Most incredible weekend of my life. We finally decided to make the trip to Lisbon – mundoLengua (the program we’re studying with) was a HUGE help in getting us travel information, bus schedules, printing tickets, etc. (especially on such a last minute planning schedule. Mom, I know you’re very surprised). The plan was to
1. Take a bus from Cadiz to Sevilla (1 ½ hours)
2. Taxi or public bus to a different station (Plaza de las Armas) in Sevilla (20 minutes?)
3. Bus from Sevilla to Lisbon (6-7 hours)
We got out of class at 12:40 so that we would have time to make our 1:00 bus to Sevilla. We had 3:00 tickets for the trip from Sevilla to Lisboa, so we knew we would be cutting it close (Especially when the first bus showed up 10 minutes late. The bus driver re-earned our respect later in the trip).
At 2:30 we got to Sevilla and were stopped by bumper to bumper traffic. Our new friend, the Sevillian English teacher, informed us that it was lunch (ciesta) time in Sevilla, which meant that the streets were packed. Thankfully, our bus driver was well accustomed to the typical traffic and seemed to be in just as much of a rush as we were. He started taking the back roads – at one point he went the wrong direction down a one way street and proceeded to honk at the car going the right way down the street, and then took a left hand turn where he completely blocked the street until the cars in the lanes had to stop or swerve to let him through. We got to the bus station at about 2:45 and Emily, Blake, Drew and I sprinted off the bus to find a taxi. We rushed up to the taxi station and hurriedly threw our things into the first available one. I guess we kind of overwhelmed the driver, because he then deliberately took his time getting into his vehicle while muttering about how Americans needed to slow down and it was ridiculous that we were in such a rush and that if we missed the 3:00 bus we could always get the 4:00 one (he seemed too angry to tell him that the next available bus didn’t leave until midnight). I think he assumed we couldn’t understand him, because when we started laughing in response to his comments he warmed up and lectured us on how Americans do everything too fast (including making love). And then talked about his favorite American movies.
He got us to Plaza de las Armas in 10 minutes and rushed us out of his car so that we could get our train on time (For some reason he felt like rushing was now appropriate… we must have won him over with our charm). The 4 of us sprinted across the bus station and quickly found our bus at 3:01, only to find that the tickets we had printed were only vouchers and we had to return up to the ticket window to get our tickets. Long story short: after several trips of running through the station and looking like crazy American tourists (or finalists on the Amazing Race… Blake shouted “AMAZING RACE” as we were running through the station), we finally were able to get on our bus to Lisbon. Talk about an adrenaline rush. It was then that we realized that the rest of the group wasn’t on the bus with us – we later found out they hadn’t even tried to make it to the station because they assumed we wouldn’t make it. Since we have no phone service or anything… the 4 of us were on our own.
The proposed 6-7 hour bus ride to Lisbon ended up being 10½ … but you know you’re having fun when you don’t have an iPod, only sleep for 3 hours, and still have a blast. The countryside is beautiful and in the several stops that we took on the way, we got to see a huge variety of towns and Spanish/Portuguese architecture. We passed through a town and I was like “Look! The houses look like they belong in Arizona!” to which Emily responded “No Marnie, I’m pretty sure the houses in Arizona were modeled after these”. I just assume that other countries strive to be like America and it’s funny when I realize how we are such a mix of “borrowed” cultures. It’s cool though. As we were getting off the bus, we remember that we literally knew 0 words of Portuguese, so our taxi driver taught us “Hola, cerveca, bom, abrigada(or if you’re a boy you say ”abrigado”). He said we those were the only words we would need (Hello, beer, good, thank you). Turns out he was right.
The hostel was absolutely incredible (Equity Point) and I think I’m officially spoiled for hostels. It was super trendy and had a bar in the lobby and the “ayudantes” were so helpful. We had an 8 person room (4 bunk beds) but we had the room to ourselves the first night, so that was really nice. It was weird because I’m sure it looked like we were two couples on a trip together, but it ended up turning out really well that Drew and Blake were with us because it definitely kept us from getting approached by creepy guys (for the most part… more on that story later). So anyways… Lisbon is CRAZY. Like, I’ve never seen anything like it. There were hundreds of people in the middle of the street having a good time– in a park overlooking the city, outside the bars, literally EVERYWHERE. We didn’t go out until right before 12, so we stopped at an Italian pizza place, ordered 2 slices of pizza, and then sat in the park and ate. It was SO COOL because it was like college but with a bunch of foreigners in a different country and a whole lot crazier. We ended up walking around the city until about 3, but the city hadn’t even started to die yet.
SATURDAY
The next morning Emily and I woke up earlier than expected and ate breakfast in the hostel. Reasons why it was perfect:
1. They had corn flakes and good bread
2. There were people from all over the world eating with us
3. We ate on a roof garden of a hostel in Lisbon, Portugal.
It was awesome. Emily wanted to go back to sleep so I decided I would explore the city around our hostel – I FELT SO MATURE. To get to our hostel we had to walk up this huge hill (my exercise for the two days), so I walked down the hill and just went and looked at the main part of the city. I stopped by a tourist information center and returned with 20 flyers and ready to wake everyone up and start the day.
