On Thursday evening, I met my dear friend and roommate from Wofford, Patterson, at the Lisbon airport. Both of us were coming out of a stressful few weeks at school, so we were both excited to have a leisurely weekend with no set agenda.
The weekend got off to a great start when we checked into our hostel, which ended up being more like a palace. The two of us have stayed in some rather interesting hostels that were dirty and full of unfriendly help. We knew we were in for a real treat when we staff welcomed us with open arms and offered anything and everything to help us. We thought our situation couldn't get any better...until we saw our room. Every detail was beautiful: the molding on the ceiling, the smell, the big window overlooking all of Lisbon, the fresh sheets, the color of the walls. Patterson and I were seriously speechless and so excited about to spend three nights in such luxurious conditions!
On Friday night, we ventured to the center of Lisbon to find a nice local place to eat dinner. We selected a completely random place that we would eventually return to for a second time. Patterson and I had a nice private table outside and were waited on by (no joke) four waiters all evening. We became friends with each of them and insisted on getting lots and lots of pictures with them, which are without a doubt our favorite pictures from the weekend. Our closest friend was Ricky, who is a circus performer-by-day and waiter-by-night. He was so friendly and even taught us a little Portuguese, which I was NOT very good at!
All through the week leading up to our trip, weatherchannel.com was predicting rain showers (80% chance) and clouds for the entire weekend. When we woke up, there was no rain so we set out to see all that we could within the city of Lisbon on Friday. We spent the first hour on the north east side of the town called Oriente, but struggled finding our way around and didn't feel very comfortable in that area of town so we quickly left. Next we went to the Belem area, which is along the river on the south western part of town. As soon as we got there, there was not a cloud of site and the two of us had smiles from ear to ear. I was prepared for rain all day wearing my rain boots and toting my umbrella around, so everyone must have thought I was nuts!
Belem was absolutely beautiful and we saw many important landmarks in Lisbon. One of my favorite parts was going to the Belem Tower which overlooked the river and the Abril Bridge. Apparently, Lisbon is often called the "San Francisco of Europe," and this comparison was very accurate in this part of town. The Abril Bridge looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge, and Lisbon is also very hilly with trollies running throughout the city. Patterson and I enjoyed a nice lunch at a local restaurant and eventually made our way back into the central part of town for more site-seeing. After more map struggles, we finally made it to the top of the city where a famous castle is. Patterson and I were too stingy to actually pay to go inside, but we still got excellent views of the city and used the money we saved to treat ourselves to a tasty ice cream cone.
On Friday night the Terriers played in their first ever NCAA tournament game. We didn't have access to the internet for free, so we sat in our hostel with my Blackberry constantly refreshing the score. Wofford played an excellent game and despite the loss, we were so proud to be Terriers.
After the game, Patty and I went back to the same area of town for dinner and eventually settled on a lovely Italian restaurant. The two of us enjoyed tasty Pizza Margheritas and wine. We finished up pretty quickly and headed to Barrio Alto, which is the area of town famous for its night life. We were a little overwhelmed by the atmosphere there so we didn't stay very long, but we were glad we got to see the area. Patterson and I eventually settled on a restaurant in one of Lisbon's main plaza for a last drink that was called Pic-Nic. We were hoping to casually enjoy a glass of wine, but were constantly bombarded by people trying to sell us jewelry and (what we thought were) drugs. (Ricky later informed us they were simply kitchen spices-- oh how naive we are!). Needless to say, we were very uncomfortable and headed in early for a good night's sleep.
On Saturday, we decided to go to the small coastal town of Cascais as the weather appeared to be holding up. Cascais was everything we wanted and more. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the small North Carolina beach towns like Southport with little shops, restaurants, and great coastal views. We saw beautiful homes and flowers and really felt like "spring was upon us" (Patty made fun of me for saying this!). We enjoyed a delicious meal with two of our favorite things: Pasta Alfredo for Patty and Avocado and Mozzarella salad for me. After allowing our tummies to settle, we enjoyed a nice (and cheap) McDonald's chocolate ice cream cone while looking out over the Atlantic. Like the rest of the weekend, it was so relaxing and we were both so content.
For our last night in Lisbon we decided to surprise our friends back at Thursday night's restaurant. As expected, they were thrilled to see us, but unfortunately they weren't able to give us such a personal dining experience because of the crowds. Still, we had a lot of bonding time with Ricky and he even treated us to flowers (a red flower for me and my red wine and a white flower for Patty's white wine) and Ginja, which is a popular Portuguese drink. We also made friends with the people sitting next to us, a couple from Madrid celebrating their first wedding anniversary. One of our favorite parts of the dinner was the street performer, who was a shy young man from Brazil (we talked to him later in the night to find out this information). He played some of our favorite songs, including Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" and Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." They were certainly songs we didn't expect to hear from a Brazilian street performer in Portugal!
On Friday, I leave for Turkey where I am going to meet my parents and my oldest brother, Wilson. I miss them so much and get giddy just thinking about seeing them in Istanbul. We will spend 6 nights in Istanbul and then return to Barcelona for 3 nights. On the Saturday before Easter, Wilson and I are going to Paris while my parents venture off to Italy. I am so lucky to have all of these amazing experiences and I have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming weeks!
