What can I say about Lisboa? Well, it looks worn out, rough, and uninviting. The city, as one student puts it, “needs a paint job”. The buildings are unkempt, the people don't seem to be as friendly (definitely not like the Spaniards), and it evokes a feeling of gloominess (or was that due to the rainy weather). All day I kept trying to figure out what place it reminded me of. And it hit me that the structures were very similar to the ones on the coast of Ghana, of all those old houses/businesses owned by Portuguese business men back in the day when they were into selling slaves.
But underneath the cold surface is a very beautiful city. One minute you’ll want to grab a bucket of water and soap and start doing some renovations, and the next minute, you’ll just stare in awe of the amazing exterior wall mosaics, the grand Cathedral of San Geronimo, the very cool monument for Portuguese explorers, and the eye catching purple flowers of the jacaranda trees all over the city. The city isn’t so bad after all, except for the fact that the men like to stare and it seems to have a deficit of good-looking men. It wouldn’t have bad if the starers were cute, but no one was cute. Elaine and I were very disappointed. Also, it seemed like the old to young people ratio was 20 to 1. It was so rare for me to see young people. Maybe we were just in the wrong area but Lisbon, I swear, only consists of old people and unattractive men. Sorry Lisbon!
The tour bus also took us to nearby towns. We drove through Estoril, which I slept through so I got nothing to say about it. Apparently, it’s a town where all the super rich vacation and exiled politicians live (i.e. the King of Spain during Franco’s dictatorship). For lunch, we went to the town of Cascais, which we all seem to have a hard time saying (try it yourself: \Kash-kaysh\), and we got to taste piri piri sauce and bacalao (cod), their specialty. There we got to see more beautiful homes of the rich and famous (ie. Winston Churchill).
After lunch, we made our way to Sintra to see some old palace. On the way there, we saw the westernmost point of Europe (I’m assuming mainland Europe…minus Iceland). I wanted to stay there. In that area is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (according to the guide) and it’s the beach where they hold the wind surfing world championship. It was pretty cool and the beach was beautiful. The palace was also not so bad. My favorite was the ballroom that had 27 swans painted on the ceiling. The story goes like this: the princess didn’t find a husband until she was 27 , a very old age for that time period (I would be considered an old maid in those days). Before she left to go to France to live with her husband, her mother wanted to remember her by painting the swans, her daughter’s fave, on the ceiling for the 27 wonderful years she had spent at home. Awwww. I even enjoyed the swan ceiling…and I hate birds!!!
In Sintra, we also went to a wine shop that sold Port wine. Port wine comes from the Northern Portuguese town of Porto. We didn’t have enough time to go there, so we had to resign to buying Port from towns a few hundred kilometers away from Porto. The shopkeeper let us try some super expensive 600 Euro wine and it was awesome! Surprisingly, I even liked it. Not surprisingly, I still got pretty tipsy from a fifth of a glass of wine.
Portugal was excellent. I give it a one and half thumbs up (minus half for the lack of hot men!)
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| Lisboa |
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| Fatima |
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| From Lisbon to Madrid |
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