We headed out around 12 and ended up walking around the city for about 3 hours. We eventually made our way to the flea market (our original destination), which was pretty much “a bunch of homeless people selling rubbish” (quoted from an Australian that I talked to in our hostel). I thought it was pretty cool and I bought a couple things (and found out that I’m really bad at bargaining. I just start laughing and give in. Or walk away and wind up with nothing). We went to lunch in a small restaurant on a side street, and then found the Castillo de San Jorge. I LOVE castles, and we got a discount because we were students, so it turned out to be a lot of fun. The view from the castle was absolutely incredible. It started raining right as we were leaving, so we took cover in a wine bar. After about 20 minutes of waiting at the table and realizing that the waiter had little intention of giving us his time because we were young and probably would have bought the second cheapest wine on the menu (not the first cheapest… we try to keep it a little classy) we left (we waited for the waiter to go to the back to bring another table wine and then ran out). We got back to the hostel around 6:00 with the intentions of taking a nap, but we ended up spending the next hour talking to our new Canadian backpacking roommates.
The best part of the day was that we explored the city simply by walking around and admiring it. I’m sure there were 500 important sites that were “must sees”, but I feel like I got a great feeling for life in Lisbon by trying my best to stay out of the touristy areas and see how the locals live. We were never in a rush and didn’t have a list of 10 things we had to do in Lisbon and it was SO MUCH FUN. We took pictures of things that looked historic and important and figured that we would learn about them later if we needed to.
SATURDAY NIGHT (yes, this gets its own section)
We went to dinner in the square in one of the main plazas in Lisbon. Highlights: Blake ordered fish and he got his plate with 4 full sized mini-salmons, complete with eyes and everything. I think he ended up eating about half the meat before he couldn’t handle it anymore. After dinner we went to the Hard Rock Café (I know, it sounds super lame that we went to an American restaurant and we were all very against it at first) but it turned out to be one of the best parts of the night. It was an odd relief being around people who spoke English and listening to classy 90s music, yet still being surrounded by people from all over the world. It was only 11:00, so we decided we would spend as much time as we could at Hard Rock and started by ordering coffee (I ordered a hot chocolate and the waiter was like “I HATE when I have to make hot chocolates”. He thought we were pretty lame). We ended up staying for exactly two hours and had intense conversations (it starts to happen when you’re with small groups).
After Hard Rock we went up the bars in Barrio Alto. As we were walking to the square I walked over this air vent and it literally blew my dress up to my ears. For whatever reason it took me about 2 seconds to comprehend what was going on, and the time my body had reacted the entire square had seen my underwear (the best part was the lady next to us who acted like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen).
Emily saw a jazz bar and got super excited, so we went there and watched a jazz band for 2 songs. It was cool to watch how all the players work together so well – it seemed pretty improve and they play off of listening to each other. We left and went to hang out a little in the streets, and we ended up making Hungarian friends (they were taking myspace pictures… like when one person holds the camera up top and everyone looks up. So I offered my photography services). They were in Lisbon doing volunteer work for 9 days. We told them we were from the United States, and they got so excited and had a ton of questions about America. One of the guys was like “I know a phrase in English! bomb.com” and it was SO FUNNY. Emily proceeded to teach him several different phrases, including “So fetch” complete with the hand flip. He probably said it at least 30 times the rest of the night. While we were talking to them, this guy came up to me…
Him: “Do you trust me?” (in broken English)
Me (laugh): “No! I don’t even know you”
repeat 3-4 times
Him: “Close your eyes and stick your hand out”
Me (laugh again): “Absolutely not!”
continue this pattern for about 5 minutes
Me: “Emily! This guy wants me to close my eyes and put my hand out! He keeps asking me if I trust him and I keep saying absolutely not!”
Emily: “It’s fine! We’re all here and we’ll make sure nothing happens”
Me (thinking): He’s gonna kiss me or something. This is going to be gross (lower my head and hold my hand out)
I opened my eyes and we were HANDCUFFED together. And he goes “Oh no! I don’t have the keys. I guess we’re stuck together tonight” and it was SO FUNNY because it was so unexpected. After we stopped laughing and decided that he wasn’t that creepy, we talked to him for a little and found out he was from Denmark. And then I let myself go (they were the kiddy handcuffs. He acted really surprised when I figured it out… I think he assumed I actually thought we needed a key).
A little bit later, we were waved over by a Rastifarian-looking tall black guy. In broken English, he told us about a fun bar we could go to that was right on the strip, and for whatever reason we decided to follow him. I thought he was trying to roofie us, so I made sure to watch the drinks the bartender was pouring. When we were pulling out our money to pay, one of the Hungarian girls realized that her wallet was missing from her purse. We figured out she’d been pick pocketed, and we quickly left and Emily thoroughly yelled at the Rastifarian guy and demanded that we get the money back. All the sudden, he didn’t speak very good English and looked eager to get away. Jerk. We walked off to the side and did our best to explain to them what they needed to do (i.e. call the Embassy because here ID card was also in the wallet). We told them they should probably go back to the hotel and to add us on Facebook, but they never did so I hope they don’t think we had anything to do with it.
We left and went down towards the docks, and after realizing we weren’t in the mood for any discotecas and any more creepy people, we stopped at a bar along the bay and ended up talking for about 2 hours. When it hit 6:50 we decided to leave and go watch the sunrise, and we were very surprised when we walked outside and it was already light. We sat on a part of street overlooking the bay and stayed for an hour as the sun rose, and it was one of the coolest things ever because as we were sitting there, the city came to life. It was so surreal and incredible and I can’t imagine a better way to have ended such a strange but awesome night.
We headed back to our hostel and checked out and then made our way to the bus station. Turns out the rest of the group had also booked the 9:00 train to Sevilla, so we all got to catch up on the trip home (when we weren’t sleeping). It was great to see them and hear about their weekend, but I wouldn’t have changed ours for anything.
WT Tip #4 – Travel in groups of 4. It’s much easier and you get to know people a whole lot better. And only 4 people can fit in a taxi.
WT Tip #5 – Listen to people when they advise you to go to a city, even if don’t even know if you’ve heard of it before.
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