Finally I had time for this so...
I was really excited about going to Lisbon because I had heard so much about it being a little bit less touristy than other European big cities, I had always liked the food when my parents and I went to Portuguese places in Cambridge, and it just sounded like a nice city. I would say it didn't disappoint. It's very old, duh, and seems largely untouched by Americanism. Sure there were McDonalds around here and there, but no Starbucks, not some of the other big chains. So in that sense it was really like being in another world.
Everyone was wonderfully nice (except the few pushy waiters we encountered). One that sticks in my mind is the restaurant Vossamerce where we ate on our 2nd night in Lisbon. On our last night we were walking around and one of the waiters who had served us several nights ago saw us walk by and waved and asked how we were. Most people didn't really speak English but they made an effort for us and were very kind. It's actually too bad the restaurant hawkers are there because they kind of ruin the experience because they are who stick out in your mind.
There is a lot of construction going on. Some of the elevators/funiculars that are supposed to be so great were closed, as was one of the parks with apparently spectacular views of the castle and city. But the sights are largely spectacular. Going all the way up to the castle was easy using the 27 bus and the views were probably fairly unmatched almost anywhere. You could feel the history walking through the streets of the Alfama and as we were the only people walking around we felt like we were really hitting less-touristy parts of the city. I slightly regret not making it over there for dinner one night.
The sights of Belem were probably the most impressive. The monastery is just unreal and impossible to describe. Obviously in my research I had seen photos of it, but you get off the tram and you see this structure going from left to right pretty much as far as you can see in either direction and you just have to gawk a little bit.
The squares are vast and bustling. We never saw anything shady or anyone getting pickpocketed, though I had heard many warnings about Lisbon. I wore my moneybelt the first day and not after that, and never once felt even remotely in danger. We did take 2 of the apparently more-pickpocketed trams in the city - the 15 and 28 but we took them early in the morning and when they were less busy and perhaps that helped. We got a little scammed by being overcharged by probably 10 or so euros on our taxi from the airport, but better that than being pickpocketed or something.
The LisboaCard was fantastic - it was so convenient to be able to get on the subway or a bus whenever we wanted and the fact that the Lisbon-Sintra and Lisbon-Cascais train routes were covered by it was great and we could make our day to Lisbon and Cascais a really long fun day but also a really cheap day too. I really enjoyed Sintra, except for the heights aspect of being so high in the Pena Palace. But the beauty and quaintness of the little town are unforgettable and even though there were tons of tourists around you didn't feel like people were trying to gouge you. There were reasonably-priced handmade souvenirs, very affordable restaurants, etc. Cascais is also a very cute town. More for going to the beach but it had nice pedestrianized streets and the pastry shop was to die for. Neither of these towns are places I'd probably feel the need to go back to but I am glad I got to see them. And now I can say I've seen the Atlantic ocean from beaches on both sides. Pretty cool :)
The food was very good but mostly grilled meats. I would say the best meal I had was at the Vossamerce because it was beef? LOL. I wish I had tried some more of the pastelarias because the couple I did try things from were out of this world and very inexpensive (a euro or less per piece of delicious pastry)
All in all I would say we had a very good time in Lisbon outside the restaurant hawkers. Part of that was the problem that where we stayed (which was otherwise fantastically located) required that we walk through the hawkers sometimes several times a day. The other problem is that we unfortunately didn't really adventure out of that area most nights to find something different :( But definitely, Lisbon is a great city. Sure there is trash and graffiti but it is nice to see a raw place that isn't so globalized or americanized, and to be able to wander through it and experience it in a largely raw state.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Day 11
Wednesday August 7
8:30am CET - woke up just after 8am which is great considering I was actually able to sleep around 11pm! We can't control the a/c here so it was a little chilly in the morning, but better to be a little chilly than a little hot!
9:00am CET - went to Starbucks around the corner for breakfast - I had a chocolate croissant mmmm and they gave me a glass of water - with ice! Woohoo!
9:30am CET - walked to the Placa de Catalunya to find the Tourist info office, got lost a bit but finally found it - it was down an escalator which is why we had trouble finding it LOL. Waited in line for a few and bought 4-day transportation passes for 17.50 euros - was able to use the credit card, always nice. The Placa de Catalunya is at the top of the long main tourist street called La Rambla - where I had read about all the pickpocketing and such. I must say I didn't see any of it, so that's good. Followed the Rick Steves walking tour of the Ramblas and that was nice because it pointed out some stuff just off the street that we never would've seen otherwise, like an uncovered Roman necropolis, a neat little square with lightposts designed by Gaudi, and a really nice Baroque church. The street is wide and pedestrianized down the middle, lined with big trees on both sides.
10:15am CET - finally we made it to the La Boqueria market. OH. MY. GOD. I could've stayed in there all day. There's everything - meat stalls, fruit and veggie stalls galore (with incredibly cheap prices like .90 euros a kilogram for tomatoes), bakeries, bars (where people were drinking beer at 10:15!), fish stalls, and OLIVE STALLS!!!! Instead of trying to order, I bought two prepackaged cups of 2 different kinds for 2 euros each. They look quite yum. I also bought a fresh raspberry juice drink for 1.50 euros that a lot of the fruit stalls were selling. It was like drinking a raspberry… Soooo tasty. See my pictures for the different stands. Pretty amazing stuff and it was quite busy and lively and just a lot of fun. I love the LA Farmers Market and this is kind of like that but times 20 and half the price. A lot of the stuff came prepackaged too, like there were tons of prepared fruits for good prices that came with forks and spoons. We might have to go back down there and get some stuff for a picnic one day later in the week. Really amazing place. Saw some fruit I've never even heard of (see pictures).
11:00am CET - We made it to the bottom and then took the metro, which is clean and fast, to the Eixample district a few stops away. The streets are grand and the stores are expensive, and we then changed lines and made it to the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral that has been built since the late 1800s. It's just absolutely amazing. We didn't pay the 8 euros to go inside but we walked around the entire edifice and just gawked at it. The whole area was incredibly busy, it seemed like the whole city was there LOL.
12noon CET - Hopped on the subway a couple stops back to the main street in the Eixample, Passeig de Gracia. The row houses are pretty amazing, we stopped and gawked at a couple of the Gaudi houses on the street which are just bizarre and stunning at the same time - they are also outRAGEOUSly expensive to get into (one was 16.50!!!), so we just looked from the outside. It was quite humid out and starting to spit rain but never got too terribly bad and at least it was cloudy so it wasn't too hot.
1:30pm CET - after wandering for a while in Eixample we started getting super hungry so we went one block over back to the Rambla de Catalunya where we ate last night and looked at menus. I took out the pages from the Rick Steves book and found El Raco, which sounded like a good option, so we found it and they had a 10 euro meal of the day that included an appetizer, entrée, drink and dessert, including tax (which is not normally included here) all for 10 euros - there were 3-4 choices for each course. We were like SCORE. So I got spaghetti with garlic and oil, something called a "Quizza" which was basically just cheese in a crust, and raspberry sorbet… needless to say I am stuffed but it was delicious and the place was big and bright and airy and kind of neat. At your table there is a swiping card and when you want to pay you just take the card and bring it to the cashier and they swipe it and show you your bill and you pay. Pretty neat. When the waitress took our order, she punched it to a little computer wrapped around her wrist, so it was all very high tech and neat. We decided we would have to go back sometime during the week and see if they had a different menu of the day because it was so much food and such a good deal. We figure we'll be so full all day that having tapas later again will be perfect.
2:45pm CET - came back to the hotel to rest the feet and relax a while. It's not too hot but it's very humid out so being in the a/c for a while and resting my feet feels very nice.
5:30pm CET - read in a couple guidebooks about this store called Vinçon on the Passeig de Gracia where we had been earlier, so we were like sure, let's go spend some time there and go to one of the tapas places we had seen on that street that looked good. So we found the store all the way up the street (of course lol) and it is AWESOME. Almost IKEA-esque it is like a funky department store that sold a bit of everything. It was pretty expensive but we looked around the entire place pretty much, for about an hour.
7:00pm CET - after pulling ourselves out of the awesomeness that is Vinçon, we walked back down to the tapas place on a corner called Tapa Tapa. We sat right at the bar and the menu was just like a paper placemat but the nice thing about this place is that there were pictures so we knew exactly what we were ordering, which was really nice. It was so fun and the food was cheaper than last night. We had olives, which were of course delicious - it was several types all mixed up that were marinated in some kind of mildly spicy olive oil, tastyyyyy. We also had some cheese, a potato cake type thing (no mom and dad not like OUR potato cakes, but still round and still yummy), and two kinds of chicken - one was little chunks of chicken breast that had been like sautéed in garlic and oil and herbs and was totally delicious and the other was chunks of chicken breast on skewers that had been crisped up with sesame seeds on the outside - equally delicious. All 5 of these were under 3 euros each, too, which is pretty freaking cheap - although, they were small, but it was enough to eat considering how huge our lunch had been. Then for dessert I had "mousse of 3 chocolates" which was, obviously, delicious - it was 3 different mousses of 3 different textures layered in a glass for 3.50. The whole thing including our drinks and tip was like just over 10 euros each including tax and a 10%ish tip. Unreal. Better than last night and cheaper. Plus sitting at the bar was fun because we watched the guys doing the drink orders for the whole place (which is pretty big) and they kept switching off and they were all in such pissy moods and yelling at each other - it was pretty funny. So not only is it a little cheaper to sit at the bar - it's also more entertaining! It was fun to try to get the guys' attention when we wanted to order something too.
