Sunday, March 29, 2009

29/3/09 Lisbon

I went to bed around 11:30, I was beat after all that drafting. I had to get up at 4 for the bus. Miraculously I remembered that it was Daylights Savings Time and that my phone would probably not change, so I set my alarm for 3 and pulled up the time online and set it big so that I could see what it was when I got up. My phone didn’t switch, but I was still covered. I felt pretty smart about that.

I got to the airport a little early so I read my book. I slept most of the flight.

I had to find change to get on the bus to the city center, which was a pain. But the ride was quick. I couldn’t figure out the directions for my hostel, turns out I was right in front of it and looked everywhere but there. It’s literally right off the Rossio Square, the center of the city. The people in the hostel were incredibly nice and showed me around and locked up my bags and everything. I had a little time so I emailed Conklin back about what I’m doing this summer and graduation and all. It was good to hear from him.



I had planned to go to Belem, where all the explorer stuff is, but just in the couple minutes I had around the city center I saw a lot of the sights, so I just decided to do those to get familiar with the city.

First I walked down to the water, under the arch. On the way, I was offered hashish and coke probably four times, and I don’t even drink pop. I read about this, and supposedly it’s all fake. They guys in suits who looked like they were in the Portuguese Mafia kept asking me if I wanted any. Weird.

The water was nice, but Daniel Burnham would hate this city. The walkways along the water are basically non-existent. More on that later.

I started my climb up the steep hills to the Costello da Sau Jorge (the castle). On the way I saw the Se Church so I stopped in. The exterior reminds me a lot of Notre Dame, but the interior was very dark. There was a service going on, and I was going to stay for a while, but they started the collection basket. I figured I couldn’t just put love in here.

I walked the rest of the way up to the castle, past some Roman amphitheater ruins, and finally reached the top. It was gorgeous out, upper 60s, very sunny, I was warm enough that I took my hoodie off for a little (it didn’t last long, it was really windy).

After I came back into town and saw what seemed to be a decently big Portuguese band filming a music video. They were all old, sort of like the Portuguese Bon Jovi or something (the lead singer was about 30 pounds overweight and graying). It was interesting to watch them film, there were people obviously hired to cheer (including a shirtless guy hanging on a streetlight. They would shoot the beginning of the song over and over, complete with fireworks shooting as they fake-played on top of a bus. I stayed for a few takes and then left. I hope I end up on MTV Portugal. The best part was they had people giving out free orange juice. Very weird for a video shoot I thought. Not really rock star.

After that I wandered through a couple different squares, all with interesting statues and whatnot. I then tried to take a guided tour from my book but got constantly turned around. But it was alright, because I saw the two things I really wanted to see. They had this elevator built in Gothic style (although from the turn of the 20th century) and that led right to the church left in ruins after the huge 1755 earthquake that devastated Lisbon. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go in the church because it is closed on Sundays, but I could walk from there to the elevator thing (which was also closed). There was another great view of the city from there.

I walked around through the little cobblestone streets. My favorite part has to be that there are clotheslines with clothes actually on them. I've never seen anything like that and I've always wanted to. I made my way down to the water and decided to walk to the big bridge. It's from the same architect as the Golden Gate Bridge, and well, looks exactly the same. Turns out it was a ton further away than I thought. Everything else in the city was so close together, I figured this would be too. Not so much. And on top of that, as I tried to walk along the water but there was buildings and fences blocking it off. Terrible planning there by the city.

About an hour later I finally reached the bridge. You can't walk across it. I was going to and go see the huge Jesus on the other side. Oh well. There were some cool open-air cafes by the bridge there so I go a seat looking at the water at a Cuban place I think. I had some bread and butter (the butter, a single little pack, was 50 cents) a cheese melt, and a strawberry-banana smoothie. The smoothie was somewhat of a letdown, but everything else was good.


I walked back and just kept going along the water (which still I couldn't really see) and ended up back in the hills of the castle area. I walked toward the big domed church (da Gamma is buried there I think but it was closed) and I went down through the hills again.

I went back to the dorm and got my room. It's great. They even had a lock for my bag, always a nice touch.

I went downstairs to check the internet and get some tea and I started talking to Robert (he's British), who I think owns the place. We talked about how I've been traveling so much, where I've been, where I'm going, what it's been like, and he seemed to think it was just the greatest thing. He also was very impressed that ma is coming to see me. I probably spent 20 minutes talking to him while i had my tea. It was good to talk to someone for a little. He gave me some advice about what to do here, and I think I will.

I went out and walked around again. At night the city has a different vibe, I liked it a lot. It wasn't so crowded and it was still not that cold, the breeze felt nice.

I went up to the elevator platform thing again and looked around after dark. Then I went back down through the arch to the water. Above I could see stars, something I haven't seen in a long time. I really liked it, it made me think of Magellan and da Gamma looking up at them and using them to navigate. Pretty cool stuff.

I hung out by the water for a while and came back and got some pastries. They were good, not as sweet as I expected. The round one didn't have any filling or anything in it, the other had only a little of mango or something. They were still fine.

I came back to the hostel and took my computer out to the square and started writing this for about 15 minutes before a Portuguese man told me it was an unsafe play for me to. Since I read that it probably wasn't a great idea to later at night, I just went back to the hostel and finished the rest of this up.

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