Lisboa

Trip Start Jul 30, 2008
1
9
44
Trip End Ongoing


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Where I stayed
Lemon Lisbon Hostel
(Lisbon hotels)

Flag of Portugal  , Estremadura,
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hi everyone! I am writing this entry from Madrid, but we can´t skip Lisbon, so here it goes... We got to Lisbon on Friday after our amazing experience at Soa Romeo. Things did not start off so well, because as soon as we got there (11 pm), the hostel that we had booked did not admit us to our room, saying that we were too late. Even though we had a reservation and the room we booked was vacant! So, after muttering some obscenities and dreading a repeat of the traumatic Biarritz episode, we did what any rational Americans would do; went to McDonald´s! After our Big Mac meals, we felt more motivated and clever... or at least Jon did. Jon called up the hostel we had booked for our last two nights in Lisbon, and asked if we could sleep on the floor of their living room for the night since we had nowhere else to go. Lo and behold, the plea worked and we were saved from the tortures of homelessness for the night. The floor was surprisingly comfortable and we all actually got a great night´s sleep.

We spent the following three days in Lisbon, and did a bit of sight-seeing Castelo do Sao Jorge
Castelo do Sao Jorge
 . We saw a castle that sat on the ocean which was built centuries ago to defend against naval invasions against Lisbon. It was pretty cool, and the free student admission was tough to pass up. We also saw several churches, and a palace with an extremely beautiful monastary (pictures coming). Other than that, we walked around the city with its brutal but rewarding hills, sampled some local cuisine (nothing to write home about, unfortunately) and met another bunch of really cool people. Our last day, we went to the town of Sintra, which was a very interesting place with an amazing castle mounted on top of the tallest hill in the city.

All in all, Portugal was a great time. Porto seemed to be the most archaic (and perhaps as Russell put it, past-its-prime) and unique city, Sao Romeo was like a little slice of heaven and Lisboa had its similarities to other huge metropolises (but with extremely unique features, such as the narrow alleys, enormous hills and sweet tram cars). Last night, we caught the overnighter to Madrid and now here we are. We are all tired, but ready to go out, get some tapas and see what the next chapter holds. We miss you all, and I promise photos will ensue! Until then...

E
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Comments

gerigrd
gerigrd on Aug 20, 2008 at 08:05PM

HA!
E: You need to preface your comment ' do what every rational Americans would do..' to add what every rational MALE Americans would do when faced with a problem which is of course as you stated - get a Big Mac. If you were gals you would have gone shopping! Am I right ladies??

Good stuff though and love the pics!

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