9:45pm CET - after looking at some of the famous big mansion buildings on the Passeig de Gracia lit up for nighttime, we came back to the hotel and will do laundry. Fun.
8:30am CET - woke up just after 8am which is great considering I was actually able to sleep around 11pm! We can't control the a/c here so it was a little chilly in the morning, but better to be a little chilly than a little hot!
9:00am CET - went to Starbucks around the corner for breakfast - I had a chocolate croissant mmmm and they gave me a glass of water - with ice! Woohoo!
9:30am CET - walked to the Placa de Catalunya to find the Tourist info office, got lost a bit but finally found it - it was down an escalator which is why we had trouble finding it LOL. Waited in line for a few and bought 4-day transportation passes for 17.50 euros - was able to use the credit card, always nice. The Placa de Catalunya is at the top of the long main tourist street called La Rambla - where I had read about all the pickpocketing and such. I must say I didn't see any of it, so that's good. Followed the Rick Steves walking tour of the Ramblas and that was nice because it pointed out some stuff just off the street that we never would've seen otherwise, like an uncovered Roman necropolis, a neat little square with lightposts designed by Gaudi, and a really nice Baroque church. The street is wide and pedestrianized down the middle, lined with big trees on both sides.
10:15am CET - finally we made it to the La Boqueria market. OH. MY. GOD. I could've stayed in there all day. There's everything - meat stalls, fruit and veggie stalls galore (with incredibly cheap prices like .90 euros a kilogram for tomatoes), bakeries, bars (where people were drinking beer at 10:15!), fish stalls, and OLIVE STALLS!!!! Instead of trying to order, I bought two prepackaged cups of 2 different kinds for 2 euros each. They look quite yum. I also bought a fresh raspberry juice drink for 1.50 euros that a lot of the fruit stalls were selling. It was like drinking a raspberry… Soooo tasty. See my pictures for the different stands. Pretty amazing stuff and it was quite busy and lively and just a lot of fun. I love the LA Farmers Market and this is kind of like that but times 20 and half the price. A lot of the stuff came prepackaged too, like there were tons of prepared fruits for good prices that came with forks and spoons. We might have to go back down there and get some stuff for a picnic one day later in the week. Really amazing place. Saw some fruit I've never even heard of (see pictures).
11:00am CET - We made it to the bottom and then took the metro, which is clean and fast, to the Eixample district a few stops away. The streets are grand and the stores are expensive, and we then changed lines and made it to the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral that has been built since the late 1800s. It's just absolutely amazing. We didn't pay the 8 euros to go inside but we walked around the entire edifice and just gawked at it. The whole area was incredibly busy, it seemed like the whole city was there LOL.
12noon CET - Hopped on the subway a couple stops back to the main street in the Eixample, Passeig de Gracia. The row houses are pretty amazing, we stopped and gawked at a couple of the Gaudi houses on the street which are just bizarre and stunning at the same time - they are also outRAGEOUSly expensive to get into (one was 16.50!!!), so we just looked from the outside. It was quite humid out and starting to spit rain but never got too terribly bad and at least it was cloudy so it wasn't too hot.
1:30pm CET - after wandering for a while in Eixample we started getting super hungry so we went one block over back to the Rambla de Catalunya where we ate last night and looked at menus. I took out the pages from the Rick Steves book and found El Raco, which sounded like a good option, so we found it and they had a 10 euro meal of the day that included an appetizer, entrée, drink and dessert, including tax (which is not normally included here) all for 10 euros - there were 3-4 choices for each course. We were like SCORE. So I got spaghetti with garlic and oil, something called a "Quizza" which was basically just cheese in a crust, and raspberry sorbet… needless to say I am stuffed but it was delicious and the place was big and bright and airy and kind of neat. At your table there is a swiping card and when you want to pay you just take the card and bring it to the cashier and they swipe it and show you your bill and you pay. Pretty neat. When the waitress took our order, she punched it to a little computer wrapped around her wrist, so it was all very high tech and neat. We decided we would have to go back sometime during the week and see if they had a different menu of the day because it was so much food and such a good deal. We figure we'll be so full all day that having tapas later again will be perfect.
2:45pm CET - came back to the hotel to rest the feet and relax a while. It's not too hot but it's very humid out so being in the a/c for a while and resting my feet feels very nice.
5:30pm CET - read in a couple guidebooks about this store called Vinçon on the Passeig de Gracia where we had been earlier, so we were like sure, let's go spend some time there and go to one of the tapas places we had seen on that street that looked good. So we found the store all the way up the street (of course lol) and it is AWESOME. Almost IKEA-esque it is like a funky department store that sold a bit of everything. It was pretty expensive but we looked around the entire place pretty much, for about an hour.
7:00pm CET - after pulling ourselves out of the awesomeness that is Vinçon, we walked back down to the tapas place on a corner called Tapa Tapa. We sat right at the bar and the menu was just like a paper placemat but the nice thing about this place is that there were pictures so we knew exactly what we were ordering, which was really nice. It was so fun and the food was cheaper than last night. We had olives, which were of course delicious - it was several types all mixed up that were marinated in some kind of mildly spicy olive oil, tastyyyyy. We also had some cheese, a potato cake type thing (no mom and dad not like OUR potato cakes, but still round and still yummy), and two kinds of chicken - one was little chunks of chicken breast that had been like sautéed in garlic and oil and herbs and was totally delicious and the other was chunks of chicken breast on skewers that had been crisped up with sesame seeds on the outside - equally delicious. All 5 of these were under 3 euros each, too, which is pretty freaking cheap - although, they were small, but it was enough to eat considering how huge our lunch had been. Then for dessert I had "mousse of 3 chocolates" which was, obviously, delicious - it was 3 different mousses of 3 different textures layered in a glass for 3.50. The whole thing including our drinks and tip was like just over 10 euros each including tax and a 10%ish tip. Unreal. Better than last night and cheaper. Plus sitting at the bar was fun because we watched the guys doing the drink orders for the whole place (which is pretty big) and they kept switching off and they were all in such pissy moods and yelling at each other - it was pretty funny. So not only is it a little cheaper to sit at the bar - it's also more entertaining! It was fun to try to get the guys' attention when we wanted to order something too.
9:45pm CET - after looking at some of the famous big mansion buildings on the Passeig de Gracia lit up for nighttime, we came back to the hotel and will do laundry. Fun.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Day 10 Pictures up!
Not easy since I´m doing it on the hotel computer from my flashdrive, but here you go, a few from yesterday.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/9850214@N03/47KQ9j
http://www.flickr.com/gp/9850214@N03/47KQ9j
Day 10
Monday August 6
6:30am GMT - woke up and finished last packing up, went down and checked out of hotel - he got a cab for us in less than 5 minutes - impressive, but makes sense as they wait out in the square on special taxi lanes.
7:15am GMT - taxi got us to the airport in 15 min or less, total was 8.75 euros, so now we really know the guy on our arrival way overcharged us. Oh well. Sat in a little café right inside the airport so amanda could get breakfast (I ate my very delicious cake roll thing from the pastelaria yesterday).
7:45am GMT - we find out where our flight is checking in and go there and I realize I don't have my little bag with all my ceramic goodies. So I ran back to the café and thankfully they were still sitting on the table *phew*. Checked in and went through security with no problems.
10:30am GMT - flight took off a little late - probably because it was a ghetto thing where they took us from the gate to the plane via a bus and then we had to walk up stairs - AGAIN, in a BIG CITY!!!?! Anyway… I actually dozed on and off most of the flight which was less than 2 hours. So that should mess up my sleeping tonight just fine, especially considering we also lost an hour and that always messes up my sleeping in itself. So there was NO security at the Barcelona airport. Maybe it was because we were flying in between EU countries but no passport control at all…so no Spain stamp in my passport :( Thought it was very weird, though.
2:00pmish CET - arrived in Barcelona and got luggage with no problems. Soooooo humid here oy. Luckily not too hot. Got the aerobus for 3.90 euros right outside the airport. We realized later we could've saved a bit of money had we bought a return ticket, but oh well. Got off at the Universitat stop and took a few min orienting ourselves to find the right way to go to get to our hotel. It is very nice. The room is small but reminds me a bit of an American room. Much nicer than the last one. The location is good, maybe a 5 min walk from the main touristy streets but on a pretty quiet side street so that is nice. The wireless exists but I cannot connect to it. Can't figure out what the problem is. And there are like zero outlets in the room - the only one I can find is in the bathroom, so that is interesting.
