The day after St. Patrick's day, we all dragged ourselves out of bed (hooray for afternoon flights!) and went to Lisbon! The group was me, Vance, Lindsey, Tommy, Richard, Bernard, and Evan (who had flown out the day before). I was excited for the trip because it was going to be the first warm destination of the year. Turns out we got a bit of rain (booerns) but overall the weather was nice and I felt the first vibe of summer travel, yay! Actually, keep an eye out for the rapid weather shifts through the pics....we had crazy weather all weekend.
I'd like to take a moment to say that I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to sightseeing details on this trip, so this post is severly lacking in that stuff, too bad for Jacqui being lazy.
Ooo, stole some nice Lisbon description fron Vance's blog:
"Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. Portugal is located to the west of Spain. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and is in the EU. Lisbon is located on the coast and has a population of about 2 million people. Lisbon was a surprising beautiful city. It had a real clash between old and new styles. Downtown, instead of having pavement, everything was made of tiles similar to a mosaic. That meant that all the bus rides were super bumpy. Lisbon also contains the sister bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (25 de Abril Bridge). Overlooking the city is a giant Jesus statue similar to the one in Brazil."
The Lisbon group: Richard, Evan, me, Bernard, Tommy, Vance, Lindsey
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The plane ride went smoothly, and we met Evan at our hostel around dinnertime. We went out to find food, and ended up eating at a pretty good seafood resturant. I had swordfish , it was pointy....haha, no, it was good. ("You know I'm a unicorn"...oh Scrubs, just too hilarious...)
Cool pic Evan took on Saturday before we arrived
Walking to dinner on Friday night...I think that's some sort of Triumph Arch (come on, all the cool cities have them, you know you want one too!)
Our hostel lounge area, pretty snazzy
After dinner we went back to the hostel to get ready for the evening. Lindsey, Richard, Bernard and I had bought a bunch of port (we were in Portugal after all) to drink....unfortuantly, we discovered that port is really better drank in small quantities, since it's really sweet and after one glass becomes pretty overwhelming. Haha, oh well, it's all we had, so we powered through...
Richard, Lindsey and Bernard pre-drinking with some port
Our hostel room (th)s one was dark, but I did a pretty crappy job of touching it up)
Varying levels of hardcoreness
Not really sure what the arm-extension is all about Lindsey
We set off to the area where we figured all the best bars were, which was near the bridge. Unfortuantly, this was about a 45 minute walk from our hostel...but it was a nice night so the walk was enjoyable (for the most part). We made it to the area we wanted, and found a pretty decent club, it had a nice high ceiling that opened up to a semi-second story. Cover was free (except for Tommy somehow, aww, poor Tommy...) so we partied there for awhile. Got home pretty late (partly due to the long walk back, at least we didn't get lost!) but it was a pretty fun night.
The long walk to the bar area on Friday night
Wooo, Lisbon, let's party!
Dancing it up at at club
The next morning, Tommy and Bernard went off to do some sight-seeing while the rest of us hit the beach. It seemed pretty warm out, but when we got to the coast the cold ocean breeze made things somewhat chilly. Not to be detered by the cold, Vance and Evan went for a swim in the ocean (aka, tumbled around in the massive waves....they were huge!). They reported back that the water was freezing, and I was happy with my decision to stay warm and dry (or so I thought).
I had some nice tunes pumping, and decided to wander up and down the beach, enjoying the relaxing ocean vibe. After a bit of wading, I got caught up running away from the waves, and got pretty wet. By that point I was having way too much fun enjoying the beach to not go in the water, so I ran in as fast as I could before I changed my mind, and was instantly taken out by a wave, haha. The waves were crashing around with so much force it was hard to stay on my feet, and I had a pretty good flounder before suddenly the skies opened up and it was raining...time to leave the beach! We grabbed up our stuff (mine all soaking wet and sand covered....stupid sand, it gets everywhere...and it's so coarse...lol). After a soggy train rice back to the city center (the beach was further down the coast) we went back to the hostel to clean up and have a rest.
Beautiful pic...Evan and Vance about to hit the waves
Chillaxing (literally, brrr....) at the beach. This is pre-ocean madness for me
We wanted to check out the aquarium that day, so we took the metro to that part of the city. It was located in a really modern-styled area (I think a lot of it was constructed for Expo 98). There was lots of really cool architecture...it kind of reminded me of Barcelona (actually, the whole city kind of did).
In some square... not doing intensive research for this post, so you will have to live in wonder
Walking to the aquarium, enjoying the cool buildings
Funky fountain that would randomly errupt with water!
Funky statue (yes, I'm aware I already used that word to describe the fountain....tough)
The
Lisbon Aquarium is supposedly the largest one in Europe, and we had a great time there. In the center of the building there was a huge tank representing the open ocean. Inside there was all sorts of cool creatures... I think the most impressive were the giant manta rays, way longer than my armspan. I didn't get any pics, I think there's some on Lindsey's camera that I intend to get eventually... (sort of complicated, keep reading to find out why!). Around the large tank were areas for the 4 different oceans, with lots of cute animals! (Except for the Indian Ocean...boo to boring fish, haha). Downstairs there were exhibits with fish and various other sea creatures (once again, I'll have to wait for some more pics).
Puffins! Too bad you couldn't see them too Mummy.
Penguins! I love watching them waddle around on land, and then pop in and out of the water, tee hee!
Otters playing in the water! Seeing them totally reminded me of a
book I read as a child (nobody seemed to know what I was talking about), and I remembered how otters use rocks to break open clams to eat. Ah memories...
