Lisbon's done!

Hi all.

Nothing new coming from Lisbon. The Sintra photos are uploaded, and I'm out of things to say about it, I think. Shocking, I know.

Have a few other things to blog about in Porto, and need to upload all the photos, but that'll have to wait til tomorrow. It's almost 2am here, and I'm going to pass out.

Now, on to Spain!

Fado in Lisbon

A Tasco do Chico Fado club

My hostel in Lisbon did Fado (a type of music unique to Lisbon that is kind of similar to the Blues) tours twice a week, one of which lined up with our second night in Lisbon. Seeing as we pretty much slept all day, we had plenty of energy that night, so we figured why not?

Anyway, the tour went to a strip of Fado clubs in Barrio Alto, and the one they took us to there was cool (also about as big as a postage stamp). They pretty much have an open mic there, but since they didn’t have anyone who wanted to get up, the doorman got up and sang. He didn’t have a voice to lure birds out of the trees, but that just kinda added a bit of salty-old-dude roughness to it. 

Oh, and the drinks were dirt cheap, too. I gave the guy getting drinks for our table a 5 euro note, and he came back with a pint of beer and 3 euros in change. The place across from us was making half-liter mojitos and caipirinhas for 5 euros. I passed on those. It seemed the wisest decision.

Lisbon hostel

Living Lounge Hostel common area

Quick pitch for our hostel: the folks that run the Living Lisbon and Living Lounge hostels are PHENOMENAL. The hostel is clean, comfy, and friendly, and has a lot of quirky artsy touches about it (like the fact that one of the chairs in the common room is an old barber’s chair, and that each bedroom has a custom mural painted on the walls).

The folks there also had great recommendations for places to eat, and were absolutely right that we HAD to go to Sintra with them. One of the best days I’ve had in a while.

So, anyway, many thanks to Zed, Patso, and Sofia for a great place to stay and a lot of great advice on Lisbon!

Food in Lisbon

So, it’s a little late now, but figured I’d put up the rest of what I ate in Lisbon.

I forgot to mention that our hostel did a free breakfast every morning, so Sean and I just ate there mostly. Typically, it was just bread, jam, nutella, and cornflakes, though they had crepes too about every other day. I’ll say this though: I’m looking forward to a glass of COLD milk in the states; they prefer room-temp, ultra-pasteurized milk in Portugal for some reason.

Grilled sardines. Tasty, yet pokey. Dem bones hurt.

Our second day, we stopped for lunch while walking downhill from the castle. Saw a place that had a 10 euro meal of the day, and figured why not. We both got a glass of wine and some fava bean soup, then we got a choice between fish or meat. I continued my trend of really only eating seafood in Portugal, and got the fish option, which was grilled sardines and potatoes. They tasted good, but were really boney and hard to eat. Dessert was just a fruit cup.

Grilled cod and potatoes

Anyway, after that, we came back and passed out, then left for dinner around 9 for a place whose name I’ve already forgotten, though it was quite tasty. I got the grilled cod and potatoes, and Sean got the filet (which was only 2 euros more).

Cod’s actually really big in Portugal and is normally the most expensive (or one of the most expensive) options on the menu, as much as twice as expensive as the salmon or swordfish. It’s funny that it’s such a huge part of the diet here, because they don’t even grow in Portuguese waters. They fly it in from Norway as salt cod and have to rehydrate it for 2 days.

Cod stew

The next day was the trip to Sintra, where for lunch we had a lot of bread, cheese, sausage, and jam for appetizers, then some cod, zucchini, and bread stew made by Sofia, which was far and away the best meal I had in Lisbon and the second best in Portugal (more on the best once I get to writing about Porto). On the way back, we stopped in Belem to get a pastel de Belem, an egg custard tart that’s kind of THE secret recipe of Portugal. No one knows what’s in it, they just make good guesses. That night, we all ate at the hostel, where we got some soup, home-fried chicken, olives, and mango sorbet with berries.