4:30pm CET - we realized we had never eaten lunch so we went out for a little stroll and found a couple convenience stores at the corner and also found a full-blown supermarket where I found some delicious little tomatoes, some plums, some grapes, some salami to eat for "lunch," and olives in a box. Yes, olives in a box (see pictures). They are tasty. I also bought some bottled water. There's a fridge in our room with minibar stuff in it at outrageous prices but it seems to not really cool anything down much. I guess in the morning I can ask if there is a way to make it colder. But a fridge that doesn't cool anything does sort of defeat the purpose. On our little walk we also found plenty of tasty looking pastry shops with plenty of stuff for breakfast in the mornings.
6:00pm CET - came back to the room and ate our very late lunch and relaxed for a bit. The hotel only gets Spanish stations. I can see that CNN international exists, but it doesn't come in clearly enough to watch. Geez. Everyone seems to speak a little english here, so it is surprising that there's no english channels.
7:00pm CET - decided to take a stroll to one of the main streets a few minutes away called Rambla de Catalunya. I had read about a lot of restaurants there so we figured we could check it out and at the same time find a place for a light dinner since we were tired and had eaten our "lunch" not all that long ago. Walked up and down it and looked at all the menus - most of the places are tapas but some had other stuff.
7:45pm CET - finally decided on one of the tapas places I had read about in some guide books and other places - Ciudad Condal - right on the corner. We were early by Barcelona standards so had no trouble getting a seat. The first guy who waited on us spoke English well enough but didn't give us an english menu - so like 15 min later another guy walks by and sees me with my phrasebook and he is like "do you want an english menu?" and we are like DUH and he is all "no need to spend 30 minutes looking at it" LOL he was funny. Anyway we had a couple of small plates like the spicy potatoes etc. It wasn't a huge meal but since we hadn't eaten that long ago and were tired it was plenty. I think my meal cost 8 euros or less haha.
9:30pm CET - made it back to the hotel where the wireless still, duh, doesn't work. The computer on the 1st floor is fine but the keyboard is Spanish and so things are in different places and it's annoying. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll ask whoever is there at the desk about the wireless and maybe they will have a better answer than the people tonight. It is weird because it is picking up the signal fine but then won't connect. They gave me a "username" and "password" and it's supposed to be like my school's wireless where you just open the browser and get a portal screen to type the name and password in but it won't even get that far to be able to connect to that page. So I dunno. Pain :( The hotel is nice but I guess if the wireless and fridge don't work and the TV has no English channels it's a bit of a pain LOL. But ah well it seems clean and comfortable enough so the rest won't matter ;)
6:30am GMT - woke up and finished last packing up, went down and checked out of hotel - he got a cab for us in less than 5 minutes - impressive, but makes sense as they wait out in the square on special taxi lanes.
7:15am GMT - taxi got us to the airport in 15 min or less, total was 8.75 euros, so now we really know the guy on our arrival way overcharged us. Oh well. Sat in a little café right inside the airport so amanda could get breakfast (I ate my very delicious cake roll thing from the pastelaria yesterday).
7:45am GMT - we find out where our flight is checking in and go there and I realize I don't have my little bag with all my ceramic goodies. So I ran back to the café and thankfully they were still sitting on the table *phew*. Checked in and went through security with no problems.
10:30am GMT - flight took off a little late - probably because it was a ghetto thing where they took us from the gate to the plane via a bus and then we had to walk up stairs - AGAIN, in a BIG CITY!!!?! Anyway… I actually dozed on and off most of the flight which was less than 2 hours. So that should mess up my sleeping tonight just fine, especially considering we also lost an hour and that always messes up my sleeping in itself. So there was NO security at the Barcelona airport. Maybe it was because we were flying in between EU countries but no passport control at all…so no Spain stamp in my passport :( Thought it was very weird, though.
2:00pmish CET - arrived in Barcelona and got luggage with no problems. Soooooo humid here oy. Luckily not too hot. Got the aerobus for 3.90 euros right outside the airport. We realized later we could've saved a bit of money had we bought a return ticket, but oh well. Got off at the Universitat stop and took a few min orienting ourselves to find the right way to go to get to our hotel. It is very nice. The room is small but reminds me a bit of an American room. Much nicer than the last one. The location is good, maybe a 5 min walk from the main touristy streets but on a pretty quiet side street so that is nice. The wireless exists but I cannot connect to it. Can't figure out what the problem is. And there are like zero outlets in the room - the only one I can find is in the bathroom, so that is interesting.
4:30pm CET - we realized we had never eaten lunch so we went out for a little stroll and found a couple convenience stores at the corner and also found a full-blown supermarket where I found some delicious little tomatoes, some plums, some grapes, some salami to eat for "lunch," and olives in a box. Yes, olives in a box (see pictures). They are tasty. I also bought some bottled water. There's a fridge in our room with minibar stuff in it at outrageous prices but it seems to not really cool anything down much. I guess in the morning I can ask if there is a way to make it colder. But a fridge that doesn't cool anything does sort of defeat the purpose. On our little walk we also found plenty of tasty looking pastry shops with plenty of stuff for breakfast in the mornings.
6:00pm CET - came back to the room and ate our very late lunch and relaxed for a bit. The hotel only gets Spanish stations. I can see that CNN international exists, but it doesn't come in clearly enough to watch. Geez. Everyone seems to speak a little english here, so it is surprising that there's no english channels.
7:00pm CET - decided to take a stroll to one of the main streets a few minutes away called Rambla de Catalunya. I had read about a lot of restaurants there so we figured we could check it out and at the same time find a place for a light dinner since we were tired and had eaten our "lunch" not all that long ago. Walked up and down it and looked at all the menus - most of the places are tapas but some had other stuff.
7:45pm CET - finally decided on one of the tapas places I had read about in some guide books and other places - Ciudad Condal - right on the corner. We were early by Barcelona standards so had no trouble getting a seat. The first guy who waited on us spoke English well enough but didn't give us an english menu - so like 15 min later another guy walks by and sees me with my phrasebook and he is like "do you want an english menu?" and we are like DUH and he is all "no need to spend 30 minutes looking at it" LOL he was funny. Anyway we had a couple of small plates like the spicy potatoes etc. It wasn't a huge meal but since we hadn't eaten that long ago and were tired it was plenty. I think my meal cost 8 euros or less haha.
9:30pm CET - made it back to the hotel where the wireless still, duh, doesn't work. The computer on the 1st floor is fine but the keyboard is Spanish and so things are in different places and it's annoying. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll ask whoever is there at the desk about the wireless and maybe they will have a better answer than the people tonight. It is weird because it is picking up the signal fine but then won't connect. They gave me a "username" and "password" and it's supposed to be like my school's wireless where you just open the browser and get a portal screen to type the name and password in but it won't even get that far to be able to connect to that page. So I dunno. Pain :( The hotel is nice but I guess if the wireless and fridge don't work and the TV has no English channels it's a bit of a pain LOL. But ah well it seems clean and comfortable enough so the rest won't matter ;)
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Day 9
9:15am GMT - Woke up to my alarm at 8:10. Brought my other pastry down to eat for breakfast. It was like a chocolate layer cake I suppose. Anyway. Tasty. Today was actually cloudy, whoa.
9:45am GMT - got the Tram 15 to the Belem district to see the sights there, took about a half hour. Got off at the stop for the Monestary and holy shit it is so huge I couldn't even fit it into one picture. Across the street we saw some kind of street market so we checked it out for a couple minutes - it was mostly antiques and the stuff was pretty fugly, so we left. We crossed the street and went into the monastery and looked around - it was so big and beautiful. Then we left to go to the cloisters where we found out that Sundays are free, whoda thunk (we would have gotten in free with our LisboaCard anyway). Anyhow, it's quite beautiful architecturally, all in limestone (see pics). That's about all there is to say really.
On our way out, we realized that it was getting busier and busier. Mass must have been then going on in the monastery itself and so they weren't letting anyone in and so the line was alllllll the way to like the end of the building, which is LONG. I was soooo glad we got there early and it wasn't so bad!!! Then we walked a few min to the National Coaches museum (see pictures), which we were in for about 10 minutes (thank you for being free thanks to LisboaCard). The only memorable thing was this one coach that was scary as all hell (see picture) - at first I didn't see it and amanda was all "whoa that one's scary" and I'm like "which one" and she points and I was "this one?" and she was like "no the scary one" and she did it again and I still didn't see it - I was looking at the ones on both sides of it - and then I saw it and I was like "holy shit man!" It was the coach embodiment of the grim reaper! So yea that was fun.
We went out there and walked back past the monastery to the Torre Belem or Belem tower, which sits right on the Tejo river. Little did we know, that was also free on sundays, so it was superbusy. But the line moved fast. There wasn't much to see, but the structure itself is really nice and the views were good.
1:00pm GMT - made our way back to the area near our hotel on the Tram 15 and found a place for lunch. This place called Komybebe (or Comibebe, depending on where you look at the place) had these complete meals for 8 euros including a starter, a choice of 3 entrees, a drink, and a dessert. So amanda and I each tried the salad and cheese and split it. The cheese was like soft, and smelled funkily, but kinda tasted a bit like parmesan. Amanda liked it more than I did (she says it's because she's "cheesy"). I had the "frankfurt" which was kinda like a little hot dog cut in half and grilled, but it was more like a sausage and it was ok. And guess what it came with - FRIES. It also came with a fried egg. How bizarre. For dessert I had "chocolate mousse" which was really more like a bowl of chocolate goo. Anyway, it was a very good deal and I also ate lots of olives. And I was sooooo stuffed.
