The train seemed kind of like a bad deal from the beginning because there isn't a direct train to Lisbon. We had to go to Vigo, then change trains in Porto, Portugal, then take an overnight train to Lisbon. But hey, train rides are fun, so I thought it couldn't be so bad. The ride to Vigo was alright, we had seats by the door so it was a little chilly with people coming and going. Once we got into the train to Porto, it was very symbolic of the Spain/Portugal difference. I've heard Portugal referred to as a "poor man's Spain" which really does have some merit. Everything is nicer in Spain, and the people make more money per capita. Portugal is more affordable, so if people can't afford to vacation in Spain they go to Portugal. Even the roommate/landlady/resident dictator said that people typically go to Portugal to by big things like furniture and cars because its cheaper there. Portugal isn't in the throws of poverty by any means, but things are just a little more rough around the edges. Anyway, the train was like stepping immediately into Portugal, it was a lot older, run down, and extremely rickety.
We also had to endure 3 hours of Euro PDA. Seriously. YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE, NOR WILL IT KILL YOU TO WAIT A FEW HOURS. I might have adjusted to many unpleasant things here (read: the bathrooms, the exchange rate, the water, public picking of nose/scratching of all itches) but the over-the-top PDA is something I simply cannot get used to.
Once we rolled into Porto, we had to get off the train and wait 2 hours in the middle of the night for the next train. We made it over to a cafe for some port wine, then back to the train station where we washed our faces and brushed our teeth. Note how I didn't say "go to the bathroom" - we couldn't because the CHARGED YOU. Unlike other pay-to-use bathrooms, these weren't a super nice bathroom, nope, it was your regular train station bathroom with some lady at a desk to take your 70 euro cents. They were really strict in Porto, which didn't help my opinion of the city (see previous entry). It was forbidden to put your feet on the metal benches, and I got scolded in Portuguese by a particularly burly looking security guard and so did Farashta. So sleeping was pretty much out of the question. At 01:00, a half an hour before our train left, they kicked everyone out of the train station. Since we don't speak Portuguese we had no idea why, but regardless we shivered our way through the tunnels of the cold outside train platforms to our train to Lisbon.The train was an upgrade, the best part was the 3 across seats that you could sort of lie down in. The train was freezing though. After an sleepless hour I went to the bathroom to put my pajama pants on under my jeans to prevent frostbite, only to be walked in on by a sleepy woman. So I pretty much didn't sleep at all. I was too anxious about missing our stop and about how someone might steal my stuff. I was kind of drifting off to sleep when Farashta and Theresa yell for Kate and I to get off the train - once Kate and I had recovered from the shock we realized just in time that it was the wrong stop and got back on the train. Once we finally made it to our stop we were beyond tired, cold, and mainly just out of it. Since it was 06:00 we knew nothing was going to be open, so we hung out at the train station (careful not to put our feet on the benches) until 07:00. We were ready to find a hostel ASAP, and we walked to the downtown part where Theresa had been told there were lots of hostels for cheap. Well, if there were a lot of hostels they were really well hidden because we couldn't find any. Finally we found a hotel that gave us directions to one 15 minutes away only to find it was all booked. We wondered around a little bit more to find another one that was booked - and this time the lady told us that every hostel was booked. I didn't believe her - how could she check every single hostel in one single phone call? - so we went back to the first hotel because while it wasn't the 15 euros a night that we were hoping for, it wasn't out of our price range and we were so tired, smelly, and exhausted that we just wanted somewhere. The hotel manager told us the same thing - everything was full until MONDAY and we wouldn't be able to find anywhere in Lisbon because it was Semana Santa. Not exactly what we wanted to hear. So we walked to the nearby plaza and sat down to evaluate our options and eat our packed sandwiches. It was about 10:00 at this point and we'd been walking around for almost 4 hours. I looked around and saw a lot of people sleeping by the monument. They had backpacks and nice clothes and it made me think they were travelers just like us that couldn't find somewhere to stay.
