Hey, Lisboa!

All righty! Here is my overdue blog post about my trip to Lisbon, or Lisboa, as it is in Portuguese (I'll probably switch between both names). Sorry it has taken so long, but I was abnormally exhausted when I got home last Monday and I had an extremely busy week at the university afterwards. I think once I finish the blog, you'll see why I was so tired and why I took Saturday off this past weekend.

To begin, Pamplona is a great city, but it's not a hub for travelling, so normally I have to catch a bus to another city to travel to where I want to go. This time, I caught a bus to San Sebastian to be able to take a train to Lisbon.

It was a rush to get out of the door. I was catching an afternoon bus (4:00) to San Sebastian, but my Spanish grammar class doesn't get out until then. So I left class early, at 3:00, in order to get home, grab my stuff, and eat. Of course, on the day that I don't have time to eat slowly, Carmen cooks me something really good. Ah well.

But speaking of Carmen cooking, she had prepared me a bag of food to get me started on the trip. It consisted of three sandwiches, some fruit, crackers, and a bottle of water. So nice!

On my way to the bus station, I realized that I had left my phone charger at home. I considered just letting my iPhone die, but then too many people wanted me to check in with them for me to be able to do that, as in my mom and my host mom. Plus, my iPhone is my camera so I wouldn't have been able to take any pictures.

When I got to San Sebastian, I had a couple hours before I had to catch the train. I found the train station, got my physical tickets (I'd ordered them online), and then went to go find a phone charger. I figured it would be pretty easy to buy one since so many people have iPhones. And it was. I had to try a few shops, but I eventually found one an Apple store. It was really weird that I just stumbled upon one. I'm used to those being really rare and hard to find.

After that, I returned to the train station. There wasn't any wifi in the actual station, so I had to go to the next one over (for more info, see my post about top secret wifi). When it was time, I got on the train.

I found my train tickets for a heavily discounted price online via Logitravel.com. I basically got round-trip tickets for less than the price of a one-way ticket. It was awesome. However, as they were so cheap, they were the basic tourist tickets, as in, I sat in a seat the whole way there. And it was a 8-10 hour night train. I got a lot of reading done, at least! Luckily, the guy sitting next to me got off in Salamanca and I was able to stretch out on the seat and sleep the rest of the way.

The train arrived in Libsoa promptly at 7:15 in the morning. I was supposed to meet my friend Mary Catherine at 8:15 in her hotel. Luckily, it was only a 20 minute or so walk from the train station, so I had time to make a few wrong turns and still get there early. However, I had printed off a map back in Pamplona, so I really didn't have too much trouble finding the place. The cool thing about the iPhone is that the "Maps" app doesn't need wifi to tell you where you are, so I was able to keep my bearings very well.

As I said, I arrived at the hotel early, so I found an outlet where I could charge my phone and sat there reading until Mary Catherine showed up. She took me up to her room so I could leave my backpack there. They had a great set-up in that hotel. She was sharing the room with 2 other girls, however they had plenty of space. It was sort of 3 room in one, even though there were no doors separating the rooms, the curve of the rooms separated it into 3 distinct parts. There was a bed right as you walked in and then two more the back room area, which looked like your typical hotel.

After that, I went with Mary Catherine to get some coffee and fruit from their complementary breakfast area. I had eaten my last sandwich for breakfast, but I never say no to coffee or fruit. We saw the professors who were in charge of the group and, to my surprise, one of them was Dr. Campbell, who I had had for a general education history class the semester before. I, of course, knew who the other professor was, Dr. Heiser, but we had never been formally introduced, so I introduced myself and thanked both of them for letting me tag along.

Once I was finished with second breakfast, Mary Catherine and I went down to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the group. I pretty much recognized everybody (PC is a small school, after all), but Mary Catherine was the only one that I was actually friends with before the trip. There was a group of soccer girls on the trip, a few guys, Dr. Heiser's daughter, and one of mine and Mary Catherine's sorority sisters who is a freshman this year.

The first thing we did was walk to the highest point of Lisboa, which is St. George's Castle or Castelo de S. Jorge. It consisted of a medieval castle/fortress, a little museum, and nice places to look around. I took some really nice pictures up there. It was fun, of course, to explore a castle. It was kind of strange how many cats and peacocks were hanging around the castle. We all got a kick out of the male peacocks showing off for the female ones.

Visiting places like the medieval castle, reminds me that I'm in Europe and not America. The first reason is obvious. America is too new to have medieval castles and landmarks. However, the other reason is that America focuses so much more on safety that places in Europe. If you fall and break your neck, well too bad. You should have been more careful. In the US we have such a problem with lawsuits, that the more dangerous parts of the castle would have been blocked off.

After that, we went to a cathedral with cool cloisters that the other students had learned about in their classes preparing for the trip. A couple of students did a presentation outside of the cathedral, explaining the history behind it. I could tell you some of the history, but I just can not remember the name. Sorry. Anyway, we were also really distracted by a gypsy lady who was walking around behind the two students presenting and begging passersby for money.

For us to see the cloisters, they made us pay. For some reason, making people pay inside a church for things bugs me. I guess, I'm used to churches asking for donations, but actually making people pay is different. Especially while a mass is going on. I guess cathedrals have morphed from a place solely for worship into a tourist attraction that happens to still have worship services. This one was also selling souvenirs, like the cathedrals in Paris.

After the castle,  we headed down and went to a Fado museum, which is a type of Portugese music. We were going to a Fado dinner that night, so the professors wanted us to learn a little about it beforehand.