2:30pm GMT - We took a shortcut back to the hotel to avoid the asshole at the restaurant. I found that I had the card he had given me, the place is called Restaurante Torremolinos on R. portas S. Antao 60. AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE, what an ass.
4:00pm GMT - after resting for a while we decided we would go back out. The only really major thing in the city we had missed was the famous Se Cathedral. We asked the guy at the hotel front desk and he said it was easiest just to walk, so we did and he was quite right. We got there around 5pm and the church was still open - very pretty inside and I am particularly proud of the picture of the stained glass window I took. We wanted to see the cloisters, which we would've gotten in for free with our LisboaCards, but she wouldn't let us in even though we saw people walking around and coming out and the sign out front said it was open til 7pm. WTF. Oh well.
5:30pm GMT - we weren't really sure what to do and knew we needed somewhat of an early night because we have to be up at like 6:30am tomorrow, so we made our way back to the area where our hotel is. I feel a little badly eating there so many times but it was just convenient. Right by the cathedral there was an extremely busy pastelaria and I bought a little cake roll thingy for 1 euro to save for breakfast tomorrow, since we'll be leaving before the hotel starts serving.
6:00pm GMT - Near the hotel, we had dinner early at an Italian place near our hotel that was apparently owned by the place we went to the other night because the menu was the same. Amanda and I split a margherita pizza and I was still full. Cheap dinner.
And that's it! Tomorrow I will write a wrapup, etc. Bye Lisbon!
9:45am GMT - got the Tram 15 to the Belem district to see the sights there, took about a half hour. Got off at the stop for the Monestary and holy shit it is so huge I couldn't even fit it into one picture. Across the street we saw some kind of street market so we checked it out for a couple minutes - it was mostly antiques and the stuff was pretty fugly, so we left. We crossed the street and went into the monastery and looked around - it was so big and beautiful. Then we left to go to the cloisters where we found out that Sundays are free, whoda thunk (we would have gotten in free with our LisboaCard anyway). Anyhow, it's quite beautiful architecturally, all in limestone (see pics). That's about all there is to say really.
On our way out, we realized that it was getting busier and busier. Mass must have been then going on in the monastery itself and so they weren't letting anyone in and so the line was alllllll the way to like the end of the building, which is LONG. I was soooo glad we got there early and it wasn't so bad!!! Then we walked a few min to the National Coaches museum (see pictures), which we were in for about 10 minutes (thank you for being free thanks to LisboaCard). The only memorable thing was this one coach that was scary as all hell (see picture) - at first I didn't see it and amanda was all "whoa that one's scary" and I'm like "which one" and she points and I was "this one?" and she was like "no the scary one" and she did it again and I still didn't see it - I was looking at the ones on both sides of it - and then I saw it and I was like "holy shit man!" It was the coach embodiment of the grim reaper! So yea that was fun.
We went out there and walked back past the monastery to the Torre Belem or Belem tower, which sits right on the Tejo river. Little did we know, that was also free on sundays, so it was superbusy. But the line moved fast. There wasn't much to see, but the structure itself is really nice and the views were good.
1:00pm GMT - made our way back to the area near our hotel on the Tram 15 and found a place for lunch. This place called Komybebe (or Comibebe, depending on where you look at the place) had these complete meals for 8 euros including a starter, a choice of 3 entrees, a drink, and a dessert. So amanda and I each tried the salad and cheese and split it. The cheese was like soft, and smelled funkily, but kinda tasted a bit like parmesan. Amanda liked it more than I did (she says it's because she's "cheesy"). I had the "frankfurt" which was kinda like a little hot dog cut in half and grilled, but it was more like a sausage and it was ok. And guess what it came with - FRIES. It also came with a fried egg. How bizarre. For dessert I had "chocolate mousse" which was really more like a bowl of chocolate goo. Anyway, it was a very good deal and I also ate lots of olives. And I was sooooo stuffed.
2:30pm GMT - We took a shortcut back to the hotel to avoid the asshole at the restaurant. I found that I had the card he had given me, the place is called Restaurante Torremolinos on R. portas S. Antao 60. AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE, what an ass.
4:00pm GMT - after resting for a while we decided we would go back out. The only really major thing in the city we had missed was the famous Se Cathedral. We asked the guy at the hotel front desk and he said it was easiest just to walk, so we did and he was quite right. We got there around 5pm and the church was still open - very pretty inside and I am particularly proud of the picture of the stained glass window I took. We wanted to see the cloisters, which we would've gotten in for free with our LisboaCards, but she wouldn't let us in even though we saw people walking around and coming out and the sign out front said it was open til 7pm. WTF. Oh well.
5:30pm GMT - we weren't really sure what to do and knew we needed somewhat of an early night because we have to be up at like 6:30am tomorrow, so we made our way back to the area where our hotel is. I feel a little badly eating there so many times but it was just convenient. Right by the cathedral there was an extremely busy pastelaria and I bought a little cake roll thingy for 1 euro to save for breakfast tomorrow, since we'll be leaving before the hotel starts serving.
6:00pm GMT - Near the hotel, we had dinner early at an Italian place near our hotel that was apparently owned by the place we went to the other night because the menu was the same. Amanda and I split a margherita pizza and I was still full. Cheap dinner.
And that's it! Tomorrow I will write a wrapup, etc. Bye Lisbon!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Day 8
Saturday, August 4
8:20am GMT - Woke up at 7:30 to try to get on an 8:51am train to Sintra from the station at the zoo. Pretty sure the milk was sour at breakfast in my cereal… Tasty. Not.
9:00am GMT - made it onto the 8:51 train with no problems, the signs for the train part of the station are clear throughout as soon as you get off the metro. We didn't even have to get a ticket with our LisboaCard, just show it on the train (although they didn't even check).
10:30am GMT - Made it to Sintra shortly after 9:30 and made the short level walk into town where the Palacio Nacional is located. It opens at 10 and we were one of the first people in. We got in free with our LisboaCard and I'm glad because although it was nice (see pictures) I'm not sure it was worth paying for specifically. They guide you around the palace in a particular order and we followed it and left.
11:00am GMT - Walked across the square to the Tourist info office and found out how to make it HIGH and I do mean HIGH above the town to the Palacio Pena. Figured it out and managed to take it all the way up and I mean ALL THE WAY UP. This bus doing hairpin turns up the side of a very high hill was pretty impressive. At times it didn't even look like the big bus was going to make it. But it did! Then of course you get your ticket (reduced to 3.50 euros with the lisboacard) and you still have a pretty steep uphill climb to make. There's a little shuttle bus for 1.50 euros but we didn't take it (kinda wish we had, though the walk back down wasn't bad at all)
Wow, the palace is pretty impressive. We didn't go see too much of the inside because really it was probably not all that different from the one we just saw, but the terraces around it were amazing and the architecture of the palace itself (see pics) is quite amazing. After that we made our way down and caught the bus.
1:00pm GMT - walked around the main square in the old part of town to find a place for lunch. Decided on a place a little off the square called Café de Villa. A little cavernous place with all kinds of cheap lunch. They gave me ice for my water! I was happy :p I had pichana, or Brazilian beef. It came, of course, with fries, rice, and salad! SHOCKER!
2:00pm GMT - walked around town a little more, and I bought a couple of souvenirs. I bought a little ceramic fishy that has purple on it, a cute Sintra magnet, and of course, a hand-painted Olive dish made in Portugal. Yes, I'm pitiful. I realize. We made it to the train station, which is next to the bus station, to try to catch a bus to the beach town Cascais. We would have to wait a while for that, but one was leaving to Estoril - 2 train stops away from Cascais - in a few minutes. With some help from an employee with the station we found the right bus and took it. 3.25 euros, paid on the bus. Not bad. It winded through the towns from Sintra to Estoril.
3:30pm GMT - made it to Estoril and then hopped on the train a couple stops to Cascais, and I'm glad we did because it seemed like there was much more to do there. Got off the train in Cascais and just walked around - the main streets in the town are pedestrianized so we just kind of wandered for a while, looked at menus, which was prudent since all the places were closed for their mid-day rest and thus we were not attacked by the "menu vultures" - we picked out a place with yellow and white checkered tablecloths, in case we decided to stay for dinner.
5:30pm GMT - after walking around a little more, sitting in a little park for a while, and buying some tasty-looking pastries for later (by the way while I was looking at said pastries, Amanda went into a soccer place next door, she was looking at the stuff and was talking in English about how it would be easier if she knew his number, and the guy asked if she wanted any help, and so she asked "Caneira?" and he was like "oh.... Caneira? No." TEH FACE was disrespected :( ). Anyway, we were like, it is way too early to eat dinner man, people will look at us funny and say "those craaaaaaazy Americans eating dinner so damn early." So we found this huge turquoise mall. Inside said mall there was, oddly enough, a supermarket. The tomatoes were really cheap. I bought a little jar of olives (duh.) for 99cents. OH. In the mall, there was a 99c store. They had cannabis-scented incense. I was amused. Very interesting place.
