Lisbon
Trip Start
Nov 23, 2005
1
119
133
Trip End
Feb 27, 2007
Lisbon,
Portugal
Friday, October 27, 2006
Lisbon has a population of over half a million people. It has a unique topography that dips and rises over seven hills
A chicken tractor????
. It rests upon the banks of the Rio Tejo river. Lisboa boasts one of Europe's longest bridges at 17.2 km's. It is named after the local hero, the 16th century discoverer Vasco da Gama. The city is a blend of old and new. The center of the city has low rents which allow small business to flourish. There are shops specializing in everything from hats to thread. There are Baroque cafes,1960's diners and velvet lined bars. Over the last decade, EU membership, the enormous Expo 98 and the hosting of the 2004 European Football championship have added some 21st century polish, but the charisma of the city has not been taken away. It is a picturesque port city, characterized by romantic cobblestone streets and mosaic sidewalks. It is a very diverse city blending a range of cultures. There seems to be a large public square every few blocks which are nice places to sit and relax. We wanted to check out the Lux nightclub. It is supposed to be one of the best in Europe. It is part owned by the actor John Malcovich. This club, including many others in Lisbon don't really get going until 3am, then carry on until 10am. We were not quite up to that late of a night out. We did walk past Lux in the daytime, but there was nothing to see. It was a huge warehouse type building with no windows. Most of the city is very nice, but it does have some seedy parts. It was on our walk back from this waterfront area to our hotel that we passed through some of these bad areas. We saw a row of tin box like structures that people were living out of. A guy was bent over buying something from someone inside one of them, who knows what it was? A lady with a large cart full of stuff was having a big argument with the air in front of her. We passed by lots of sketchy looking people. It was starting to get dark so we picked up the pace and made it out of the area as soon as possible
Archway into main waterfront square
.Most of the restaurants are on a later schedule as well. We gave up trying to eat before 7:30pm, most places don't open until then. There are even restaurants for late eaters that don't open until 11pm and serve food until 4am. Breakfast is not big here or anywhere in Portugal. At least not like we have it in North America. It seems a lot of Europe just has coffee with a pastry of some sort and a cigarette for breakfast.
Some of the things we did in Lisbon included,
The Tower de Belem, this is a large castle fort built to protect the Port of Lisboa. It used to sit right in the middle of the River Tejo, but now because of changes in the river bed it sits along the shoreline. We went inside and up through all the levels. Each floor had you going up narrower and narrower stair cases.
A short walk from the Tower is a Pastry shop that has been going since the 1800's. It is called Belem Pastiere. We were told no trip to Lisbon was complete without trying the Pasties de Belem. They are a small tart with a caramelized custard filling, served warm. They were delicious.
At least they do nice graffiti here
This place was so packed with people you had to shove your way up to the counter to place an order. We walked past it later in the day and it was just as busy. We also went to Castelo De Sao Jorge (St.Georges Castle). It sits atop the highest hill in Lisbon. The oldest remains found at the castle date back to the 6th century B.C. The castle as it is seen today dates back to the 10th and 11th century. Atop of the castle we could see a good portion of the city and an impressive view of the river Tejo. On the opposite bank of the river there is a 90 foot Jesus that stands atop of a 270 foot base with his arms outstretched, it is a landmark that can be spotted from many areas of the city. It was erected during the late 1940s to publicly thank God for sparing Portugal during WWII. An elevator carries visitors to the top for a spectacular view of Lisbon. The grounds of the castle made for a nice walk. It seems every castle we go to on the trip has cats. This castle was no exception. We walked past a steep slope on one side of a the castle walls, it was loaded with adult cats and kittens. A lot of them didn't look like they were in the best of health.
We went to the Gulblenkien Museum. It had excellent displays of old Portuguese tile work and pottery. There were also rooms displaying artifacts from other parts of the world
Audrey at Tower de Belem
. One large room housed elaborate rugs, vases and many other objects from Persia and Egypt. Another room was full of Chinese vases and artifacts. It was more impressive than what we saw in the museums in China itself. A special temporary exhibit was on Japanese artwork. There were many pencil drawings and block printed images. Some of the pictures were very unusual, others were beautiful. All the the artwork was very simplistic in style. We also had fun riding on the old street cars and funiculars around town. We were getting a bit confused though. Sometimes we would get onto a street car and it would only take us a minute up a hill and then we were made to get off. It would be far from the destination it was supposed to go to. Then we would have to get onto another one and pay the full price again. We never did figure the system out.
We had lots of street performers to keep us entertained. There were two young boys playing accordions. They had a chihuahua and a small Pekingese with them. The Pekingese held a small bucket by the handle in his mouth to collect donations. We walked past a rather poor looking lady with some obvious disabilities. She was sitting on a shop window ledge. Her amazing voice stopped us in our tracks. She was singing old Portuguese songs. We also saw a large group of young Portuguese guys, all dressed sharply. They were singing and playing traditional Portuguese guitars. They had a great sound and soon attracted a large gathering. There was a football (soccer) match one evening between an Irish team and a local Portuguese team. The city of Lisbon seemed to be transformed that evening. In one of the main squares the Irish had taken over. There were men in green and white striped shirts everywhere
Bridge over RIver Tejo and Jesus statue
. They had their teams flags draped over statues in the square. The streets were full of Irishman walking around with beer. We came back later in the evening after the game had ended. The police had cleared everyone from the square. It was a horrible mess. Empty liquor bottles and garbage were everywhere. The oldest part of the city, the Alfama quarter, still retains its medieval feel. It was neat to walk around the narrow cobbled streets and peek into the the little shops and cafes lining the sides. Lisbon did not win us over for cleanliness, the streets are rather dirty and graffiti is everywhere. This is not typical of the other places we went in Portugal, they were usually spotlessly clean. Such a shame, otherwise it is a beautiful city.
