Lisbon: Trying to speak Portuguese in a city by the sea

It amazes me that less than a week after returning to Madrid from Paris, I was lucky enough to be travelling again the next weekend: This time to Portugal! Another country, another adventure. I was very excited to be exploring Spain’s neighbour on the Iberian Peninsula. Our flight to Lisbon left Friday afternoon, and with delays/time changes that put our arrival in Lisbon during late afternoon. We checked into the hotel and then set out – trying to make it to a museum before it closed at 5:30. We did not make it to the museum. However, we did enjoy a pleasant walk along the harbour and figured out how to use the (shiny, new) Lisbon metro. We walked through some of the city at night, orienting ourselves and looking for dinner. We stumbled upon the capitol building which was prettily lit up at night. I was also surprised to find the city already hung with the beginnings of Christmas lights (keep in mind that is only just November). However, I love Christmas, and this year Christmas also means seeing my much missed family and friends … so these lights cheered me more than annoyed me by their earliness. We walked around for a while but all the restaurants we found were closed or not yet open (it was only 7 and still early for dinner). However, we were starving and finally found a place that boasted “Traditional Portuguese Cuisine”. We glanced and the menu and it looked passable so we went in … it was, well, not as we expected. We were seated and realized that we were the only ones in the restaurant. Now, I am not trying to stereotype by any means, but after meeting our wait staff, we realized that we were in an Indian Portuguese restaurant. Now I love Indian food with a passion … but Indian Portuguese food turned out to be, well, not that good. My tangerine orange soup veggie soup was ok, but the fried calamari was reminiscent of rubber and John’s salmon looked like it’d been too long out of the water. The chocolate mousse we ate for dessert was at least ok. And we were really hungry so any nourishment was good. But, I felt like we didn’t fully experience Portuguese cuisine after our first day. We returned to our hotel and slept well though that night after all the walking we did.

Day two, we got up early with lofty sightseeing goals. We began out day at the Monasterio de los Jerónimos. Near the monestary, we first grabbed breakfast. Ann Marie (a friend from the Morocco trip) had spent the summer in Portugal and recommended Pasteles de Belem – a kind of Portuguese pastry. I am never one to turn down a pastery recommendation so we stopped into the Pasteles de Belem Bakery (the one most famous for these, although we saw them everywhere) and got half a dozen to split. Oh MY! They were so good. They had a flak crust with a sweet warm cream cheesy interior. Plus, you got packets of sugar and cimmamon to sprinkle the with! Best breakfast ever!

So after this we made it to the monestary itself. It was really a beautiful site to visit. The cloister had all these carved columns - every one unique. The spires and arches were all intricately carved and designed. Then, in the sanctuary we got to see the buriel site of the fames Vasco de Gama. We heard a lot about this Portuguese explorer who made it to India. I think he is the biggest Portuguese name on the history books so seeing his tomb was a pretty big deal. Plus the sanctuary was also really pretty - with carved wooden columns and beautiful stained glass windows. As a side note - our decision to come here early was a good one because the monestary was closing at 1 that day for a "special event."

Next stop, the bay near the monestary to see the other 2 big monuments in Lisbon: the Discoverer´s monument and the Belem tower. The monument again emphasized Portugal in it´s golden time of discovery. The tower was an old prison. Now, it´s another thing to climb. And, while in Europe, climb towers! So we did. Again, both are beautifully carved out of this white stone (marble?) that was so pretty and intricate. We also got great views of the harbor and the bridge. There were TONS of sailboats on the water (Thought of you Daddy). They even had baby sailboats that you could rent and I think they were easy to control/sail with little to no experience. I overheard a guy telling his friends that he used one of those when he learned to sail. Anyway, next out touring took us to the Bernardo Modern Art museum. It was free and weird. The exhibits were all super modern (even more than what I'd seen in Reina Sofia). We saw a neat exhibit about Andy Warhol's dabbeling in television which was cool. I didn't know he did tv. The other stuff was strange and sometimes wildly weird, but it was neat. Next we headed to the Portuguese ancient art museum, which really just meant older art (This was the one we tried to make it to the first day before it closed). It was awesome with lots of Portuguese/European painting, Japanese art, and Decorative arts. We saw another Bosch there. He his paintings both fascinate me and creep me out. They remind me of Where´s Waldo paintings only I'd Waldo probably wouldn't want to hand out in the with the fiendish characters in Bosch's hellish paintings. Still - neat to see. Also, I felt proud of my Spanish art knowledge as I recognized the styles of Murillio, Jose de Ribera and Zuberan before reading the plaques.

Finally, with time to spare in our day, we headed over to the Lisbon Aquarium - one of the largestin Europe. It was neat. The aquarium is located in a big cube building suspended over the water of the bay. You have to cross a footbridge over the bay to enter it. We saw tons of cool fishes. In the center of the cube is one big tank that you constantly circle as you walk down around the museum and see the other tanks. Among the highlights: Penguins (including a Surf's Up Robin Williams Penguin, a gigantic octopus, baracuda, sharks, rays, and a sunfish). If you don't know what a sunfish looks like, google it. It is a really strange fish - and the Lisbon aquarium is one of the few aquariums to keep one. It was a great end to a super full day! I love aquariums and this was only John's second one!

For our final day in Lisbon, we had the morning to explore before our later afternoon flight. We decided to explore the castel on the hill - Sant George's Castle. It took us a Long climp up and up and up until we finally reached the castel. (The climb felt longer because we had our backpacks having checked out of the hotel already). It was pretty cool. The castel was build long ago (like more fortresses in Eurpoe) and was eventually taken over by the Portuguese kings as Portugal became a country. Also, the views from castels are always great because they are so high (for defensive purposes) so we got some great shots of the rooftops of Lisbon. After seeing the castel we took a cab back to the airport and flew back to Madrid (on my first non-delayed flight since being in Europe!) It was a wonderful weekend ;)