We go into the hostel and meet Fabio - a very nice guy who lets us check in about 4-5 hours earlier than the actual check in time. In my opinion, this hostel has been the most fun one so far, because of the longer-term guys who have been staying there, Antonio - a 56 year old Spaniard and Fabrizio - a 44 year old Canadian / Italian - and Pedro - from Pourtugal but living in Switzerland and seemed to be there for work. My favorite quote from Antonio is "My Dr, he say that I have to stop smoking, I have to stop drinking so what I do? I find a new Dr." Masira was from The Netherlands and was a really, really good cook, so we were very well fed for a couple dinners there. He he - we had 2 parties at the hostel, one where I got WAY too drunk and poor Ana had to deal with a hung over Mandi the next day - I lost our locker key that night on a walk to the river... no clue where it went, had to pay for it when I checked out... cest la vie - and another where I just stayed up too late. The second party was funny because Pedro kept on asking me if I wanted more wine, which I didn't but saying no didn't help, my glass kept on getting magically refilled. It was also funny that at the hostel you could get a water pipe and sheesha to smoke while you were there - a couple of people from the party got one and brought it to the kitchen when they were going to bed so we got to smoke some pretty good mint sheesha (it's a kind of tabacco). When we left, Ana made some chicken and fideo which was good, as always, and we asked the guys if they liked it hot, they said yes, so she made it spicy and then when we were eating, I swear, they were sweating. It was hilarious! So remember, when a Mexican asks you if you like it spicy think about your answer!
We had an adventure in eating while we were in Lisbon - we were looking for an Indian place, instead we found a Portuguese place - very small, full of local little old men watching the football match. The waiter spoke no English and understood a bit of Spanish. He ended up bringing us 2 plates full of chicken, beef, pork, tripe, pig knuckles, rice, potatoes, beans and carrots. We ate what we could, then found out that it was the special of the day, so we could also have chicken soup and dessert - all of that for both of us was 15 euros. Neither of us could fit anymore in our stummies, so instead we went to the store and bought stuff to make sammiches for later. We tried eating out one other time, this time to a place that had the menu in Portuguese, Spanish and English - I had the pork loin and sweet potatoes with sesame seeds - OMG it was sooo good. Ana had the codfish on toast with greens and tomatoes - also good and more typical Portuguese. When we first got there, they brought out bread, unsalted butter, olive paste and olive oil - OMG, I thought that I had died and gone to culinary Heaven. It tasted so, sooo good. Now we have decided that we will go to a wine, cheese and olive oil tasting while we are in Italy. I don't know what they do to the food here, but it is so good.
We did the tour and we were the only ones who showed up, so it was a little awkward come time to tip the man - they say that there are 7 hills in Lisbon, well they are friggin' steep hills!! He did tell us that the "Golden Gate Bridge" in Lisbon is not a copy of the one in San Francisco, it was just built by the same guy so it looks very similar. However, the Jesus statue that looks like the one in Rio de Janiero is a copy. Some guy went to Rio and liked the statue, wanted to build one in Lisbon and how did he raise the money? He went to the women and said "the Lord kept us out of WW2, kept your sons and husbands from dying so you should donate to the building of this statue to thank Him." It worked - we have a lot of pix of the statue. He also told us that they celebrate the feast of St. Anthony in Lisbon, it's a big deal because he was from there - the celebration is the end of May / beginning of June and they decorate the streets for it - the decorations were still up (in Jan). Made me laugh because my old roomie and I had our Christmas tree up for about 2 years... and I never knew I was Portuguese before! He he. Also, we found out that the Portuguese language (along with French) is the closest to the original Latin, but with a few thousand words that have their roots in Arabic, so that's why a Portuguese person understands Spanish but a Spanish speaking person doesn't understand Portuguese.