6:30pm GMT - we were really hungry. So we found the yellow-checkered tablecloth restaurant. They weren't really open, but they told us we could sit if we wanted. They had a younger waiter who spoke english and he was like "let us dress but have a seat" Anyway. (I wrote down the name, but it is upstairs in my purse) Meal was tasty - I had chicken again but this time it was brushed with something spicy. Came with, what else but fries and a salad! The cover charge included olives - tasty.
8:00 GMT - got on the train back to Lisbon right at sunset - beautiful 40 min or so ride from the Cascais station since it was right about at sunset. After arriving at the Cais do Sodre train station we took a couple metro stops back to the hotel and chilled in the lobby. I ate one of the little pastries I bought (see pics) - a little jimmies-covered ball of delicious fudgy chocolate goo. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
My feet hurt :( LOL
Amanda says: SCARY ROOM! And respect TEH FACE.
8:20am GMT - Woke up at 7:30 to try to get on an 8:51am train to Sintra from the station at the zoo. Pretty sure the milk was sour at breakfast in my cereal… Tasty. Not.
9:00am GMT - made it onto the 8:51 train with no problems, the signs for the train part of the station are clear throughout as soon as you get off the metro. We didn't even have to get a ticket with our LisboaCard, just show it on the train (although they didn't even check).
10:30am GMT - Made it to Sintra shortly after 9:30 and made the short level walk into town where the Palacio Nacional is located. It opens at 10 and we were one of the first people in. We got in free with our LisboaCard and I'm glad because although it was nice (see pictures) I'm not sure it was worth paying for specifically. They guide you around the palace in a particular order and we followed it and left.
11:00am GMT - Walked across the square to the Tourist info office and found out how to make it HIGH and I do mean HIGH above the town to the Palacio Pena. Figured it out and managed to take it all the way up and I mean ALL THE WAY UP. This bus doing hairpin turns up the side of a very high hill was pretty impressive. At times it didn't even look like the big bus was going to make it. But it did! Then of course you get your ticket (reduced to 3.50 euros with the lisboacard) and you still have a pretty steep uphill climb to make. There's a little shuttle bus for 1.50 euros but we didn't take it (kinda wish we had, though the walk back down wasn't bad at all)
Wow, the palace is pretty impressive. We didn't go see too much of the inside because really it was probably not all that different from the one we just saw, but the terraces around it were amazing and the architecture of the palace itself (see pics) is quite amazing. After that we made our way down and caught the bus.
1:00pm GMT - walked around the main square in the old part of town to find a place for lunch. Decided on a place a little off the square called Café de Villa. A little cavernous place with all kinds of cheap lunch. They gave me ice for my water! I was happy :p I had pichana, or Brazilian beef. It came, of course, with fries, rice, and salad! SHOCKER!
2:00pm GMT - walked around town a little more, and I bought a couple of souvenirs. I bought a little ceramic fishy that has purple on it, a cute Sintra magnet, and of course, a hand-painted Olive dish made in Portugal. Yes, I'm pitiful. I realize. We made it to the train station, which is next to the bus station, to try to catch a bus to the beach town Cascais. We would have to wait a while for that, but one was leaving to Estoril - 2 train stops away from Cascais - in a few minutes. With some help from an employee with the station we found the right bus and took it. 3.25 euros, paid on the bus. Not bad. It winded through the towns from Sintra to Estoril.
3:30pm GMT - made it to Estoril and then hopped on the train a couple stops to Cascais, and I'm glad we did because it seemed like there was much more to do there. Got off the train in Cascais and just walked around - the main streets in the town are pedestrianized so we just kind of wandered for a while, looked at menus, which was prudent since all the places were closed for their mid-day rest and thus we were not attacked by the "menu vultures" - we picked out a place with yellow and white checkered tablecloths, in case we decided to stay for dinner.
5:30pm GMT - after walking around a little more, sitting in a little park for a while, and buying some tasty-looking pastries for later (by the way while I was looking at said pastries, Amanda went into a soccer place next door, she was looking at the stuff and was talking in English about how it would be easier if she knew his number, and the guy asked if she wanted any help, and so she asked "Caneira?" and he was like "oh.... Caneira? No." TEH FACE was disrespected :( ). Anyway, we were like, it is way too early to eat dinner man, people will look at us funny and say "those craaaaaaazy Americans eating dinner so damn early." So we found this huge turquoise mall. Inside said mall there was, oddly enough, a supermarket. The tomatoes were really cheap. I bought a little jar of olives (duh.) for 99cents. OH. In the mall, there was a 99c store. They had cannabis-scented incense. I was amused. Very interesting place.
6:30pm GMT - we were really hungry. So we found the yellow-checkered tablecloth restaurant. They weren't really open, but they told us we could sit if we wanted. They had a younger waiter who spoke english and he was like "let us dress but have a seat" Anyway. (I wrote down the name, but it is upstairs in my purse) Meal was tasty - I had chicken again but this time it was brushed with something spicy. Came with, what else but fries and a salad! The cover charge included olives - tasty.
8:00 GMT - got on the train back to Lisbon right at sunset - beautiful 40 min or so ride from the Cascais station since it was right about at sunset. After arriving at the Cais do Sodre train station we took a couple metro stops back to the hotel and chilled in the lobby. I ate one of the little pastries I bought (see pics) - a little jimmies-covered ball of delicious fudgy chocolate goo. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
My feet hurt :( LOL
Amanda says: SCARY ROOM! And respect TEH FACE.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Day 7
Friday August 3
9:30am GMT - woke up around 8, finally got down to breakfast - same as yesterday of course - and made it out about 9:30. We walked a few minutes to the square to catch the famous Tram 28. Got on easily with our LisboaCards, just had to pass it over a thing at the entrance, and got on for a ride. Well, I thought the ride was short, but it took us practically all over town, up and down steep streets, barely missing parked cars, throughout all the different neighborhoods of town, etc. We got to a point high up and the tram ended, she made us all get off, but luckily it was turning around. Instead of sitting on it the whole entire time, we got off earlier and took the subway the rest of the way, which was fast, easy, and clean.
11:45am - after finally getting to the right place, we got the bus up to the castle, which is high up at the top of the Alfama district - the bus was small and veeeeerrrrryyyyyyy crowded, but still better than walking. We went to the castle and spent some time walking around looking at the viewpoints. Worth the 3.50 euros fee (discount with the LisboaCard) to see the views. I wasn't so fond of the really high up views, but what else is new. It was a perfect day, a bit hazy, but you could see the whole city (see photos). Pretty amazing.
1:30pm - Following the Rick Steves Alfama walking tour we made it down to the Largo Santa Luzia lookout where we found a decent but probably touristy and overpriced outdoor café for lunch called Miradouro de Santa Luzia. We got some olives and fruit salad, and I got a "tomato salad" which turned out to be a plate of tomatoes (see photos). It was quite tasty tomato, but still just a plate of tomatoes, LOL. Oh well, live and learn. The olives were, of course, QUITE tasty, though. Yummy :p
2:15pm - Time to descend the Alfama to get to the water. It is a maze of staircases, narrow cobbled "streets" which are really more like sidewalks, no way a car could get down most of the streets. On one little square, some photographers were taking pictures of someone. Interesting. We wandered for a bit til we found the main street, where there are a bunch of fado restaurants. If we have a chance I'd like to take a bus over there to try one of them out, but we'll see if we make it back. We caught a bus back to the square outside our hotel, which was much nicer than walking. Thank you LisboaCard!
4:30pm - finally back at the hotel for a while, we are sitting in the lounge which is nice and cool and the wireless signal is much better down here. Finally I was able to upload all of my pictures from yesterday. So enjoy.
5:45pm - took the metro from the station that is just a few steps from our hotel a few stops away to Parque Eduardo VII a big park in the newer area of town connected by this long tree-lined street called Avenida da Liberdade. The Parque's metro station was BLUE, all BLUE. Wacky!! So we had a hard time actually getting into the park but once we found the entrance, it was nice. Great views down to the Baixa and the river. We continued down the Avenida all the way back to the square where our hotel is.
6:45pm - After a couple days of grilled meat for dinner we decided to have italian. Found an Italian pizzeria type place on the main restaurant street just a couple min from our hotel called Locanda something. It was pretty busy, probably of all the non-Portuguese people who wanted stuff LOL. I had a pizza con salame, aka pizza with salami. It was pretty good, thin crust and cooked in a wood-burning oven - huge for 7.50 euros. I also ate the olives they put on the table and of course paid a euro for them but who cares :p olives twice today woohoo! We were sitting outside a huge window into the restaurant's kitchen. It was pretty cool to watch them make all the stuff - he smiled and nodded at us a couple times when he saw us looking. Very clean kitchen, you would have been proud mom ;)
8:00pm - because we had pizza and it went pretty fast, we were done about 8pm and decided to just have an early night because we are going to Sintra tomorrow. On our way back, we unfortunately had to pass through the sea of restaurants, which unfortunately meant dealing with the pushy guys out front with the menus. One of the more aggressive ones from yesterday who had stopped us like three times sadly recognized us and was so rude he stood in front of me and was like "you promised you'd eat here!" I was like "we are here for a couple more days" to try to get rid of him, anyway he was so rude I'd never in a million years consider eating there and I wish I knew the name because I'd tell other people to avoid eating there too. What a total asshole!
