Lisbon Day 3

Today we went to the Castle of Saint Jorge which is at the top of a hill by our hostel. The walk was pretty nice and the castle was pretty cool. The castle cost 5 euro to get in so of course we didn’t actually go in so we walked around it and snapped a few pictures. I also tried my first Portuguese cheeseburger at a little shop in the area surrounding the castle. It was kind of funny because when the owner gave me the sandwich the whole bar watched as I took my first bite to see what the American thought of their burger, it was solid. The area surrounding the castle was straight out of a picture book with cobble stone streets and closely packed houses. Portuguese people were clearly very small at the time they were built because I don’t think the doorways were taller than 6 foot , so we all looked enormous next to the doors.

We then decided we wanted to go check out the aquarium so we hopped on a bus which we knew went to the aquarium, little did we know we were hopping on a regular city bus, which made frequent stops, needless to say we were the only tourists on the bus. We reached a stop that Pat thought was the correct stop for some reason and he quickly rushed us off of the bus. Pat still isnt sure where our hostel is located, I don’t know why we thought he knew where he was on this occasion. The other riders of the bus must have been very confused or very amused by the fact that we got off at this stop because we got off at the bus station for the whole city in the middle of a low income housing area. We were literally where they park the busses at night and an hour walk from the aquarium. We walked a few blocks to another bus station where we caught a bus back home. Pat got kicked out of his seat by some old lady who didn’t want him sitting next to her apparently, probably due to his Touristy Turkish Festival hat.

We had another dinner back at the Hostel made by Momma, who loves Lauren Day, probably because her son is in love and was talking all about his American love to her. She literally only asked for Lauren Day’s name and consistently winking at her, Andre is making moves. We met some people from Minnesota, Australia, Germany, Michigan and Scotland and introduced some people to kings. We gave a couple of our new friends from Australia the low down on how the Greek System works. Given the fact that we went out the night before we instantly became the experts on night life in Lisbon so we made our way back to the bar where they make the monster Mojitos and enjoyed another night out in Lisbon and Luaren Day found another love, this time an American who just launched an Iphone app, go download it! It is finger twist or something like that and only costs a buck! Get it while it is hot!

A Wonderful Day in Lisbon

Today we woke up decently early and, upon recommendation by a beautiful bartender we made our way to the Belem area of Lisbon. Here we found a bunch of museums, the presidential palace and a number of beautiful parks. What the bartender did not tell us is that most museums are closed on Monday so we were forced to observe the majority of the museums from the outside, all of which were located in an enormous catholic cathedral. (pictured above)

We then made our way to one of the only museums open- the museum of modern art. Here we saw all sorts of works from a chandelier made entirely of tampons to huge works made entirely of plastic cutlery. Some of the exhibits were just bizarre, one which was by a French artist of course which contained a series of films are art work that were beyond description. For example on of the short films has a midget, a normal sized man, and 2 iguanas covered in oil and rolling around in flour. It appeared that this guy had been by our hostel and bought some of the drugs off of the locals. Once we got away from the French exhibits things got a little better. As we walked by some enormous bean bag creatures and into one of the coolest rooms we had ever seen. Inside the room it was completely dark and there was a huge maze of glowing light of plants, it was as close as any of us thought we would be to int he world of Avatar! Lauren was thrilled! I attempted to capture it on my camera but it was simply too dark to get a good image.

After the museum we hopped on the train and went to the town of Cascais where we sat on on of the most beautiful beached I have ever been to. The sand was very hot on the feet and quite fine. The beach was located in a cove so pat and i got a few climbs in, with the protection of the water below. we also jumped off a few of the rocks into the really cold water below, while Lauren watched us with the concern of a mother. The only topless European women were over the ago of 40.

When we returned from the beach we had one of "mamma's dinners" which for 8 euro included a three course meal and three drinks of our choice so obviously we were in! The meal was good and Lauren and I actually ate with the owner of this wonderful hostel. Lauren thought he was cute and even cuter when she learned he owned the place and was throwing some mad game at the 32 year old slampiece.

