Lisbon, Portugal

May 18th
Our flight arrived late on Monday night. At initial glance, Lisbon is much like San Francisco: lots of hills, an ocean (and therefore TONS of seafood), and even a Golden Gate-like bridge. We hit the hay in our fantastically spacious room, overlooking one of Lisbon's many plazas, accessorized by a view of its castle.



May 19th
I'd done a teeny bit of research on TripAdvisor.com (if you've never visited the site, do it. Do it now.) on what to do in Lisbon, and read about an old school tram that takes you up to a cute neighborhood near the castle.

We've been at this whole public transportation thing a while now, but had a hellllll of a time finding tram 28E. After 20 minutes of wandering near the alleged stop, we spotted one, and literally followed it to its next stop. Yessss. The tram was just like a cable car, save the outdoor benches. At one point, the tram squeaks through a passage so narrow that I could reach out the window and touch the building. No joke.




People-watching might be our new favorite pastime, and the stellar location of our hostel (and more specifically, our third floor room) make for great seats to watch the world go by. We spotted a group of shifty looking fellas that kept trying to sell a watch or weed or coke (seriously) to random passerby. Quick question: how do these folks determine who they'll offer a given product? And how the hell do you grow the balls to walk up to some random guy and offer to sell him a joint!??!!?

Then, a few older ladies selling sunglasses started an argument with them that kept us entertained for no less than 40 minutes. We spotted their accomplices and watched as they set up later meetings. The police drove by a few times, and it was hilarious to watch them scatter. Its amazing how quickly we forget the world around us...these people had no idea that we were watching them:

the guy in purple in the middle provided the best entertainment, and thought we was waaaay more sly than he actually was

May 20th
On Wednesday, we hopped a train for a little medieval town of Sintra. It was gorgeous, leafy and quiet. We wandered around a few palaces and gardens, and found what could possibly be the most economical meal of our entire trip: a heaping serving of bacalau (a traditional Portuguese cod dish) served with a beer, finished off with a scoop of ice cream and a coffee...all for 8Euros. Win.





Since he needed to be ready to be in a wedding on Sunday, Rob was in desperate need of a haircut, and here's the work of a Portugese barber:

before

after

May 21st
We were scheduled to fly to London in the late afternoon, and busied ourselves during the day by sleeping in, exchanging money (always a treat) and researching the things that we'd do in our short stint in London. We had lunch at a small cafe near our hostel, and finally got our hands on a pasteis de nata, a classic Portuguese custard tartlet. While I'd expected it to be sweeter than it was, with a itty bitty espresso, it was a nice send off for our tastebuds.

Overall opinion: I liked Lisbon, but may be a smidge biased because our hostel there rocked. Bigtime. Sintra was beautiful, and I'd recommend that anyone heading to Portugal take the time to check it out. The city itself was great, although we did tire of the constant haggling from 'street vendors'. Admittedly, we didn't expend enough energy devouring the sights and the culture, and I think I'd like to return someday...