We also took a day trip to Fatiima, which personally I think should count toward some time off from Purgatory considering how it ended up. First, we got on the train because per the train info, you could take it to Fatima. On the train, the conductor guy comes by and asks us about our reservation... we didn't have one, nothing told us that we needed one... so he takes our rail pass, comes back and says 5 euros each for the reservation. Fine, we can do that, pay and sit and he comes by to tell me when it's our stop... the train stops at the middle of nowhere, we get off the train and I figure, "ok, we'll have to take a bus." Wait for the bus, bus gets there, we pay to go to Fatima. We get to Fatima and it's raining. I didn't bring my umbrella, but Ana brought hers and she has a hood, so she lets me use her umbrella. We find a hotel and ask where the basilica is - the lady is really nice, gives us a map, shows us how to get there. Great. We find the place. I know nothing about what the buildings are, I just know that I wanted to go to Fatima. We go up to the basilica and they are having Mass, so we wait for them to finish and have lunch while waiting (we brought sammiches). We go into the basilica and take some pictures, but it's kind of loud and echo-y so we go to the chapel where the apparitions actually took place (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about). They are praying a rosary in Portuguese there, so we sit and pray a bit. Then after the rosary they have Mass, so we stay for that too. After Mass I stayed for a bit and Ana went to find somewhere warm and dry. We met up later, she hadn't had any luck - we went shopping for a couple things for my family members (I gotcha something) and then we went for coffee. At this moment, our feet are still dry, although our pants are soaked from the bottom of our jackets to the ground. Somewhere from the coffee shop to the bus station, our feet get soaked. We take the bus all the way back to Lisbon because I thought it would make more sense than trying to figure out where we got off the train. We get back to Lisbon and... we have no idea where we are. There are more than one bus station for Lisbon. We end up taking the metro to get back to the train station that we originally came from, bought the reservations to leave the next day on another night train to Madrid and then the train to Barcelona, took the bus back to the hostel and didn't leave again. I would like to go back to Fatima some day, and will remember to check the weather first! It was really pretty, just really wet too. And the sun never came out the next day, so we had to hang our wet things in a bathroom that wasn't being used until it was time for us to leave. Sigh. Nothing was dry, so guess what the mission was in Barcelona... you guessed it - LAUNDRY! Ick. I also had to wear my flip flops since my boots were soaked, so now I have a very nice ankle the size of a basketball. Hence the reason why the blog is getting updated so soon! Hopefully my boots will be dry by tomorrow and my ankle will be the right size so that we can go see the Mediterranean sea! I've always wanted to see the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean seas!!
So all in all, it's been good. Just need to start remembering to check the weather (but does anyone ever really trust the weatherman? o_0). It was fun having a couple parties with people - reminded me of the groups I used to get into trouble with... K-mart crew, college peeps, the guys from OD and Pariah (especially when they brought out the hookah - oh my, oh my), my TX crazies... well I ain't never had too much fun! ; )
We had an adventure in eating while we were in Lisbon - we were looking for an Indian place, instead we found a Portuguese place - very small, full of local little old men watching the football match. The waiter spoke no English and understood a bit of Spanish. He ended up bringing us 2 plates full of chicken, beef, pork, tripe, pig knuckles, rice, potatoes, beans and carrots. We ate what we could, then found out that it was the special of the day, so we could also have chicken soup and dessert - all of that for both of us was 15 euros. Neither of us could fit anymore in our stummies, so instead we went to the store and bought stuff to make sammiches for later. We tried eating out one other time, this time to a place that had the menu in Portuguese, Spanish and English - I had the pork loin and sweet potatoes with sesame seeds - OMG it was sooo good. Ana had the codfish on toast with greens and tomatoes - also good and more typical Portuguese. When we first got there, they brought out bread, unsalted butter, olive paste and olive oil - OMG, I thought that I had died and gone to culinary Heaven. It tasted so, sooo good. Now we have decided that we will go to a wine, cheese and olive oil tasting while we are in Italy. I don't know what they do to the food here, but it is so good.
