Went to Lisbon, Portugal last weekend. What a beautiful place, beautiful time. I can easily say it is my favorite city in Europe and now I will explain why.
So I did CouchSurfing there as usual. The first person to accept me seemed very friendly, but then due to various things including but not limited to google telling me his address didn't exist and then him insisting on picking me up from the airport made me decide to last minute bail on him and search for another couch. After coming to the city and spending time with the Portuguese what scared me about staying him could have just been a cultural difference, where as an American if someone seems TOO nice and something seems TOO good to be true we automatically become wary of the person and the situation, which is pretty much what happened. In the end, I'm still glad I looked for a new couch to surf because I ended up staying with an amazing portuguese boy and creating for sure a lifetime friendship.
The first day we got there (I went with Lisa--my coworker--and on a side note, as much as I enjoy traveling alone like I have been doing it was really nice to have a partner this time, takes away a lot of the stress) we went to the city and just started wandering around and our wanders were pretty much from one restaurant, to one cafe, to one dessert store, to another cafe etc because as we quickly learned, Portuguese food is delicious! We did a bit of sight seeing but mostly just getting a feel for the city by wandering the streets and seeking refuge under gazebo-like trees and bus stops from the occasional rainy time. This left us with an extremely positive view of Lisbon because of the span of history that is there, from modern to ancient and everywhere we went we ran into friendly people. People not just being friendly to us but also just watching random people meet each other in bus stops and starts conversations. There was a positive since of community and a willingness to include others in that community. Later that evening we met up with our couchsurfing host when he got off work and went out to a cafe with a beautiful friend of his from Istanbul who gave us a detailed plan of exactly what we should do with our next day in Portugal-which Chris tried to follow the next day but it was just too much to do so we weren't able to complete everything but it was definitely a good outline. That night we made a traditional Portuguese meal together and Chris played several of his many instuments. We turned his living room into a Fado house (the traditional music of portugal) by connecting youtube to the TV because we knew we wouldn't have time to see in live while we were there. We also had lots of deep conversations about cultural and the world and I think both of us learned quite a bit.
In the morning Chris drove us around to show us some neat places on our way into Lisbon (Chris lives in Cascais, Portugal which is a beach town ~20 min west). One of the places we went to was LX or Lisbon factory which is an area of Lisbon under a bridge that was just abandoned factories and poor communities which they decided to rent to design, art, and other culturally places at a reduced price with the agreement that in a number of years they will be tearing the area down and all those places will have to move, but for now it is a place full of really awesome bookstores, cafes, and art. We went to lunch there and I had the most amazing meal of my life: chestnut stuffed suckling pig. SO GOOD. If I would have gotten a meal like this in the US with the atmosphere we had and presentation, quality of food etc, it would have cost probably $30 for the plate but it was only 13 euros! A lot for food in portugal but so worth it. Mmmm. A baby pig is the exact size of my belly I learned after eating the dish.
Later we ran off because a demonstration that Chris wanted to join in was starting. Chris informed us the previous night about many of the problems in Portugal currently and this protest was against the government who doesn't listen to the wants and needs of the people as well as protesting about living wages for educated people. After getting a degree or masters degree many people cannot find jobs that pay them what their skills are worth, the minimum wage in Portugal is 480 euros a month and many college graduates make around that which is obviously not enough to live on nor enough to incentivize school. So anyway, I marched with the protest for an hour or so because I sympathized with the cause and also thought it might be silly to have an American thrown in there next to communist flags and anti-capitalism posters (the protest was organized by the communist party).
Lisa and I left the protest after awhile because we still had a lot of Lisbon left to explore. We explored the old Moorish quarter on our own and could hear the shouts from the protest all the way up on the highest hill of Lisbon. We met up with Chris n friends for more eating, followed by live music watching, and lastly Barrio Alto hanging. All the night we talked of "the revolution", America, and Lisbon and well, I guess we talked of lots of things but I enjoyed our conversations of those things the most.
The last part of Lisboa we went to that night, Barrio Alto, was a really incredible night time spot. Lisa and I had already been there Friday during the day but at night it turns into a whole different spot. All young people fill up the streets of the whole neighborhood (and its not so small). We were told by Chris and friends that its the place were you go and as you are walking you run into everyone, including your old friend from 4th grade and stop to have a chat. As soon as we entered the zone we found it to be true. There were probably thousands of people in the streets but no matter where we went our group constantly ran into friends and stopped to chat for a bit before wandering again. It was just an incredibly friendly area with a very positive vibe. I met many people there, all so willing to be friends with a stranger and have conversations that really matter. I found people very curious about my opinion on things in the US and the US in general.
Our plane was to leave at 7:40a so we thought we'd just stay up all night hanging out in beloved Lisbon until it was time to go but we ended up having such a good time at the end of the night talking and laughing with our new found portuguese friends in a park with a great view that we realized it was already 4:30a and we still had to go back to Cascais to get our stuff etc. At this point I would have started running down the hill (we were in Barrio Alto translation, high city) towards the car but Portuguese don't really work like this, there is never any rush and it took us forever to make it to the car as along the way we had to give long goodbyes to members of our group who broke off with us to head back to their homes. We finally made it back to Chris's threw our stuff in our bags and headed to the train station to see the train depart as we approached. So, earlier in a post I mentioned how my favorite high during traveling was to run run run to and barely catch a train, while my least favorite is to see the train leave while you are standing so close to it! We get there and see the next train comes in half an hour, so we will still probably make the plan, it will just be a rush. We say sad good bye to Chris and he and his friends promise to come visit us while we are in Madrid. Then we wait for the train in the cold, and wait, and wait, and wait and wait.....and suddenly its 10 min past the time the train was supposed to arrive, then 20, then 30....then we realize that it muse have just been an invisible train that was scheduled to come at the time listed on the schedule and because Lisa and I forgot our invisible train glasses we must have missed it. So now we know we are probably going to miss our plane because the next train doesn't come for another half hour, but at least this one was not of the invisible variety. When we get to the train station we debate taking a taxi and flying over to the airport just to see if we can maybe maybe catch our plane but we are flying with easyjet and they make you check in 40min before the plane leaves otherwise you don't get on the plane and we are sure we aren't going to make that so we went with the aerobus which would be cheaper. When we get there at 8:00a we realize we had the departure time wrong, the plane wasn't going to depart at 8a but at 8:30a so if we would have taken the taxi we still probably could have made our flight!! OHHHH how frustrating, I'm still frustrated about that writing this now because getting a new flight cost us 60 euros and our round-trip airfare was just 70 euros originally. The next plane wasn't till 2:30p so we do our best at airport sleeping, which obviously isn't so good. The plane is delayed until 3:40p, of all the planes to be delayed!!!!! Finally, I get home exhausted at 9p (we lose an hour coming back to Spain) and quickly head off to bed.
Except for that unfortunate ending (I blame the outcome on that darned invisible train!) the trip was a marvel, a really truely wonderful time and I can't wait to return to the beautiful city and beautiful people. I hope in the future I get an opportunity to live/work in Portugal, I think I could spend a good while there eating well, being well, hanging out with the greatest people on earth.