This scared me. This was the first time I had ever felt like there might exist the possibility that we really don't have any options. Not only that, but we didn't have a way back until Sunday and we didn't speak the language. I think it was more of the fatigue than anything that made me skip straight to the worse-case scenario, but at the time it felt like a legitimate fear. After we decided on a route to take, we stopped in at three more hostels before we found somewhere with openings. We were so relieved - it was 20 euros a night per person, a little expensive for the two rooms with private baths that we got - but it wasn't the street. Kate and I put our stuff in our room before we went to pay only to return and be unable to unlock the door. The key was stuck.
Not only were we unable to unlock the door, the cleaning lady couldn't get it open, nor could the manager. He even unscrewed the handle to no avail. Finally he told us to come back in 3 hours, he was going to call the locksmith. 3 hours you have got to be kidding. Kate and I were in no mood to hear this. All we wanted was a nice shower to wash away the lingering smell of train and sweat to recharge before we went out to explore Lisbon. Oh well, there wasn't anything we could do. So we went to Theresa and Farashta's room to hang out while they showered.
The view from their room (note the castle at the top of the hill!):
Kate and I made a few videos with my camera about our discontent, and if I knew how to post them I totally would. Once we were all ready we did a little retail therapy until we could get back into our room. Three hours on the dot from when we were told to return, Kate and I took our smelly and slightly greasy (ok, just I was greasy. and there was nothing slight about it) selves back to the hostel to shower while Farashta and Theresa went to have lunch. We got back to the hostel to find that...it still wasn't done. The room was open but they were still working on it. So Kate and I sat down, about ready to slap someone, when I realized that I was missing my pashmina. My beautiful, brand-new Italian pashmina. So I went in vain to try to find it - I retraced my steps and went back to the stores we went to. Nothing. I guess I dropped it then someone picked it up. I walked home, still unshowered, beyond exhausted, minus my new favorite pashmina (I only have two but STILL. it was TRAUMATIC.) thinking about how this was the worst day even despite the fact I was in Lisbon. I got back to the room and told Kate my sad tale of woe, and then there was a knock on the door. It was Theresa, and I was just about to regale about my terrible loss when she exclaimed that her bag had been stolen while they were eating lunch. She had everything in it - her money, her camera, her MP3 player, her phone and her passport.Suddenly my pashmina didn't mean a thing. I let her use my phone to call her mom then we all went to the police station to report it missing. We sat there for a good 2 hours while they filled out the report, Farashta, Kate, and I providing what little details we could. They told us they would call the hostel if they found anything, but they weren't too optimistic. Still shocked, we went back to the hostel so I could shower. Farashta bought Theresa some ice cream and then we went to explore the city.
We saw some more bad English -
Colorful tourist stores - 
The trolleys that were everywhere - 
And the river - 
Before we made it to the castle! Just Kate and I wanted to see it, and it was totally worth it even if we had to pay to get in.
Kate, the photog, told me "you are a beautiful flower"
Views of Lisbon from the courtyard - 
The Castelo de São Jorge was a lot of fun. Basically it was a castle that you could climb all over, and of course, take awesome pictures.
After we were done, we were hungry. We knew that Lisbon has a lot of Brazilian influence (funny because Portugal colonized Brazil now the reverse is happening culturally) so we decided to get a Brazilian dinner. Maybe it was the restaurant, but we weren't that impressed. We ordered "stuffing" which was just meat and cheese. To make up for it, we went through this mall and bought gummi bears. Kate accidentally bought 4 euros worth of gummi bears, ha ha. Walking through the mall we found this odd scooter thing (how are you supposed to make it go?) - 
When we got back to the hotel there was a note from the police saying they found something of Theresa's. So we went back to the police station where we had to wait, yet again. This time there were really nice people to talk to, this one girl from Madrid and I really hit it off and we had a nice conversation in Spanish. Apparently Lisbon is really bad for petty theft. Once it was our turn, we found out we were in the wrong police station so we left to find the right one. They had Theresa's bag - minus, of course, the money, credit cards, MP3 player, and camera. But it had her passport and all of her other things. This is how they work - they take the things of value and get rid of all the evidence that will tie the items to the criminals. After this small victory, we went back for a much needed good night's sleep.The next day, Saturday, we woke up, had breakfast and then left for the Largest Aquarium in Europe. Actually, it is the second largest aquarium in the world. It got rave reviews from Mila, and who doesn't love aquariums? Needless to say, we (ESPECIALLY Kate, who is embarking on the aquarium-tour-of-Europe 2007) were excited to see it. We took the Metro to the Aquarium and it is probably the nicest Metro I've been on yet. It had a lot of really cool art (click here to see some of it) and the cars were very spacious, clean, and had LCD monitors to announce the upcoming stop. The only complain I have is that it didn't actually cover the whole city, but they are working on it. We made it to our stop on the other side of the city and walked along the river to the aquarium, we got a taste of the modern architecture that Lisbon is known for.