We did the tour and we were the only ones who showed up, so it was a little awkward come time to tip the man - they say that there are 7 hills in Lisbon, well they are friggin' steep hills!! He did tell us that the "Golden Gate Bridge" in Lisbon is not a copy of the one in San Francisco, it was just built by the same guy so it looks very similar. However, the Jesus statue that looks like the one in Rio de Janiero is a copy. Some guy went to Rio and liked the statue, wanted to build one in Lisbon and how did he raise the money? He went to the women and said "the Lord kept us out of WW2, kept your sons and husbands from dying so you should donate to the building of this statue to thank Him." It worked - we have a lot of pix of the statue. He also told us that they celebrate the feast of St. Anthony in Lisbon, it's a big deal because he was from there - the celebration is the end of May / beginning of June and they decorate the streets for it - the decorations were still up (in Jan). Made me laugh because my old roomie and I had our Christmas tree up for about 2 years... and I never knew I was Portuguese before! He he. Also, we found out that the Portuguese language (along with French) is the closest to the original Latin, but with a few thousand words that have their roots in Arabic, so that's why a Portuguese person understands Spanish but a Spanish speaking person doesn't understand Portuguese.
We also took a day trip to Fatiima, which personally I think should count toward some time off from Purgatory considering how it ended up. First, we got on the train because per the train info, you could take it to Fatima. On the train, the conductor guy comes by and asks us about our reservation... we didn't have one, nothing told us that we needed one... so he takes our rail pass, comes back and says 5 euros each for the reservation. Fine, we can do that, pay and sit and he comes by to tell me when it's our stop... the train stops at the middle of nowhere, we get off the train and I figure, "ok, we'll have to take a bus." Wait for the bus, bus gets there, we pay to go to Fatima. We get to Fatima and it's raining. I didn't bring my umbrella, but Ana brought hers and she has a hood, so she lets me use her umbrella. We find a hotel and ask where the basilica is - the lady is really nice, gives us a map, shows us how to get there. Great. We find the place. I know nothing about what the buildings are, I just know that I wanted to go to Fatima. We go up to the basilica and they are having Mass, so we wait for them to finish and have lunch while waiting (we brought sammiches). We go into the basilica and take some pictures, but it's kind of loud and echo-y so we go to the chapel where the apparitions actually took place (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about). They are praying a rosary in Portuguese there, so we sit and pray a bit. Then after the rosary they have Mass, so we stay for that too. After Mass I stayed for a bit and Ana went to find somewhere warm and dry. We met up later, she hadn't had any luck - we went shopping for a couple things for my family members (I gotcha something) and then we went for coffee. At this moment, our feet are still dry, although our pants are soaked from the bottom of our jackets to the ground. Somewhere from the coffee shop to the bus station, our feet get soaked. We take the bus all the way back to Lisbon because I thought it would make more sense than trying to figure out where we got off the train. We get back to Lisbon and... we have no idea where we are. There are more than one bus station for Lisbon. We end up taking the metro to get back to the train station that we originally came from, bought the reservations to leave the next day on another night train to Madrid and then the train to Barcelona, took the bus back to the hostel and didn't leave again. I would like to go back to Fatima some day, and will remember to check the weather first! It was really pretty, just really wet too. And the sun never came out the next day, so we had to hang our wet things in a bathroom that wasn't being used until it was time for us to leave. Sigh. Nothing was dry, so guess what the mission was in Barcelona... you guessed it - LAUNDRY! Ick. I also had to wear my flip flops since my boots were soaked, so now I have a very nice ankle the size of a basketball. Hence the reason why the blog is getting updated so soon! Hopefully my boots will be dry by tomorrow and my ankle will be the right size so that we can go see the Mediterranean sea! I've always wanted to see the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean seas!!
So all in all, it's been good. Just need to start remembering to check the weather (but does anyone ever really trust the weatherman? o_0). It was fun having a couple parties with people - reminded me of the groups I used to get into trouble with... K-mart crew, college peeps, the guys from OD and Pariah (especially when they brought out the hookah - oh my, oh my), my TX crazies... well I ain't never had too much fun! ; )
The Lisbon bridge was made by the "United States Steel Export Company". The design is similar to the Oakland Bay Bridge, but in red color, like the Golden Gate.
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