Evan being a sunfish, hahaha.
After the aqurium we went back to meet the others at the hostel so we could go out for dinner. After a bit of wandering we found a cool little resturant, that seemed to be entirely run by one guy. Luckily we weren't starving or in a hurry, because it took awhile to get food (understandable, I have nothing but respect for the owner of that place!). After some adventures trying to translate the menu, we had a delicious dinner. It was pretty relaxing, and we even stayed for dessert after.
Taking advantage of a cool blue tiled area with an artistic pose (not really sure what it's purpose was)
The Berg boys having a nice cozy nap
Being silly on the way to dinner
Richard, me and Vance at the resturant
Cheers!
Evan, Bernard, and Linds at dinner
Vance about to demolish his sundae
Across from the resturant, there was an internet cafe advertising free internet and cheap shots and beer. We couldn't not check it out, haha. Most people were pretty tired and decided to head home, but Evan and I got some shots and then had a nice drunken msn session. Pretty much the coolest night I've ever had, hahaha. Oh it gets better...when the place closed down for the night, we tagged along with the owners to another bar and hung out there for awhile. It was pretty dead, but there was a dj spinning some nice tracks so it was still fun. Hooray for more poor sleep amound decisions, lol.
Partying hard at the internet cafe, hahaha
The next morning we (sans Bernard and Tommy) went to check out the Belem Monestary. Unfortuantly it was closed that day (tsk tsk, F in touristness guys), so we only got to see the outside, which was really impressive. We walked around the area and looked at a cool tower
Cool pic of the monestary
Silly Vance and his speedy picture taking...I didn't even have time to smile!
Storm's a brewin'
Richard near the Discoveries Landmark
We chilled out by the edge of the water, on a odd stone embarkment that was about 45 degree slope (I measured with my protractor). It was a bit of a sketchy sitting area, and I guess Richard though so too because he manged to drop his (well...) camera down into the ocean! I think it just detached from his belt somehow. Anyways, he went to try and get it before it went all the way into the water, but slipped on the algea and fell into the water himself!
This is Richard's version at least. From what I saw, suddenly there was a camera tumbeling into the water and then SPLASH! Richard kamakazee dives into the water after it! Talk about a devoted photographer... (or tourist). Luckily it wasn't really a dangerous area (and he managed to recover the camera), but he got completely soaked.
Upon trying to get Richard sorted out, it came to our attention that it was actually Lindsey's camera which Richard had dropped, which sucks. We tried to dry it off (after rinsing off the saltwater...wow, my second voluntary camera rinsing experiance!) but word on the street now is that it is broken, booerns. Also, Richard had his ipod in his pocket, which broke too...double boorns....the ocean takes another ipod!! (The first was Devon's).
We moved away from the water and helped Richard dry off his stuff, the only other casualties were a couple sandwiches he had smuggled from the hostel breakfast, haha). Evan happened to have some board shorts in his back-pack, which he lent to Richard. This was humerous since a) there were waaaay too big (though, they ended up looking alright somehow) and b) he had to change into them in a semi-secluded corner, with Vance providing cover. They were gone for awhile. I contributed by lending Richard my longish coat to wear for the pants swap.
Evan saving Richard
Me laughing
Vance taking pictures
Lindsey mourning her camera (I assume)
Looking good Richard, haha....my coat actually fits him quite well
After getting Richard sorted out, we continuted to look around. We saw a cool castle thing (sigh, I really should find out what these are all called....maybe tomorrow...) and then after a bit of wandering continuted on to the Lisbon castle (after stopping briefly at the hostel for Richard to change properly, since it was on the way).
Beach castle thing (it's not made of sand, I checked)
Using Vance as a battering ram, mwah ha ha
Evan, Richard and Lindsey rocking some colourful shirt action (sorry Vance, maybe if you had dressed a little brighter...)
Fun with reflections
Fun times in front of the Monestary
To get up to the castle we took the tram. Prior to this we had been shopping for t-shirts (I bought one, yay it is cool) and saw lots with trams on them. We didn't really understand what was so special about the Lisbon trams... until we rode on one. These things are just pure adventure, I must have almost flown across the tram about 10 times before I got a secure enough hold. I don't know what it is, they just bump around every which was, it's aweosme!
The Lisbon adventure trams
Me taking a pic of myself on the tram, and some creepy guy in the background
More fun with reflections
Up at the
Lisbon Castle we had a wicked view of the whole city. We spent lots of time just chilling and enjoying the view (you'll notice this was a common activity on this trip, haha). Then we walked up into the castle itself and had fun climbing up on the walls and pretending to be knights (maybe that was just me.....).
Lisbon from the castle
Evan destroying his cucumber
Chillin on the wall
Richard having a moment
Dramatic sky coolness
Me taking a break on the castle wall
The streets of Lisbon
Evan enjoying the sunshine
We had just enough time to check a
cathedral before going back to the hostel to pick up our stuff. We took the bus to the airport, and actually ended up cutting it pretty close time-wise. Luckily, EasyJet was late (as usual), though this almost posed problems on the Swiss end of things, because we were catching the last train from Basel to Baden. It all worked out though, and we even had time for some late night waiting at the Basel train station!
Lisbon was a cool destintion, though it would have been better if it was bit hotter so we could hang out at the beach more. I pretty much felt like I was in Spain the whole time, like I said it was a very Barcelona-y vibe. Nice chill trip though, and a nice way to get into the spirit for summer travelling! (Too bad my next 2 destinations are cold places, haha.....)
