Lisbon, Portugal

Another country has just been added to the list. Last weekend we had a long weekend here in Spain in celebration of Spain's constitution so I went to Lisbon for 4 days with my three Auxiliary friends here in Cordoba: Laurel, Angelica and Kimzey. Along with another Auxiliary who I did some traveling last year, Dana, who now lives in the north of Spain in Santender. We left Thursday afternoon after school and took a 4 hour bus ride to Madrid. Followed by an overnight train ride from ride from Madrid to Lisbon which we almost missed but fortunately the train was running late and we made it in time! It was kind of a cool experience getting to sleep in the small cabins on the train beds however, I am sure it would get old after a while.

Day 1: Friday, December 3

We arrived to Lisbon around 7:30 AM Portugal time; Portugal is one hour behind Spain so were able to gain an hour which was nice. Fortunately, we got there early enough on our first day for us to experience one non-rainy, weather perfect day in Lisbon. We spent the morning walking around the city center a little bit and experiencing our first pasteleria (Pastry and coffee shop) in Portugal which has an amazing assortment of sweets and almost just as good cafe con leches as the ones in Spain.

One of the plazas with Kimzey, Me, Dana, Laurel and Angelica.

The Plaza that leads to the ocean

We then met up with another guy, Mario, from Lisbon who agreed to show us and a few other visitors around the city. There is a group called Coach Surfers where its' original sole purpose was for locals to host visitors in their homes but it can also be used for visitors to the cities to meet up with locals and have them show you around. It is a great way to meet lots of different people when you are traveling.

Mario took us to our first typical Portuguese Restaurant where we got to try several typical plates along with Sangria for a very cheap price compared to what you would pay in Spain. Portuguese food definitely has a little more flavor, spice and variety than Spanish food and it was nice to try something new. I had a shrimp curry dish which was very delicious.

After we ventured up into the northern part of the city consisting of lots of hilly roads and beautiful look out points. We eventually made it up to a castle called Castelo de S. Jorge. Thankfully, we had chosen the one nice day to see this site. It provided some great views of the city.

The whole group from our first look out point

Pretty view before the castle

Me, Kimzey and Angelica in the Castle

On our way back down to the center of the city we visited the Cathedral.

Once we made it back to the center it was close to dark but there was still more to do so we took a metro to a little further outside of the city to see some other sites. We first, stopped at a famous Pasteleria in Lisbon where we tried a typical Pastry Lisbon is known for called Pastel de Nata ( a pastry filled with cream) and absolutely delicious.

We then walked around the area a little bit and saw the outside of the Monastery with all of the lights lit up. By this point all of the major sites were closed so we would have to come back and see them during the day.

Once we got to back to the city center. We spent some time walking around and checking out all of the Christmas lights before calling it a day.

Day 2: Saturday December 3

We woke up to the start of rain so we decide to spend our day shopping since the weather wasn't the best and we were a little burnt our from all of our site seeing the previous day.

That evening we met up with another local from Lisbon also named Mario who brought us to a Fado concert. Fado is a typical type of Portuguese music similar to Flammenco music in Spain. Fado consists of two guitar players and a singer. It is very relaxing and calm type of music. Typically as a tourist it is hard to find the non-touristy places to go to see this type of music. So fortunately we were able to meet a fan of fado who could bring us to the right atmosphere. The bar was packed and we were probably the only foreigners but it was a great experience.

Day 3: Sunday December 4

It was another rainy but there was really nothing we could do about it. We took a metro to the same area of the city we went Friday night where we tried the delicious pastries. There we visited a famous tower that is practically in the ocean (well at least when the tide is high enough and the water is rough enough). Due to the extreme amount of wind and the roughness of the water it was a little bit of a challenge getting from the bridge to the entrance of the tunnel without getting splashed by a wave. Once inside we had to climb a few story high spiral staircase to get to the top. Due to the weather the view wasn't the best but it was still neat to be up there and see other parts of the city.

A Little Windy....

The midway point with the whole group

From the top

The Monastery in the day light

Day 4: Monday December 5

Laurel and Angelica caught an early plane back to Spain so it was just Kimzey, Dana and I left for the last day. Despite the weather we made sure to explore the areas of the city that we hadn't gotten a chance to see yet.

First, we took a trolley to one of the more elevated areas of the city; in the same vicinity we went on our first day to see the castle. It was a rather pretty ride up. From there we discovered another looking point of the city giving us a great view of the castle and bridge . We also saw the outside of a Covenant and Monastery which were both closed.

The View from where we got off the trolley

The Covenant The Monastery

Our walk back down

After lunch we continued exploring the central part of the city. We discovered a back route to climb to the top of the outdoor elevator type tower structure; kind of like a mini version of the empire state building.

The Climb up

Kimzey and I from the top

The Look Down

The Outside of the Elevator at night

And thats the end of the trip. We left early the next morning to catch a plane back to Madrid. I loved Portugal even though it rained for most of the trip!