Nothing Bad to Say About Lisbon

(Katie's note: this was written last night, but I was really tired last night, and posting it required effort. So I went to bed instead.)

So before I came to Lisbon, I talked to several people who had already been to the city, and, despite the fact that disagreement amongst people about the best cities and enjoyable cities and good places to be in Europe, nobody I talked to had anything bad to say about Lisbon. And neither do I.

So hi everyone! This message is coming to you from Madrid Puerta de Atocha train station. They actually have this really nice place here that looks like it used to be where trains came in, but now is a big garden with pam trees and turtles and loveliness. It’s a good place to be.

But that’s a bit ahead of myself. So yesterday I woke up fairly early, around 8:30, and ate another delicious hostel breakfast and went over to the flea market by the Portuguese Pantheon. I got horribly lost.

Have you noticed that I get lost a lot?

But, as usual, it wasn’t too bad, and I saw some really cool streets and nice places in Lisbon

 Wow. It really was a beautiful city and a beautiful day

 before I wound up at the market, which sold EVERYTHING. Like, I can’t even describe it. It was insane, but really cool. There were books and toys and clothes and jewelry and LOTS of ceramics. Here’s Katie’s official Lisbon souvenir recommendation: buy ceramics. The Portuguese are famous for their azulejos (decorative tiles) that cover their buildings, a remnant of the Moorish heritage of the Iberian Peninsula, and they sell beautiful hand-painted or simply well-made ceramic tiles and cups and all sorts of things everywhere in Lisbon.

After shopping around the market for a bit, I went to the Pantheon.

It’s this big building that was supposed to be a church, but someone couldn’t be bothered to finish it, so they didn’t and instead turned it into a place to honor all these famous Portuguese people.

It’s very impressive.

Possibly my favorite part was going to see the tomb of Amalia Rodrigues, a famous Portuguese singer. She’s probably the most recently deceased of all the people in that building, and her tomb has flowers all over it from people who come to visit.

It was really lovely.

I also got to climb up into the upper parts of the building

 This is, by the way, the first in a long line of selfies that will accompany this post. I don't know what happened, I just took A LOT of selfies Saturday. Like, A LOT.

 But yeah, pretty building

 up in the top part of it inside the dome.

It was a very very long way down.

And then I went outside to the roof and get a great view of Lisbon.

 That's the dome of the Pantheon from the roof of the building.

It was just really cool.

I also got a little lost in some tiny back rooms of the building

 with really short doorways

 And peepholes into other rooms. I had a good time. 

After that, I went back down by the water and took the train to Belém, which is just a 10 minute ride outside of central Lisbon, and was the place where the super important Portuguese boats left on their explorations, back when Portugal was a big deal.

It’s interesting, because when I think of major European powers, Portugal never quite occurs to me, but like the Netherlands, it is easy to forget that this tiny country once ruled a great empire, and like the Dutch, the people of Portugal haven’t forgotten either, and I think that Belém is a great monument to that. It's always strange to visit these places that used to rule the world, but don't anymore. It makes me wonder what America will be like when we are no longer the dominant people of the world. I hope that we can accept our fate like the Portuguese or the Dutch. Both of those places, while certainly not perfect are very happy and very relaxed, and I think that they have both dealt with their fall from power with a grace I only hope that the US will one day imitate. 

But Belém this beautiful little part of Lisbon, with lots of green space and old buildings and monuments. It’s a bit more relaxed than the rest of the city, and I quite liked that. As much as I enjoyed the entirety of Lisbon, Belém is definitely my favorite.

So the first thing I did was find the Mosterio dos Jerónimos,

 at least I think that’s how it’s spelled. It’s a monastery from like 500 years ago that used to be really important, because it was built where the ships would come back, and like, they have supercool confessionals that were designed so that the monks could hear the sailor’s confessions when they came back. It also may or may not have the tomb of Vasco de Gama,

 I’m a bit confused about that. But I took a picture with it anyway.

At any rate, it’s beautiful.

 The church is big

 and ornate

 and wonderful,

 and then the cloister was gorgeous.

