Back at the Golden Gate
Trip Start
Feb 09, 2007
1
6
14
Trip End
Feb 25, 2007
Lisbon,
Portugal
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The rest of our time in Seville was a lot of fun. It's a fantastic city, with a ton of winding Medieval streets, a beautiful Cathedral, and an old palace that has the most amazing gardens. I keep making my brothers do the audio tours everywhere we go and they're getting sick of it, but I definitely the educational aspect of everything.
We ended up meeting a lot of people in Seville through the place we were staying and nearby hostel. It was a good time, but I definitely tired of hanging out with 22 year olds. We did meet a cool couple from Chile, though. The girl, Steffi, spoke little English, so she and I practiced our English and Spanish together. There was also a girl from San Fran and a girl from Hawaii. Other than that, most of the people we met just looked liked a bunch of Lindsay Lohan wannabees to me.
One of the highlights of our time in Seville was seeing a bunch of Flamenco shows. The first night we went to a small bar that opened after midnight. There was a fat, old couple that owned the place and a few of there friends who took turns performing. It was nothing professional, but a great time. The owner kept yelling at everyone and seemed to know half the people in the bar. The guitar player managed to smoke the entire time he was playing the guitar. It was a pretty cool scene. ...I might as well tell you now that I got dragged on stage, was completely lost and embarrassed myself completely. We also convinced one of our new friends to dance, as she had been taking lessons for 8 years. Needless to say, my performance was much better than hers! We saw two more Flamenco performances the next night, one at a professional show and one at a nasty tourist bar. Needless to say, the first night took the cake!
Yesterday we finally left Spain and the Lindsay Lohan contingent behind and headed east to Portugal. My brothers slept as I took in the drive through Southern Spain, through the Algrave of Southern Portugal, and up to Lisboa. To our surprise, the bridge into the city is basically a Golden Gate look-a-like. We got a bunch of pictures today that could be mistaken for photos taken in San Francisco.
Lisbon is a beautiful city that has more in common with San Francisco than just the bridge. There are cable cars rolling up and down the many hills. The city has a ton of peaks and valleys. Our hostel is a great little place. One of the owners does sculpture and works here 1 out of every 4 days. The place is pretty empty this week, but apparently things are going to pick up here this weekend. We walked all around the city and saw the view from the castle at the top of the hill. We then went to a great cafe for sunset at the top of a 100 year old elevator. The city views are truly incredible. Today, we went to a town called Sitra about 20 minutes away and then to a beach town called Cascais. Sitra is a beautiful town with thousand year old castles. Both places were great, but the constant rain made it a little difficult to get around or see the towns. I guess we can't complain, though, given that yesterday was picturesque.
Portugal has been interesting. We've had some good food and pastries. The places we've seen have been beautiful. Unfortunately, the people we've encountered have left a little to be desired. Most people have been short with us bordering on rude and rarely have we seen anyone smile. We met an interesting (read: crazy) man last night at a bar. He was half Portuguese and half German, but raised most of his life in London. He had a British accent, looked like Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean, and told us he was raised a communist. He came over to our table and squatted beside us. He didn't get the social cues that we wanted him to leave, such as "when were we supposed to leave to meet our friends?" He spent 15 minutes lecturing us on how Portugal was the worst place on Earth, that the people were terrible, that I shouldn't tell anyone I was gay, that "despite what they say it's not a free country", and that we should leave as quickly as possible. When we finally escaped him and said "nice to meet you" as we walked out, he said "no, it definitely wasn't." The one helpful thing he did, though, was to explain why the people we met seemed less than happy to encounter us. Apparently, they are holding us personally responsible for our president. Upon leaving the bar we quickly learned to say "Não gosto George Bush". You can guess the translation, I'm sure.
We're headed back to Spain tomorrow. I'm excited to get back and see Madrid and Barcelona, although I definitely have no regrets about our little side adventure!
Look forward to hearing from everyone!
Marc
Comments
clarify
'brothers'? tranlate 'nao gosto'
Good hearing from you - stay safe!!!
much love ---- guess who