Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon Portugal. We started our day with matcha and breakfast at the cafe that is under our hostel called Hygge. The matcha came with cold foam and fresh flowers on top. We then walked toward the old town, stopping at thrift and vintage shops along the way. We decided on a whim to go into a random clothing store we seen in the distance in case they had some linen dresses. It had more linen clothes than I had ever seen in one place. We may have came out of that shop with bags full. We stopped at Copenhagen for margarita pizza and more matchas. We continued walking and shopping and looking at the old buildings. I love the style here. There are a lot covered in beautiful painted tiles. We saw where the tram crash happened a couple weeks ago. There are several tram lines left with the original yellow or sometimes red tram cars that run on tracks around the old part of the city. The inside is cute with stained wood trim. A couple weeks ago one derailed and smashed into the building. From the pictures we saw it looked like the whole tram completely fell apart on impact. 16 people were killed, and 20some injured. We asked if it kept people from riding them after. They said apparently tourists didn’t care and there were long lines to get on them anyway. There were to places with huge piles of flowers and candles in memory of the victims. We bought tickets to go on a Tuktuk tour of the city. We stopped at several cathedrals, lookouts, and churches. We almost got hit by BMW. Like less than a foot. Our driver pulled out in front of them. Meanwhile in the back two ladies from Miami were busy in their own conversation and were very entertaining. We went by 3 fountains in the wall of the huge stone building. The middle fountain was for the king, the one on the right for military and the one on the left for normal people. Even though it was the same water, if you drank from the wrong one the king would have your head cut off. Like our Bangladesh driver told us, “like me, if I drink, my head get cut off.” He then dramatically made the motion of his head being cut off. We found a clay/pottery store with beautiful pottery. We took the metro and then hiked up quite a few flights of stairs to the highest point in the city. We had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the city while the sun set. We then took a ride on the famous yellow tram 28. So fun. We found some gelato on our way home.
Lisbon day two.
We enjoyed breakfast of crossiants, yogurt, and breakfast sandwiches with coffee at Simpli Coffee, the coffee shop the people from Denmark recommended. 10/10. We have each accumulated another duffel bag full besides our backpacks and a few other shopping bags as well. We took the metro to the downtown center, and dropped our baggage off at a luggage storage center. We took our time walking around, shopping at ceramic stores and other shops. We stopped and seen Elevador de Santa Justa that is an outdoor elevator that is about 150 feet tall. The oldest bookstore in the world was next. It had so many books in so many languages. I could have stayed there for hours. I got the funnest children’s book called tram 28, which is the yellow tram. It is based on true events from a conductor and illustrated by women from. Portugal. We had traditional Portuguese food for lunch, prawns and tomato salad. We shopped as we headed for tram 28, grabbing gelato for the last time :(. We stood in line for the tram for at least 30 minutes. There are several trams in town that are these old fashioned rail cars. I recommend tram 12 or 25. They are shorter routes but less people. Tram 28 is a 45-60 minute ride. They packed a lot of people on, and still made stops along the way adding more until we literally couldn’t fit any more on. We seen why tourists are not always appreciated. Some tourists were sitting in the seats at the front for labeled for elderly, disabled, and moms with children. They refused to get up and move even though these people constantly were coming aboard and were unable to get a seat. Eventually a lady asked one of them to move and the guy got up and very angrily started talking in his own language. And the lady had a small child and an infant. Meanwhile this guys parents sat and would not move the entire trip even though they were very aware of the rest of us moving for those who needed seats. This is still public transportation in the city, and is not for just tourists. Many people rely on these trams to get up the steep hills and get places where cars cannot. Eventually it cleared out almost at the end and we were able to get a seat. We took the bus back to the center where we had left our luggage before stopping at our fave coffee shop we had found, Copenhagen Coffee Lab.
Our uber driver met us and got us to the airport in record time, dodging cars right and left. We fly to Barcelona tonight, then both fly out tomorrow for home. Portugal was 100/10 People were very friendly and kind and we rarely were made to feel that we were not appreciated as tourists.
After arriving in Barcelona we board the wrong bus accidental to our hotel. Our kind flight attendant was the only other person on the bus and told us where to get off so we wouldn’t be stuck in a place that would be hard to get another bus. Oh and the busses that took credit card when we arrived were now cash only. And it’s 2am. So we had convinced our driver to let us on and offered the only cash we had of 2 euro. But then it was the wrong bus. So we found the right bus, and walked on and tapped our credit card cards as we walked by the driver and walked confidently on and pretended we didn’t know the credit machines were down. How do they expect people to get anywhere from the airport with no currency changing stations open at this hour? Somehow we made it to our hotel for night. And that my friends was the worst inconvenience that happened on the whole trip so I must say it all went very well!