  I just wanted to sit there in the sun and read.

 They also had a special exhibit for the 500^th anniversary of the monastery, which was really awesome. I kind of just wanted to stay there, but there was more to do!

But first, LUNCH! So Friday on our tour, the guide took us to have this traditional pastry called natas.

They come from Belém, and I’d heard that I needed to go have them in Belém, so I went to the restaurant that is famous for making them and ate there for lunch. It was really nice. Not nearly as expensive as I would have thought too. I had some nice tea and a slice of pizza and then two natas with cinnamon, which I cannot recommend highly enough. They were so good.

So I went down the road towards the Tower of Belém,

 and, ya know

 It wasn't a bad walk

but then got distracted by a free art museum with great gardens.

The eternal question: is that a bench or art?

 Also, signed pictures in its basement.

An observation: in Portugal, my observation was that if something was posted in just one language, it was Portuguese, two languages was Porgugese and English, and three languages was Porguguese, English, and Spanish. Except for the art museum.

Because that’s French.

I feel like that says something….

But anywho, I wandered around the museum for a bit before contining on

 to the Torre de Belém,

which was AWESOME.

 It’s this old guard tower that was meant to stop people from getting into Lisbon by the river,

and it’s right up in the water,

 and you have to go across a walkway to get there,

and then there are great views

 and these cute window seats in the turrets

that you can sit in and look out over the river

or the city

 or the hills,

and it’s so beautiful.

I just wanted to spend all day there.

 I went up to the top and chilled,

 I also found a terrifyingly narrow passageway and responded appropriately.

 And there were some good views

It was really nice up there, just great views and great old stuff, and, oh just look at the pictures!

 I don't even know how I took this picture, but it seemed too good not to include.

 I climbed those stairs.

 Belém!

 I had a good time, in case you were wondering.

 Because it was really pretty.

 And really high

And then I got some random lady to take my picture, and she went all professional photographer on me and took multiple with different backgrounds, and so now you get pictures of me that aren’t selfies, though, as you can see, I did not lack for selfies.

So then I had to go down the tower,

 because it was closing (so sad) and I wandered around,

 and a random French girl saw me selfieing with the tower,

 and so she offered to take my pictures, so I got some MORE pictures of me not selfies (it was just y’all’s lucky day)

and then I walked around the gardens for a while

 by the way, this is the monument to the spirit of Portuguese Discovery, or something like that.

 and then back to the art museum, where I chilled for another little bit, before heading back to the train station, since it was getting dark.

I took the train back to Lisbon city center and walked back to the hostel. Basically, this hostel was the bomb. It was clean, it was comfortable, the staff was SO nice. They have a free walking tour twice a week and take you to a different free walking tour mornings when they don’t have one. They give you a pretty dang substantial breakfast in the mornings, and then Fridays and Saturdays they have free soup and sangria at night. And I can’t speak to the sangria, but the soup was delicious. And since they didn’t run out last night I got two bowls. It was so perfect, especially after my less than healthy lunch. I don’t think I realized how much I missed home cooked meals until I had that soup. Also, they have lamps and outlets and shelves by all of their beds, so I could plug my phone in at night and set it up and keep it by my bed. It was great.

Point being, the soup was really good, and I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner. After dinner I went out to try to find some fado, traditional Portuguese music. That was… interesting. The guy who took us on our tour Friday was working the reception and he pointed me in the direction of some good fado places, and I set off. I did sort of get to where I wanted to go, but I couldn’t find the places he had mentioned, and it was dark, and I was by myself, and the streets were deserted except for random groups of men hanging out on the sidewalk, and my Portuguese is abominable, and after a little bit (and hearing some fado through the doors of places) I turned around and high-tailed it for home. But it was really good to get out, and the fado I did hear sounded quite nice. I’ll just have to go back with someone else to accompany me, or at least learn Portuguese before I try that again.

So I came back and showered and packed up and hit the hay.

This morning I woke up quite early and had a last delicious breakfast at the hostel before taking the metro to my bus station. I really like the Lisbon metro. It’s nice and clean and clear, and the trains are named after colors as they should be (I’m lookin’ at you NYC, and you too London, but mostly New York.) and they even had these really cool artistic designs for each line.