9:30pm - so now we are back in the lounge just chilling. Full day planned tomorrow so we will try to get to bed a bit earlier tonight.
9:30am GMT - woke up around 8, finally got down to breakfast - same as yesterday of course - and made it out about 9:30. We walked a few minutes to the square to catch the famous Tram 28. Got on easily with our LisboaCards, just had to pass it over a thing at the entrance, and got on for a ride. Well, I thought the ride was short, but it took us practically all over town, up and down steep streets, barely missing parked cars, throughout all the different neighborhoods of town, etc. We got to a point high up and the tram ended, she made us all get off, but luckily it was turning around. Instead of sitting on it the whole entire time, we got off earlier and took the subway the rest of the way, which was fast, easy, and clean.
11:45am - after finally getting to the right place, we got the bus up to the castle, which is high up at the top of the Alfama district - the bus was small and veeeeerrrrryyyyyyy crowded, but still better than walking. We went to the castle and spent some time walking around looking at the viewpoints. Worth the 3.50 euros fee (discount with the LisboaCard) to see the views. I wasn't so fond of the really high up views, but what else is new. It was a perfect day, a bit hazy, but you could see the whole city (see photos). Pretty amazing.
1:30pm - Following the Rick Steves Alfama walking tour we made it down to the Largo Santa Luzia lookout where we found a decent but probably touristy and overpriced outdoor café for lunch called Miradouro de Santa Luzia. We got some olives and fruit salad, and I got a "tomato salad" which turned out to be a plate of tomatoes (see photos). It was quite tasty tomato, but still just a plate of tomatoes, LOL. Oh well, live and learn. The olives were, of course, QUITE tasty, though. Yummy :p
2:15pm - Time to descend the Alfama to get to the water. It is a maze of staircases, narrow cobbled "streets" which are really more like sidewalks, no way a car could get down most of the streets. On one little square, some photographers were taking pictures of someone. Interesting. We wandered for a bit til we found the main street, where there are a bunch of fado restaurants. If we have a chance I'd like to take a bus over there to try one of them out, but we'll see if we make it back. We caught a bus back to the square outside our hotel, which was much nicer than walking. Thank you LisboaCard!
4:30pm - finally back at the hotel for a while, we are sitting in the lounge which is nice and cool and the wireless signal is much better down here. Finally I was able to upload all of my pictures from yesterday. So enjoy.
5:45pm - took the metro from the station that is just a few steps from our hotel a few stops away to Parque Eduardo VII a big park in the newer area of town connected by this long tree-lined street called Avenida da Liberdade. The Parque's metro station was BLUE, all BLUE. Wacky!! So we had a hard time actually getting into the park but once we found the entrance, it was nice. Great views down to the Baixa and the river. We continued down the Avenida all the way back to the square where our hotel is.
6:45pm - After a couple days of grilled meat for dinner we decided to have italian. Found an Italian pizzeria type place on the main restaurant street just a couple min from our hotel called Locanda something. It was pretty busy, probably of all the non-Portuguese people who wanted stuff LOL. I had a pizza con salame, aka pizza with salami. It was pretty good, thin crust and cooked in a wood-burning oven - huge for 7.50 euros. I also ate the olives they put on the table and of course paid a euro for them but who cares :p olives twice today woohoo! We were sitting outside a huge window into the restaurant's kitchen. It was pretty cool to watch them make all the stuff - he smiled and nodded at us a couple times when he saw us looking. Very clean kitchen, you would have been proud mom ;)
8:00pm - because we had pizza and it went pretty fast, we were done about 8pm and decided to just have an early night because we are going to Sintra tomorrow. On our way back, we unfortunately had to pass through the sea of restaurants, which unfortunately meant dealing with the pushy guys out front with the menus. One of the more aggressive ones from yesterday who had stopped us like three times sadly recognized us and was so rude he stood in front of me and was like "you promised you'd eat here!" I was like "we are here for a couple more days" to try to get rid of him, anyway he was so rude I'd never in a million years consider eating there and I wish I knew the name because I'd tell other people to avoid eating there too. What a total asshole!
9:30pm - so now we are back in the lounge just chilling. Full day planned tomorrow so we will try to get to bed a bit earlier tonight.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Day 6
Thursday, August 2
9:00am GMT - woke up a little while ago, slept pretty well considering the hardness of the bed. I must've turned the a/c too low because it was freezing. Oops! Found the hotel's wireless, even though it's kinda weak. It will do the job for a few days. We made it down to breakfast shortly before 10am. The breakfast room was bright and lively, with lots of the portuguese tiles. Really cute little room in fact. The breakfast however, not so cute. The coffee was fine but the OJ was bizarro. The food consisted of a couple cereals, nice crusty fresh portuguese rolls and butter, and a couple of weird-looking meats and cheeses. They also had tea and yogurt. Anyway I didn't imagine it would be an earth-shattering breakfast, and alas, it wasn't. lol.
10:30ish GMT - making our way out into the town to do a walking tour of a couple neighborhoods, I asked the guy at the hotel front desk how to get to the Elevador Gloria to get to the Barrio Alto neighborhood… well, it's closed. So we got a bit lost and finally found where it would have been and decided to walk up the hill anyway. NEVER AGAIN I SAY. Anyway we made it to the top only to find the first stop on the tour - a park with great views of the city below - CLOSED. :( But then we followed the tour through the Barrio Alto to the Sao Roque church (see photos - amazing stuff inside), into some shops and just really exploring the streets and Lisboan life. Happily the tour was almost all downhill from there. We made it down to another neighborhood, the Chiado, and found the main drag - the Rua Garrett. Lots of shops and cafes, with a vast square at one end and a shopping mall at the other. We went into the mall and checked out Portuguese mall stores and after walking around had some lunch in the food court. See the pictures for the great views of the castle from the food court and the BATHROOM. HAHA! Great stuff :p
3:00ish pm GMT - We decided to keep walking down towards the River Tejo and through the Baixa district - at the top of which is where our hotel is. It was hot - probably well over 30C (90+F), but the main street through the Baixa from the water up to near where we are staying is the Rua Augusta, which is pedestrian only and full of shade. Hooray!! We meandered, looked at restaurant menus, window-shopped, and made our way back to the hotel around 4pm for a rest. I took a shower and we just relaxed a bit til going out again.
5:45pm GMT - went out to find dinner. On our way back to the hotel, we discovered why the street our hotel is on is called the "eating alley" - we hadn't yet seen the entire thing and it really is filled with restaurants with patios, all of which have men outside who speak many languages trying to lure you into their establishments. So when we set out to pick one of these places to eat, we knew we had to be careful LOL. We were even given a few business cards, some were quite nice and just explained their menus and asked us where we were from, etc. And others were bizarre and down right pushy. I'm like, why would I want to eat at your establishment if you need to be a jerk to get me in the door? We walked down some of the streets in the Baixa that run parallel to the Rua Augusta we had walked earlier, looked in some shop windows, etc. Didn't really find a whole lot interesting, but we looked at some more menus.
We tried a local drink from a little counter selling the shots in plastic cups - it's apparently made from sour cherries, so I thought it might be good. It is called Ginjinha, and it is disgusting. Sorry, I can't really say much more than that. But it's not sour and it doesn't taste like cherries. And that's all I have to say.
6:45pm GMT - after continuing to wade through pushy waiters, one of which was particularly annoying, telling us something about Mr. Bean and practically shoving us into a table, we decided to go back to one of the places further down, closer to the river and a bit away from the real deluge of restaurants all with similar menus. We decided on one called Restaurante-Grill Vossamerce. The waiter outside remembered us, but was not pushy at all. I had grilled t-bone, which came with, what else, fries and rice, and also some lettuce and really delicious tomato. The steak was a little thin but really tasty and tender. I was stuffed. Yum.
8:45pm GMT - after sitting and chatting for a while we finally asked for the check and wandered back to the area around our hotel. We were looking for some kind of desserty thing, but it seems like most of the pastelerias are closed by the evening - I guess they don't have pastries for after-dinner dessert. We'll have to try one for a mid-afternoon snack or something I guess. Off to the side of the main square by our hotel we found a little gelado shop open til midnight so we got some and it was quite tasty.
10:30pm GMT - came back to the hotel to take a load off and do some laundry. Gee, so fun. The connection seems to be too weak to try to put up my pictures, so I'll have to try taking the laptop downstairs sometime tomorrow to get them up because there are some really nice ones :)
9:00am GMT - woke up a little while ago, slept pretty well considering the hardness of the bed. I must've turned the a/c too low because it was freezing. Oops! Found the hotel's wireless, even though it's kinda weak. It will do the job for a few days. We made it down to breakfast shortly before 10am. The breakfast room was bright and lively, with lots of the portuguese tiles. Really cute little room in fact. The breakfast however, not so cute. The coffee was fine but the OJ was bizarro. The food consisted of a couple cereals, nice crusty fresh portuguese rolls and butter, and a couple of weird-looking meats and cheeses. They also had tea and yogurt. Anyway I didn't imagine it would be an earth-shattering breakfast, and alas, it wasn't. lol.
