertained by telling ridiculous stories about our lives before coming to Spain. Dinner was incredible and HUGE. I had a piece of meat/veggie lasagna/mashed potato lasagna that was at least the size of my face. There was also salad and a wonderful almond pie for dessert. The day pretty much ended there. We went out for a bit to try and explore the nightlife, but we were far too tired to make any real progress so we returned to the hostel for a good night's rest and promised ourselves we would do better the next day.