Spring Break Part I: Lisbon!!

Trip Start Jan 07, 2009
1
11
Trip End May 03, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Portugal  , Estremadura,
Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Lisbon was great! It had such a genuine Portugeuse feel there, Lisbon is not yet used to being host to many tourists which makes this one of the most real places I've traveled to so far. So many times on this journey I've arrived in a city and felt so disappointed, wishing I lived in an early age- a time when I would not have been bombarded by images of these places, of Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower and even images of art on the internet and in the text books so I can step off that plane and really see these things for the first time, and really feel awe at being in this place in this time. All of these huge world cities have the same feel in this increasingly globalizing world- you can't turn a corner without seeing a starbucks or mcdonalds and that's not what I came here for. The untouched, unglobalized, tourist unfriendly places are where we need to go to get the true experiences of a culture, a real taste of the life and times of that place.

So Lisbon was refreshing. The Portuguese people have a distinct look and there were many interesting faces and places to take in. Many of the homes are covered in these beautiful tiles- we stopped in to a tile-maker's workshop to see how it's done. It's a labourious process- all of these tiles are handpainted patterns and yes, my house will be covered in them someday. We stayed in a lovely hostel and had dinner with awful fellow tourists- one an avid Freddie Mercury fan who I offended deeply at the dinner table throwing out words like gaudy, cheesy, funny, very "Freddie Mercury" at his favorite musical, "We Will Rock You." Get some class, Slovanian man. The woman in the Cosby Sweater traveling solo didn't enjoy my antics either. Oh well- you win some, you lose some.

We spent our days wandering the streets taking in the sights- climbing the nearby hill and taking in the beautiful views from the castle on the mount, following in the footsteps of the great Ulysses, so they say. We took a ferry across the channel to the cliff overlooking the bridge, with Cristo Rei, an enormous statue of Jesus, arms outstretched overlooking all of the beautiful city of Lisboa.We took a train to the south of Lisbon to stumble upon a beach resort area where we walked along the docks and heard talk of sailing and fishing and participated in a little game called waterballoon the clueless tourists in which we played the part of targets and wandered the streets drinking sangria- pitchers full of bliss and fruit.
Slideshow Print this entry