10:30ish GMT - making our way out into the town to do a walking tour of a couple neighborhoods, I asked the guy at the hotel front desk how to get to the Elevador Gloria to get to the Barrio Alto neighborhood… well, it's closed. So we got a bit lost and finally found where it would have been and decided to walk up the hill anyway. NEVER AGAIN I SAY. Anyway we made it to the top only to find the first stop on the tour - a park with great views of the city below - CLOSED. :( But then we followed the tour through the Barrio Alto to the Sao Roque church (see photos - amazing stuff inside), into some shops and just really exploring the streets and Lisboan life. Happily the tour was almost all downhill from there. We made it down to another neighborhood, the Chiado, and found the main drag - the Rua Garrett. Lots of shops and cafes, with a vast square at one end and a shopping mall at the other. We went into the mall and checked out Portuguese mall stores and after walking around had some lunch in the food court. See the pictures for the great views of the castle from the food court and the BATHROOM. HAHA! Great stuff :p
3:00ish pm GMT - We decided to keep walking down towards the River Tejo and through the Baixa district - at the top of which is where our hotel is. It was hot - probably well over 30C (90+F), but the main street through the Baixa from the water up to near where we are staying is the Rua Augusta, which is pedestrian only and full of shade. Hooray!! We meandered, looked at restaurant menus, window-shopped, and made our way back to the hotel around 4pm for a rest. I took a shower and we just relaxed a bit til going out again.
5:45pm GMT - went out to find dinner. On our way back to the hotel, we discovered why the street our hotel is on is called the "eating alley" - we hadn't yet seen the entire thing and it really is filled with restaurants with patios, all of which have men outside who speak many languages trying to lure you into their establishments. So when we set out to pick one of these places to eat, we knew we had to be careful LOL. We were even given a few business cards, some were quite nice and just explained their menus and asked us where we were from, etc. And others were bizarre and down right pushy. I'm like, why would I want to eat at your establishment if you need to be a jerk to get me in the door? We walked down some of the streets in the Baixa that run parallel to the Rua Augusta we had walked earlier, looked in some shop windows, etc. Didn't really find a whole lot interesting, but we looked at some more menus.
We tried a local drink from a little counter selling the shots in plastic cups - it's apparently made from sour cherries, so I thought it might be good. It is called Ginjinha, and it is disgusting. Sorry, I can't really say much more than that. But it's not sour and it doesn't taste like cherries. And that's all I have to say.
6:45pm GMT - after continuing to wade through pushy waiters, one of which was particularly annoying, telling us something about Mr. Bean and practically shoving us into a table, we decided to go back to one of the places further down, closer to the river and a bit away from the real deluge of restaurants all with similar menus. We decided on one called Restaurante-Grill Vossamerce. The waiter outside remembered us, but was not pushy at all. I had grilled t-bone, which came with, what else, fries and rice, and also some lettuce and really delicious tomato. The steak was a little thin but really tasty and tender. I was stuffed. Yum.
8:45pm GMT - after sitting and chatting for a while we finally asked for the check and wandered back to the area around our hotel. We were looking for some kind of desserty thing, but it seems like most of the pastelerias are closed by the evening - I guess they don't have pastries for after-dinner dessert. We'll have to try one for a mid-afternoon snack or something I guess. Off to the side of the main square by our hotel we found a little gelado shop open til midnight so we got some and it was quite tasty.
10:30pm GMT - came back to the hotel to take a load off and do some laundry. Gee, so fun. The connection seems to be too weak to try to put up my pictures, so I'll have to try taking the laptop downstairs sometime tomorrow to get them up because there are some really nice ones :)
Day 5
Wednesday August 1
Not too many pics from this day, check out the ones I got here
7:50am BST - woke up after not a great night's sleep. Don't know why. Anyway today we are on our way to Lisbon. Of course, the flight leaves at 5pm but we have to be out of the B&B at 10am, so we will get to the airport SUPER DUPER EARLY. If there was something left to do in town then I'm sure we could've left our luggage there for a while, but really, there wasn't. LOL.
10:30am BST - So after breakfast we finished packing up and quickly walked to the store for some lunch food and we were on our way. Got a ticket for the Birmingham International - the airport's train station. Had to get off at Birmingham Moor Street and walk to Birmingham New Street to get a 10 min train to the airport station - the walk was only a few min between stations. I am thinking that my Keen shoes will end up being a lot more comfy than my Adidas ones because yesterday in my Keens we walked all over Chipping Campden and my feet were ok but today just a little bit of walking and my feet started to hurt!
12noon BST - made it to the Birmingham International train station. It was so quiet we figured it'd be easy to eat our lunch there than at the airport since we didn't know what would be available to us at the airport but outside security. So we ate for a while and took the 2 minute monorail-type thing from the train station to the terminal - it was quite easy really. I realized that even though it might look silly, pulling the straps tighter on my backpack makes it hurt less on my shoulders. So hopefully that will be a bit better from now on.
1:00pm BST - so we check in, get our seat assignments, etc., and have 4 hours until our flight leaves LOL!! I just think to myself that I hope checking in so early won't increase the likelihood that our luggage would get lost since they won't immediately have the plane to put it on. Oh well. So we ended up finding a big food court area outside security where Amanda could finish her beloved Diet Coke LOL.
2:00pm BST - decided to finally go through security, where my silly can of mixed nuts alerted them. The security guards and us had a pretty good laugh about it. Once we figured out it was the can of nuts in my backpack that was setting off the security, I opened the can and offered the security agents some LOL!!! So when we get to Lisbon tonight I think I will transfer them to a ziploc bag to avoid having that problem again ;) the departure terminal at the Birmingham airport is interesting - it is like a circular mall area with some shops and food places and the gates all branch out in wings off the center area. TV boards all over the place give the departure and gate info. It's so early that our flight doesn't even have a gate assignment yet LOL. So we figure out that we have just over 1.50 pounds left and that we shouldn't waste it, so we walked around to find what that would buy us. Of course along the way here I am walking with my passport and boarding pass in my hand and I look down and see my passport in my hand but not the boarding pass. Swears start flying out of my mouth and amanda looks back a few feet and sees it on the ground. Thank god!! I decided to put it in my bag after that ;) So then we found that for 1.45 we could get a chocolate muffin, so we got it and split it and it was quite tasty. Now we have about 13 pence to our name. Not too shabby.
9:30pm GMT - finally arrived in Lisbon. LIS Airport is a wacky place, considering it is a major city. There was no jetway, we had to walk down the stairs, then we were whisked away by bus to the terminal, which at about 8:30pm was dead as a doornail. The guy at passport control literally just stamped our passports and shoved us through. Got our luggage really quickly, hooray! Went to the tourist information desk and bought our LisboaCards for transportation and admission into a ton of museums. She gave us the student price even though I wasn't a student aw how nice! We asked about the Taxi voucher and she said it would be more expensive than just going out in the taxi line, so we did that, but it ended up being 22 euros or about 10-12 more euros than we thought. So like we get out of the cab and there is this mass of people around Hard Rock Cafe. Limo and cameras and crowds. I live right near freaking Hollywood and can't see a celebrity and I'm in Lisbon for about 15 minutes and I see some celebrity, possibly named Hugo, arriving with a pretty woman. We'll just say for the sake of arguing that it was TEH FACE.
10:00pm GMT - finally made it to the Residencial Florescente - looks very nice in the lobby, got our key and went up. The halls are narrow and lined with the typical Portuguese tiles - very nice. The room…is nicely-sized and thankfully off the main street on a little quiet courtyard (see pic of the staircase on an adjacent building), but it is a little ragged around the edges. The bathroom is big, but a little bizarre. The beds are quite hard but not too bad, there is enough light, and even some places to sit. The TV is small and hung up high on the wall, and thankfully gets CNN International and Eurosport. There are plenty of outlets to charge and use things, and the a/c is controlled via remote and it works quite well, thankfully. It is missing some small touches like a clock and tissues, but other than that for 80 euros you can't really beat it. We are tired, but we are hungry, so we set out in our area to find some place to eat.
11:30pm GMT - after wandering aimlessly around to see most places closing and putting their patio tables in for a night, we finally found a place near us to eat called Sol Dourado - our waiter was Carlos and he was nice and spoke English hooray! We didn't want anything too heavy so I had the grilled chicken. It was a half a chicken with fries and rice. VERY TASTY mmmmmmmmmmm. After waiting quite some time to finally get the check, we got it and managed to make it back here. We were soo tired so we went to bed. We are glad that all our other flights are earlier in the day so we won't waste a whole day and arrive to the next place so late. It was a waste of a whole day and kind of a drag.
Not too many pics from this day, check out the ones I got here
7:50am BST - woke up after not a great night's sleep. Don't know why. Anyway today we are on our way to Lisbon. Of course, the flight leaves at 5pm but we have to be out of the B&B at 10am, so we will get to the airport SUPER DUPER EARLY. If there was something left to do in town then I'm sure we could've left our luggage there for a while, but really, there wasn't. LOL.
