Luckily we only had a short nap and woke up in time to go out and begin touring
the city. Thanks to his Brazilian origin, Rodrigo speaks fluent Portuguese, and
less than 10 minutes into our first outing he had already befriended a Bakery
clerk who then proceeded to give us an enormous bag of free homemade bread, as
well as some coconut pão de Deus, or “God’s Bread” (delicious).
We then took the city Metro (a simple and efficient system: LA take note) to Bairro Alto, or “high
town” where we had heard there would be good nightlife. Our first stop was a
little hole-in-the-wall restaurant for dinner, where we got our first taste of
Portuguese cuisine. We ordered bacalhau,
a classic Portuguese dish of fried or grilled Cod. It is very salty but very
delicious.
We continued to wander the streets and saw several interesting statues of
various historical individuals, something which we would soon learn is a very
common sight in Lisbon. Eventually we discovered the center of the action, a
narrow cobblestone street lined with dozens of bars. It wasn’t too crowded
since it was Wednesday night, but we met some locals and tried some Ginjinha, a Portuguese cherry
liqueur that is very sweet, very expensive, and very delicious.
We headed back around 12:30am only to find that the Metro employees had gone on
strike beginning at midnight! We took a cab home and called it a night.
The next day (May 30) the Metro was still on strike, so we took the 735 bus
line to Alfama, a curvy and confusing
town that was preserved during the 1755 earthquake while the rest of
Lisbon was generally destroyed. As such it contains some of the only medieval
remnants of the city including several beautiful churches, many statues, and Castelo de São Jorge:
On the way back we stopped for a taste of some Portuguese wines and cheeses,
both of which were incredible and much different from what you might find in
California. It was here that we met an American diplomat and his wife, who
invited us to join them for another glass of wine and told us many interesting
stories about the different countries they had lived in (they had been in
Lisbon for 2 years). They also gave us many great tips for the rest of our
journey.
On the next day we visited the town of Baixa,
which is just west of Alfama. We
started the day off with a delicious lunch and a taste of the Portuguese beers Super Bock and Sagres. I also had a Solero popsicle, for those who know how
much I love those. We then wandered the beautiful cobblestone streets of the
town, where we saw many more statues of men on horses, more churches, and the
historical Elevador de Santa Justa (Santa Justa Lift):
We finished the day off with some more beer on the waterfront at the Museo de Cerveja (Musem of
Beer), before heading back home to pack up and head to the train station. We
left at 9pm for the overnight train ride to Madrid, Spain.
SOME THINGS I LEARNED
ABOUT PORTUGAL:
- Portuguese is more similar to Italian than to Spanish
- If two people sound like they’re fighting or arguing, they’re probably not. That’s just how people talk.
- As with many non-USA countries, people are willing to stop everything they’re doing to help you if you are lost. One taxi driver stopped for 5 minutes to give us directions WHILE HE HAD A FARE (she pitched in with some tips too)
- People love Brandy and Scotch. They drink it at all times of day and every coffee shop has a large selection displayed on the wall.
- Apparently the wine is more “full-bodied” than California wine. *shrug*
- If you don’t eat the bread / butter / olives given to you at a restaurant as an appetizer, you won’t pay for it! But otherwise you will.
- “Thank you” in Portuguese is “Obrigado”, and people say it a LOT.
Tune in next time when we visit Madrid!
-Yuval
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