Lunch the next day was pretty basic, since we were leaving around lunchtime: just a pepsi and a ham and cheese sandwich at the train station while we waited to go to Porto.

Sintra

I mentioned earlier that I went on a tour with a group from my hostel to a place called Sintra. Basically, Sintra is a small town about 15 miles outside of Lisbon that has a LOT of cool landmarks, including a 19th century palace, a Moorish castle, and a really...odd mansion.

Sofia

Anyway, it was Sean, me, six girls, and Sofia, our guide, who is one of those larger-than-life characters you meet every now and then. She spent several years as an executive producer in Portugal, and when her mom died a few years back, joined up with a few Portuguese artists who had put together Living Lisbon and Living Lounge hostels. Bit of a change, no? I spent most of the trip talking to two girls from Australia: Anita (a lawyer) and Leanne (who works for KPMG). They rather enjoyed making fun of me whenever I said "y'all."

We skipped the castle, but got a great view of it from above from the palace (which is farther up the moutain Sintra is built on/around). The palace is kind of an amalgamation of every different architectural style under the sun, and was made by a rich nobleman to give to his wife.  Twas okay, but I really loved the views. It was a clear day, so we could see all the way to Lisbon.

Next, we went into the town of Sintra, where we at some phenomenal pastries (one with cinnamon and goat cheese and another with almost paste) and went to the most magical place is Portugal. This little shop had every kind of good food and drink you can imagine: port wine, bitter almond liquer, soft sheep cheese, jams made of fruits and Port, mead, and vinegar made from fruit around Sintra. I see many a trip to their website ^_^ Oh! And we also went to a shop that makes the type of ceramic tiles you see all over Lisbon. Wanted to get one or two, but didn't think they'd survive the next two months in my suitcase.

Monserrate park

We went from there to Quinta de Regaleira, a mansion and grounds that a Brazilian man had built to satisfy his...eccentricities. It was amazingly cool, and really weird. The mansion was okay, though it did have a lot of weird rooms, like a library with mirrors in the floor, so it looked like the center of the room was just floating on thin air. The grounds though were AMAZING. For whatever reason, he dug a series of tunnels throughout the grounds, that connect to a small labyrinth, a few wells with spiral staircases up to ground level, and a pond that you have to cross through a series of stepping stones. 'Twas weird and awesome. Sean wants to set a horror movie or five here. I think the phrase "What was he smoking and where can I get some?" was used. The Wikipedia article is interesting.

Anyway, we hopped in the car afterwards and drove to Monserrate park, where we ate some EXCELLENT homecooked Portuguese food that Sofia made, including cod stew. Sofia also made sure we polished off 4 bottles of Vinho Verde (very young, very dry, very tart Portuguese white wine) and a bottle of bitter almond liqueur between the 8 of us, so we were all a bit dozy. It was a most excellent picnic =)

Sofia crammed us all in the van after that and drove us to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. We got there right before sunset, so the lighting was awesome. Got some excellent shots of the rocks, cliffs, and flowers here.

Cabo da Roca

After that, Sofia and the girls started a plot to get to the beach right as the surfers were getting in for the day and stripping off their wet suits. There was something rather....predatory about this. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for Sean and me), the surfers were modest enough not to strip down entirely in public.

After this, we drove through Cascais (a fishing village turned resort for rich British families) and back to Lisbon, with a stop in Belem to get a pasteis de Belem (a Portuguese custard tart). We got back, crashed at Living Lisbon (my hostel's partner hostel) and had some fried chicken, soup, and mango custard cooked by Antonio. Sean and I then passed around a bottle of tawny port we'd gotten at the store in Sintra, then went home and crashed for the night and left for Porto in the morning.

Lisbon photos are up!

Note to future self, check upload speed of hostel's WiFi before promising to upload ALL your photos.

The rest of my photos from Lisbon proper are up, but those 30 pics took about 2 hours to upload. Sintra will be up later, probably in chunks.