This is where all of my saldo goes - 
The aquarium!
I was very impressed with the aqurium, it was by far the best I've ever seen. It was organized by ocean and it had a mock-up of each of the environments with a lot of fish and plants. There was so much to look at and it was a lot of fun. Click here to see the website!They had absolutley everything -
Penguins!
Sea otters!
Divers!
Kate's favorite, sharks!
Rainforests!
Sand fish!
Star fish!
Random assortment of fish!
Colorful fish!
They had this really neat "behind the scenes" part where you could see how they maintained the fishies. Here are some growing sponges - 
and these are baby sharks!
Before we left I wanted a picture with the mascot of the aquarium, but these dumb kids kept getting in the way. Honestly. In this moment, I knew I was very far away from motherhood. 
We had lunch at a cafe near the aquairum where we had smoothies (!! something they don't have here in Europe and we miss dearly). Then we made our way to the Torre del Belem which is basically a tower, but the main draw was the cakes that are made in this neighborhood. I hadn't heard of them before, but Mila said we couldn't go to Lisbon without trying them. We were literally on the opposite side of the city, and we needed to go to the part that (of course) didn't have the Metro. So we took the Metro as close as we could get then crammed onto the trolley until the conductor kicked everyone off for some reason. I know there was a reason, but since I don't speak Portuguese it was lost on me. Then we took the bus, and finally we were at the Tower.
We were 10 minutes late for the last tour, so we couldn't get in. Nuts. So we settled for the small tower - 
and just enjoying the sun.
Then we went for the cakes. Pastels del Belem are kind of like little creme de burles in tart form. They are also called "cakes of cream". OMG, to DIE for. Because I was so engrossed in eating, fat kid forgot to take pictures. But here's the website!In the park we ate our cakes in had a WATER FOUNTIAN. This is the second one I've seen in Europe. I'm not sure why they don't have them here, I think it is because they 1) don't really have a filtration system for the drinking water, so everyone drinks bottled water 2) they are running out of water 3) water foutians are free, and that is not the European way.
It was a really pretty park.
That night for dinner we just wondered around looking for somewhere that looked good. We encountered the euro-typical anti-Bush sentiment - 
And then we saw the Sound of Music musical advertizement at a theater - Kate was beside herself with joy.
Much to Farashta's excitement, we found an Indian restraunt and I had my favorite, lamb korma. Yay! It was a great end to a great day.That next morning (which was Easter) we had breakfast at the same cafe near our hostel (I had another pastel de Belem) then metro'ed to the where the map said the bus station was. Only, there was no bus station. We only had 15 minutes until our bus left and we were in NO MOOD to miss another bus. We grabbed a taxi in the nic of time and told him to take us to the bus station listed on our ticket - which was a bus station NOT ON THE MAP. Once we were at the bus station we threw some euros to the driver and ran to the bus. We made it, barely on time. Call it an Easter miracle.
On the whole, I really liked Lisbon. It was vivid and really clean. They hosted the Word Expo in 1998 so the city was still in realitvely show-case condition. OK, so we only stuck to the touristy sites but I really enjoyed what we saw. Hearing all of the Portuguese really made me excited to start learning it for myself. Lisbon changed my mind about Portugual. I would highly reccomend it to anyone who is considering coming to Europe.
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