After dinner we spoke with a few people from the hostel and the bartender(Bruno) and another local guy offered to take us and a three Germans out for a drink.Laruen instantly fell in love with the curly haired bartender, two loves in one day, we seriously have 5 more weeks in europe we will see many loves of Lauren Day. We went to a bar where the offered mojitos for 7 euro that were insane. They literally poured about 2/3rds of a fifth of rum into the AMF sized drinks, no joke and we took our drinks to the street where everyone was drinking. It was honestly pretty crazy for a monday and we arrived back at the hostel around 4 am for a few more drinks. All of the Germans were extremely fun and goofy. The German guy loved America because we produced Girls Gone Wild and the German girls thought we were ignorant for not knowing where Angola is, wtf. The girls we also half Chinese so yet again Pat found someone to speak Chinese with! Both pairs of roommates we have had since we have been here have been Chinese , the grocery we go to is run by a Chinese family and now some of our friends our Chinese and Pat has seriously broke out his Chinese with all of them! Back at the hostel we got into a huge argument over whether Chuck Norris or David Hasselhof (sp) was a better cultural product, we won because Chuck Norris created the idea of a cultural product as well as all cultural products from for every country. We were supported by a designer from California who is on a European surfing trip (of course). He desgined hotwheels though, enough said.

Anyway it is about 1 pm our time and even pat isnt out of bed so we obviously had a great day yesterday.

Lisbon!

We officially made it to Europe today arriving in Lisbon! After waiting for about an hour in customs we made our way to the buses. I knew we were in a different land when I was about to get on the bus and a lady looked me in the eye and asked me a question I presume. All I could think to say is "Si" and she turned to her husband and started pointing at me and saying "Si" , so apparently I confirmed something to her unknowingly. We are definitely not in Bloomington anymore.

We rode what turned out to be a city bus all the way to Praca de Comercio (pictured), (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praça_do_Comércio) which is apparently the second best planned square in the world- how they determine this I have no idea. I am guessing they want to say that their square is awesome without being boastful. We then began to search for our hostel in a very beautiful district. During our time we (we as in just Dan for some odd reason) were offered weed by atleast 3 people within 10 minutes! They all we wearing suites, as class clearly indicates quality of product, as well as little hats. [I'm convinced one of them tried to franchise the business because all of the suits look the same.] They also sold pipes which looked remarkably like crack pipes. These guys were offering it up in broad daylight, so i guess the laws are less stringent here, crazy portugeise!

We eventually found our hostel which is awesome, I think we are definitely going to be spoiled by this place because it is super clean, has a ton of amenities, and has a ridiculously cheap bar. Happy hour starts at 10pm and goes till when ever (3 good beers for 2 euro). The US should really take after this place with its timing of happy hour because 10pm is obviously when people are looking for drink deals!

We spent the day lounging at cafes where we had some awesome pastries, and Pat and I tried the local beer, of course Pat got the flavored beer so to satisfy his softer side. [ The menu said Super Bock (local beer name) con tango, so I obviously had no idea what I was getting...] Lauren ordered the first of what already seems to be the most delicious coffee in the world. We also went around our area which is full of public squares which are better seen (see images) then described. Tonight we had some of the local cuisine and listened to some man playing guitar and singing: "Hotel California", "Crazy" (yes by gnarles barkley), "I'm Yours" and a number of other American favorites. We also got fooled into eating the bread and cheese they brought us which cost us and additional 3 euro a person -though it was delicious!

Once we arrived back at our hostel we stayed in the lounge area and watched the move Wall Street on a projector. Dan ordered a round of ginja liquor shot, which you are supposed to sip on instead of shoot. The shot was very sweet and reminded me of cherry cordial. Shortly after Lauren went to bed, while Dan and I ordered a few Sagre beers (happy hour). The rest of the hostel attendants were being antisocial facebook stalkers during their vacation, so we just ended up talking to the bar tender for a while. She was a Portuguese local studying computer graphics and she helped map out our Lisbon adventure starting with the beach.

The trip is about to officially begin! We just flew into Philly for our 5 hour layover where I enjoyed an authentic mediocre cheese steak and pat and lauren munched on granola bars.

Our gate is actually hopping because of this nameless bar that is awkwardly placed in the waiting area of gate A11. Seriously, they are playing funky town off of a DVD player in a Bar that Lauren Day and I are convinced came straight from the skymall catalog(see Image). There is no way this little operation is in any way commissioned by the airport, but they have a deal on white Russians so they may be getting my business.

We are all still talking about this trip as if it is months away but in less that 11 hours we will have to negotiate our was to our hostel with zero knowledge of Portuguese. Wish us luck!

START!

TODAY WE START, Jaime cried for hours and hours and hours.