In the meantime, I'm off on a walking tour of Porto that our hostel gives. Hopefully will get some more cool photos that I won't be able to upload =)

Lisbon

Hi all!

Sorry, haven't forgotten about the blog; the last three days have just been a wee bit hectic.

So! Quick summary, then I'll post more detailed entries later.

Monday, Sean and I wandered around Lisbon's landmarks for a while, grabbed lunch, and took unintentional five-hour naps. Yep. Apparently we weren't quite over the jet lag just yet. Anyway, before we passed out, we saw the convent at Carmo, which was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake that pretty much defined the historic area of Lisbon. Then, we went to the Se, Lisbon's cathedral, where we saw a rather adorable musical interlude: a group of Portuguese elementary school students singing "I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy" in the cathedral. In English, for some reason.

Anyway, after all that church, we needed some good ol' fashioned violence, so we hiked (read: climbed) up to the Castelo de Sao Jorge, which was an interesting enough castle, but was definitely worth it for the views of the city. There's also apparently a family of peacocks that live up there.

Anyway, we came back and pretty much crashed right after that, then we went out for dinner at Beleal (excellent Portuguese food, no tourists in sight), came back, and went out to a Fado club with some folks from the hostel.

On Tuesday, we took a tour our hostel offered to Sintra, a small town outside of Lisbon. That's a wee bit too much to summarize here, so I'll save that for it's own post. The photo of me up above is from this trip, though, and it was a most excellent way to spend the day.

Anyway, today was a travel day. We took the three-hour train ride from Lisbon to Porto, where we're now staying at the Yes! Porto Hostel. Fairly uneventful--though rather stressful--trip. Haven't done much train travel in Europe, so I still get antsy, worried that I didn't get the ticket validated correctly or that I'm going to hop off at the wrong stop.

Anyway!

Photos are on their way. I'll have some (if not most) of them up by tonight. I'll try to post the Sintra summary as well.

Ciao!

Lisbon Day 1

Day one complete.

We got in around 9am, but couldn't check in to the hostel til 2pm. So, we dropped our stuff, grabbed some of the hostel's free breakfast (where Sean got a crash-course in Portuguese via the back of the orange juice box) and went a-wandering.

We went to the waterfront area, which had a gorgeous plaza, but was otherwise kinda meh. The cathedral was having Mass, so we didn't go in. We stopped and got some coffee and pastries (posted a pic just a minute ago) as a pick-me-up, since we were both kinda fading fast.

Anyway, we wandered through the Rossio (a big plaza with some gorgeous buildings and fountains), down some of the roads in the Baixa (one of the major tourist neighborhoods), and up and down the Avenida da Liberdade (think the a cross between the Ramblas in Barcelona and the Champs Elysees in Paris). There was a local food, wine, and music festival going on in the Rossio, and I bought a small bottle of ginginha, a sour cherry liqueur they make in Lisbon. I'll try it tomorrow and post what it's like.

Anyway, after that, we came back, and CRASHED. Sean and I both slept for at least an hour and a half. I managed to grab some shuteye on the plane, but he didn't, so he in particular needed that. But anyway, after that, we wandered to Praca do Duque for dinner, and ate at the Solar do Duque. Had a gorgeous view of the city, and good food. We sat next to two interesting groups. First was a pair of travel agents who gave us some advice on restaurants and trains, and second was a group of Portuguese guys our age who we swapped music advice with.

Anyway, we meandered back, planned out the next two days, and are crashing again. So, g'night!

Dinner 5/13

Dinner 1 in Lisbon: Grilled Octopus, boiled potatoes, and stewed greens.

Snack 5/13

First food in Portugal: um nata (a custard pastry sprinkled with cinnamon) and um galao (think a cappuccino with less foam).

Total cost: 2.50 euros. Totally worth it! Can't remember the name of the cafe, but we were the only non-Portuguese people there. It's near the cathedral, so I might try and find it again tomorrow.