It was very simple and easy to navigate. There were also nice murals- or walls made of decorative tiles in the stations.

So I got to the bus station easily and with plenty of time to spare, and I sat and read for a bit. Then I kind of freaked out, because my bus wasn’t showing up on the screen and I didn’t know where to go, and I asked like 3 different ticket counters who kept pointing me different places in Portuguese and then finally I heard a group of young women speaking Spanish and they were on my bus and helped to point me in the right direction. Gracias a Dios. At least one of them was actually American, so that worked really well.

SO I got on the bus on time and safely, and off we went. It was, of course, a really long bus ride, but much more pleasant than the way here. It turns out that rural Spain and Portugal are both extremely beautiful, which I hadn’t been able to see due to the darkness when I came through the first time. I mean, it was positively picturesque. There were rolling green hills and beautiful lakes and sheep grazing in pastures and winding rivers and fields and fields of almond trees in bloom, and as we got near to Madrid there were mountains rising right up out of the low, grassy hills and I swear I thought I was in Middle Earth. It was breathtaking.

We stopped a couple of times, and I had a sandwich at our first stop, just over the Spanish border (the relief I felt at speaking Spanish again was so great) and we arrived in Madrid right around 6:45. I didn’t have a seat to myself, unfortunately, once we got out of Portugal, but my seatmate was very quiet and just read and kept to himself, so it all worked out.

Once we got to Madrid I walked up to the train station, and then sat in the big garden they have and typed this. Well part of it. Then I went throught security and wrote some more, then I paced around and wondered when they were going to announce our platform that the train was leaving from  (10 minutes before we were scheduled to depart) and stood in a terrifying line of Spaniards who really wanted to get on a train, and then I got on a train, and we somehow miraculously left only 4 minutes late (I don’t understand. The line was massive, and they got us all on this train in less than 15 minutes. I’m so impressed.) And so now I’m writing on my favorite place in the world to write: a train.

So, yeah, I should get back into Valencia around 11 and then I’m going to go get some Asian food for dinner (because seriously, I need Asian food. I really need Indian food, and I can’t find it, and there was some in Portugal, but I didn’t get it, and that was a poor decision, because now I REALLY want Indian food.) and take it back to my room and watch The Musketeers and eat my food and go to bed. Because I am not as tired as I was when I wrote either of my last two posts, but I am still kind of sleepy. Travel days, ya know?

So, basically, go to Portugal. Really, I have nothing bad to say about Lisbon; it was a beautiful place and I had a wonderful time being there and getting back and meeting people and seeing things. The only problem was the language, and I’m going to put  that on me for not having learned Portuguese when I had the chance (ah, yes, I had a chance. When I couldn’t take French my options were German or Portuguese. While I would like to know Portuguese, I really like German, so even that worked out OK, but as I told my dad when I was standing between the Monestario dos Jeronimos

and the Monument to the Portuguese exploratory spirit

 yesterday in Belém, from where I am right now, most of my life decisions are looking pretty dang good.) And Portuguese was tough. It’s interesting, because it doesn’t sound like I expected it to, and the accent is really tough. It’s also fascinating, because I have something I can fall back on in countries that speak Spanish and French and German, even if my French is mediocre and my German laughable right now, I have a vocabulary and a background and a sense of pronunciation that can get me somewhere, but with Portuguese,  I was completely in the dark, but it worked out, and I managed to get a few basic words to stick in my head, so when I go back it will be better! And then maybe I should take Portuguese. Also, I can READ Portuguese pretty decently, because the words and such are similar, but the accent throws me when dealing with speech.

So yeah, Lisbon might not be on the top of places to go if you have a week or two in Europe and you’ve never been before, but if you’ve seen the big, famous capitals, then you should totally go to Lisbon. It’s a little smaller, not necessarily a place that you need to spend a week in, but it’s nice, and relaxed, and beautiful, and I loved it. 

But, of course, 

I was pretty psyched to be back in my own bed.