Lisboa

I definitely should be packing my suitcases for the final goodbye on Saturday…but I think my brain just doesn’t want to accept that this time next week, I won’t be a Moralia anymore. Writing here is a good way to procrastinate the inevitable.

Not this past weekend, but the one before, myself and two other auxiliares (Sara and Anna) took a trip to Lisbon.  We caught the (very long and uncomfortable) 8-hour long overnight train to the city.  Between engine problems and a lady freaking out around 5.00am that all of us on the train were going to die from carbon monoxide poisoning, we pulled into Lisboa around 7.30am.  The three of us made our way to our hostel and were pleasantly surprised when the 20somethings that run the place offered us breakfast (technically we should only have gotten it the morning after we slept there).  We ate with the Portuguese guys and after commenting on some quirks of the only one-month-old hostel (salon-style bathroom doors, no keys for us to enter the building, Peep Show one building over), we set off to explore.

We ended up taking a taxi to another side of town because we couldn’t quite figure out the tram system.  The taxi dropped us off right next to the famous Pastéis de Belém where we ate some mouth-watering traditional pastries. We (un)fortunately limited ourselves to just one each, but definitely could have eaten about 20 more. 

Incredible.

Next, we went into the monastery and then into the Torre de Belém.  The tower was like a perfect sandcastle. Truly beautiful.  Ascending the winding narrow staircase while others were coming down almost gave us heart attacks…but the view was worth it.  The way down was equally as nerve-wracking. 

After getting on a tram to the part of town we had come from, we tried some Passion fruit Fanta and went shopping in our favorite shops (Zara, H&M, Blanco…), ate some bacalao for lunch, and made a friend with a makeup lady in Sephora (she told us where we should go around the city).  We were exhausted at this point, so we wanted to take a nap in the hostel.  However, when we tried to buzz into the building (like I said, no keys), no one was there. We found out later that the worker who was supposed to be around to let us in was taking a nap of his own.  So what did we do?  Ate ice cream, of course.  But this was no ordinary ice cream. This was the best ice cream I’ve ever had in my life.  I got mango and chocolate chip and was in heaven.  It was so fresh and we vowed to return the next day. 

We were finally able to return to the hostel a bit later, where we rested and freshened up for the night.  We also met the other people staying in the other rooms there.  There was a pair of Swiss (?) guys and another American woman who was staying in the same room as us.  Eventually our three new friends, two of the hostel owners, and the three of us all went out for a dinner together.  After eating, we were so tired and it was raining, so we decided not to salir de fiesta and to instead, go to bed.

Just like San Francisco and Río.

In the morning, we ate our breakfast and then took a taxi with the other woman in our room, India, to an outdoor market.  It reminded us a lot of a garage sale…it seemed like people just grabbed the junk from their houses and were trying to sell it. But there were some good things.  After exploring, we ate lunch at a charming little place and felt like experts, declining the cheese that they so cunningly put on our table and then would have charged us 3 euros for, without us ever even ordering it (very normal in Portugal).

We then headed over to the castle and saw it from the outside, went into a church for a second, shopped for souvenirs (green wine), ate more ice cream from the amazing place, then went back to the hostel to chill before dinner.

We had grand hopes of watching the Portuguese sunset from a rooftop bar we had heard a lot about, but when we arrived, we realized we were not nearly fancy enough to be there, so we beelined to a near-by Indian restaurant.  I know, I know, I I‘m always the first one to complain if someone is visiting a place and doesn’t eat the local cuisine…but Portuguese food is so similar to Spanish and Indian sounded really good.  It ended up being delicious.

After dinner, we had a tea, said goodbye to India (she was super cool and had been traveling all over Europe for quite a while), and went to catch our late night train back to Extremadura.

The train ride home was painful. On the way to Lisbon, I was able to sleep an hour or two. On the way back, nothing.  Leaving Lisbon around 10.30pm, I got off in Navalmoral and back to my piso around 7.30am.  I took a quick shower (trains can be gross) and went right to sleep until bout 2.30pm.  When I did wake up, I was greeted with a MILLION ants swarming our kitchen.  We’ve had a problem with ants (and no, there is not food laying around the place) in the past, but this time, it was horrific.  I sprayed a bunch of toxic stuff to kill them and prayed they wouldn’t come back…oh, but they did.