We split up for lunch and had a free afternoon afterwards. I learned that I have a really good sense of direction for places that I've already been to. I was able to find my way back to the shopping center, bank, and hotel. Mary Catherine and Emily, our sorority sister, were with me and I'm pretty sure that thought I was going to get them lost, but I did good. I was real proud.

We went shopping for a little bit after lunch. Then we went back to the hotel so I could get my backpack and Mary Catherine and I set off to find my hostel. It took us three hours to find it. It was in a really out of the way place and no one knew where it was. We asked for directions like 10 different times, got told different things every time, and eventually tried to find it by taking a taxi. However, the taxi driver didn't know where it was either, so he took us to the right street. Then it took us about 15 more minutes to find it from that street. I was so afraid the hostel would be really sketchy, since no one knew where it was, but it actually was very nice. Just in a really weird place.

On top of all that, Mary Catherine and I had to navigate through a giant protest several times to get to where we wanted. Spain and Portugal, along with Greece, have the worst economy in Europe right now. There are protests all the time. We definitely had an adventure that afternoon.

After I got settled into the hostel, we headed back to the hotel to have a quick break before dinner. I noticed that the hostel didn't provide towels and as I hadn't brought one, Mary Catherine and the other girls graciously let me use their shower. As I hadn't showered since the day before (night train, remember?), I was really feeling the shower.

The professors had invited us to get drinks on the rooftop before heading out to dinner, so once I finished my shower, I met up with the rest of the group. We all tried different drinks and tasted each others. I got some kind of Brazilian mix thing. It was very good, but cinnamony so some people didn't like it. I love cinnamon anything, so I loved it.

We walked to the Fado place and sat down for dinner. It was probably one of the fanciest dinners that I've ever been to. There were several courses and plenty of wine. Intermittently, a Fado singer would get up and perform for us. They were all really great singers. I really enjoyed how strong their voices were. I was also amazed at how much I could understand. Portugese and Spanish are extremely similar  I could understand about 30% of the song.

The dinner cost more that I want to say, but all in all, the cultural experience was worth it. I will say, however, that travelling with professors is much different than travelling with friends. Professors have much more expensive tastes than students on a budget. The other students on the trip had already paid up front, so it didn't matter in this case.

Eventually we were too tired to stay any longer, so we headed back for the night. Once we neared where my hostel was, Dr. Campbell sent some other students to walk me back, which was very comforting since the hostel was in an out of the way location. When I got back, I utilized the free wifi of the hostel and then crashed. I talked a little bit with the girl who was sharing my room, but I was too tired to talk for too long. I did learn that she's another American who is studying in Madrid for the semester. She came down to visit Lisboa for a weekend as well.

The day started early, and I headed out to meet the rest of the group at the hotel. My hostel provided breakfast, which was nice so I didn't have to worry about that. However, I did make a stop at Starbucks on my way to the hotel. Worth every penny.

Our first stop on the agenda was Jeronimos Monastery. It's a gorgeous macdaddy monastery designed by a monk ages ago. It was actually supposed to be bigger, but they never completed it fully. I think it was big enough. We spent some time looking around in there.

Once we finished touring the monastery, we walked through an outdoor market on our way to Belem. I hope that Pamplona gets more outdoor markets when the weather is better. I really love looking around at the goods.

Belem is a part of the city dedicated to the Age of Discovery. Fun fact: Belem is the Portugese word for Bethlehem. There is a landmark that honors the explorers. There is also the Belem Tower which used to serve as a check-in point before ships could enter the city. It was quite lovely. We climbed up the top and had a nice view of the harbor.

After looking at the harbor, we went by El museo de coches (I think I said that in Spanish and not Portugese... whoops) or the Museum of Cars. Now, we Dr. Campbell said this, I groaned inwardly. I'm not a car person. However, it turned out to be about carriages that famous and royal people had ridden in. They were all ornate and gorgeous. I didn't mind looking at them at all. Glad the museum was not what I expected.

For lunch, most of us went to this little kebab shop next to the hotel. Since living in Germany, I've had a love for doner kebabs. In my stay here, the kebabs I got in that little shop were the best (I got a falafel kebab for dinner as well).

After lunch, we had a free afternoon again. A lot of people went to an art museum, but I decided to stay back and study for an exam that I had on Monday. I found a little outdoor cafe and sat watching the city. It got to be really annoying, however, because people would shamelessly come up to the tables and ask for money. It really bugged me, because I was trying to study and they made me feel bad.

Once everyone got back, we all took naps. I had to take a quick one because I had to catch my train. I took a 30 minute nap and then took another shower. I said goodbye to Mary Catherine and headed to the station. I had a little freakout at the station, because I thought I had the wrong train, but it's because the signs are really confusing for trains and only say the final destination, not the other ones. So it was fine. I got on my train with no problem.

I decided that for the ride back, I would try to upgrade my ticket to get a bed. So once the conductor asked me for my ticket, I asked if there were any beds open. There were! He showed me to a compartment with two bunk beds. It was very tight (tourist class), but it was a bed. He took my ticket and said that I would be charged the price difference. Well normally these beds costs 90 euros and the seats 50 something euros. Well, I had gotten mine for a discount, so I was afraid that they'd charge me a lot, but I really wanted a bed so I would have paid it. However, they only charged me 25 euros, which was so much less than I was expecting. I gratefully paid it and sleep great the whole way back.

It still amazes me how smooth my return trip went. I got the train bed, I easily caught my bus back to Pamplona in San Sebastian, and made it back in perfect time for my exam. The only stressful part was that I had to catch a taxi, which was a pain. I'm pretty sure he charged too much, but I didn't have time to question it. I had an exam to take.

There you have it! My trip to Lisbon in a nutshell. It was a great time! Sorry it took so long to post.