10:30am BST - So after breakfast we finished packing up and quickly walked to the store for some lunch food and we were on our way. Got a ticket for the Birmingham International - the airport's train station. Had to get off at Birmingham Moor Street and walk to Birmingham New Street to get a 10 min train to the airport station - the walk was only a few min between stations. I am thinking that my Keen shoes will end up being a lot more comfy than my Adidas ones because yesterday in my Keens we walked all over Chipping Campden and my feet were ok but today just a little bit of walking and my feet started to hurt!
12noon BST - made it to the Birmingham International train station. It was so quiet we figured it'd be easy to eat our lunch there than at the airport since we didn't know what would be available to us at the airport but outside security. So we ate for a while and took the 2 minute monorail-type thing from the train station to the terminal - it was quite easy really. I realized that even though it might look silly, pulling the straps tighter on my backpack makes it hurt less on my shoulders. So hopefully that will be a bit better from now on.
1:00pm BST - so we check in, get our seat assignments, etc., and have 4 hours until our flight leaves LOL!! I just think to myself that I hope checking in so early won't increase the likelihood that our luggage would get lost since they won't immediately have the plane to put it on. Oh well. So we ended up finding a big food court area outside security where Amanda could finish her beloved Diet Coke LOL.
2:00pm BST - decided to finally go through security, where my silly can of mixed nuts alerted them. The security guards and us had a pretty good laugh about it. Once we figured out it was the can of nuts in my backpack that was setting off the security, I opened the can and offered the security agents some LOL!!! So when we get to Lisbon tonight I think I will transfer them to a ziploc bag to avoid having that problem again ;) the departure terminal at the Birmingham airport is interesting - it is like a circular mall area with some shops and food places and the gates all branch out in wings off the center area. TV boards all over the place give the departure and gate info. It's so early that our flight doesn't even have a gate assignment yet LOL. So we figure out that we have just over 1.50 pounds left and that we shouldn't waste it, so we walked around to find what that would buy us. Of course along the way here I am walking with my passport and boarding pass in my hand and I look down and see my passport in my hand but not the boarding pass. Swears start flying out of my mouth and amanda looks back a few feet and sees it on the ground. Thank god!! I decided to put it in my bag after that ;) So then we found that for 1.45 we could get a chocolate muffin, so we got it and split it and it was quite tasty. Now we have about 13 pence to our name. Not too shabby.
9:30pm GMT - finally arrived in Lisbon. LIS Airport is a wacky place, considering it is a major city. There was no jetway, we had to walk down the stairs, then we were whisked away by bus to the terminal, which at about 8:30pm was dead as a doornail. The guy at passport control literally just stamped our passports and shoved us through. Got our luggage really quickly, hooray! Went to the tourist information desk and bought our LisboaCards for transportation and admission into a ton of museums. She gave us the student price even though I wasn't a student aw how nice! We asked about the Taxi voucher and she said it would be more expensive than just going out in the taxi line, so we did that, but it ended up being 22 euros or about 10-12 more euros than we thought. So like we get out of the cab and there is this mass of people around Hard Rock Cafe. Limo and cameras and crowds. I live right near freaking Hollywood and can't see a celebrity and I'm in Lisbon for about 15 minutes and I see some celebrity, possibly named Hugo, arriving with a pretty woman. We'll just say for the sake of arguing that it was TEH FACE.
10:00pm GMT - finally made it to the Residencial Florescente - looks very nice in the lobby, got our key and went up. The halls are narrow and lined with the typical Portuguese tiles - very nice. The room…is nicely-sized and thankfully off the main street on a little quiet courtyard (see pic of the staircase on an adjacent building), but it is a little ragged around the edges. The bathroom is big, but a little bizarre. The beds are quite hard but not too bad, there is enough light, and even some places to sit. The TV is small and hung up high on the wall, and thankfully gets CNN International and Eurosport. There are plenty of outlets to charge and use things, and the a/c is controlled via remote and it works quite well, thankfully. It is missing some small touches like a clock and tissues, but other than that for 80 euros you can't really beat it. We are tired, but we are hungry, so we set out in our area to find some place to eat.
11:30pm GMT - after wandering aimlessly around to see most places closing and putting their patio tables in for a night, we finally found a place near us to eat called Sol Dourado - our waiter was Carlos and he was nice and spoke English hooray! We didn't want anything too heavy so I had the grilled chicken. It was a half a chicken with fries and rice. VERY TASTY mmmmmmmmmmm. After waiting quite some time to finally get the check, we got it and managed to make it back here. We were soo tired so we went to bed. We are glad that all our other flights are earlier in the day so we won't waste a whole day and arrive to the next place so late. It was a waste of a whole day and kind of a drag.
Stratford-upon-Avon wrapup
Besides the fact that I am a big Shakespeare fan, I figured it would be nice to start my long trip in a place where it was a little smaller and quieter, so that I could ease in to the whole thing, adjust to the time zone, in a little more relaxed environment.
When I went to the Fodor's message board originally many months ago to get advice on my proposed itinerary, people said that even though Stratford-upon-avon is a smaller town, it is still really busy and touristy in the summer. Perhaps because of the recent flooding the week before we arrived in stratford, it wasn't nearly as busy as I expected. We had no trouble at all getting into restaurants, the walking tour we went on only had 8 people on it, the streets were busy but nothing at all even remotely annoying or clogged, shops were almost quiet, etc. it felt like being in a real working town where they just happened to have something that attracted some tourists. I think it was the right balance really.
Instead of a crowded, tacky, and touristy place, what I found was a small city that had mostly retained its historical charm - even starbucks was closed by 7pm or so when we walked by a couple times - and instead of being so in your face that you felt like they were taking advantage of those who come to experience shakespeare's hometown, you instead got the impression that they were proud of it. The locals we met were kind, helpful, and happy to be from Stratford-upon-avon. Putting the horrible exchange rate aside, I didn't find it to be that terribly expensive. We didn't spend more than 10 pounds on any meal and we ate perfectly well, in the oldest pub in town, a nice Italian/pizza restaurant, and of course fantastic fish and chips. Besides using a credit card to get the train tickets into and out of town, and charging the one lunch in chipping campden, we used cash everywhere, and including my half of the cost of the B&B, I spent just about 150 pounds - not bad for 3 days in an expensive country where the exchange rate sucks - $300 for a little over 3 days of time including a top-class B&B is pretty cheap, really. Sure if you went into a lot of the sites like the Shakespeare properties you would spend more money, but still, it is doable on a budget.
The unexpected side trip to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds was quaint, charming, and enjoyable. Sure, the few hours we spent there were more than enough, but it was nice while we were there. The architecture, small size, grazing sheep and stunning views made for a really different and unique experience.
Are these the most exciting places in the world or even on my trip? No, but it was the perfect start and exactly what I was looking for. As I go on to bigger and more exciting places with better sights and better food, I think I will still be glad that I decided to begin my trip in the lovely Stratford-upon-Avon, and although I probably won't go back anytime soon, if ever, I thoroughly enjoyed the town and its people and all it had to offer.
When I went to the Fodor's message board originally many months ago to get advice on my proposed itinerary, people said that even though Stratford-upon-avon is a smaller town, it is still really busy and touristy in the summer. Perhaps because of the recent flooding the week before we arrived in stratford, it wasn't nearly as busy as I expected. We had no trouble at all getting into restaurants, the walking tour we went on only had 8 people on it, the streets were busy but nothing at all even remotely annoying or clogged, shops were almost quiet, etc. it felt like being in a real working town where they just happened to have something that attracted some tourists. I think it was the right balance really.
Instead of a crowded, tacky, and touristy place, what I found was a small city that had mostly retained its historical charm - even starbucks was closed by 7pm or so when we walked by a couple times - and instead of being so in your face that you felt like they were taking advantage of those who come to experience shakespeare's hometown, you instead got the impression that they were proud of it. The locals we met were kind, helpful, and happy to be from Stratford-upon-avon. Putting the horrible exchange rate aside, I didn't find it to be that terribly expensive. We didn't spend more than 10 pounds on any meal and we ate perfectly well, in the oldest pub in town, a nice Italian/pizza restaurant, and of course fantastic fish and chips. Besides using a credit card to get the train tickets into and out of town, and charging the one lunch in chipping campden, we used cash everywhere, and including my half of the cost of the B&B, I spent just about 150 pounds - not bad for 3 days in an expensive country where the exchange rate sucks - $300 for a little over 3 days of time including a top-class B&B is pretty cheap, really. Sure if you went into a lot of the sites like the Shakespeare properties you would spend more money, but still, it is doable on a budget.
The unexpected side trip to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds was quaint, charming, and enjoyable. Sure, the few hours we spent there were more than enough, but it was nice while we were there. The architecture, small size, grazing sheep and stunning views made for a really different and unique experience.
Are these the most exciting places in the world or even on my trip? No, but it was the perfect start and exactly what I was looking for. As I go on to bigger and more exciting places with better sights and better food, I think I will still be glad that I decided to begin my trip in the lovely Stratford-upon-Avon, and although I probably won't go back anytime soon, if ever, I thoroughly enjoyed the town and its people and all it had to offer.
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