Day 1 - Lisbon, Portugal

Day 1 - Monday July 18th

We've landed in Lisbon a bit tired and disoriented not only from the Transatlantic flight but also from lack of sleep over the past 8 or so fun filled days including christenings, visitors from across the pond and of course Cat and Ian's nuptials last night (or was that the night before?).  I failed to print or for that matter look up directions to our hostel before take off so we are forced to go with a map and directions from the tourism desk at the airport. Thus begins our never-ending plight to figure out where the hell we are in Lisbon. I consider myself to have a good sense of direction and I could not for the life of me figure out which way was up, down, left, or right in this old world city. Now combine that with a 35 lb pack and hills likened to those in San Francisco and little sleep that first hour was interesting. I've never been so happy to arrive to a hostel before. 

The Chill Out hostel didn't have our rooms ready as we figured since we were early so they offered to take us on a city tour. So after a quick teeth brush we ventured out in our day old, slept in clothes to take in the sights.  Our guide, a soft spoken Dutch girl, took us on a whirlwind tour of the city from the Castelo Di St. George in the old city, Alfama, with sweeping vistas of the city and the sea all the way to Belem to see the Tower of Belem and the Monument of Discoveries. And of course eat a Patis Di Belem. It's a delicious custard pastry which is served warm with a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon. 

While the tour showed us a lot I wish we had the time that day to enter some of the places we saw. Or at least had a guide that had toured them herself. She wasn't a wealth of info but gave a decent overview. If we could have done the day over I think we may have done a hop on/hop off bus. But you live and learn. Lisbon is a beautiful old world city and it was pleasantly void of throngs of tourists. 

This night we did the only logical thing an adult American couple would do their first night in Europe...we set off for the nearest English cinema and watched Harry Potter! Amazing! Unfortunately our dinner was less amazing.  We asked our hostel staff for a good recommendation on the way to the movies and what we later (a bit too late) discovered was he had sent us to a mall food court! Haha. No bourbon chicken here though. We did manage to find a tapas bar that was ok but we soon realized we shouldn't take advice from someone who sleeps on the couch overnight in the hostel every night! 

We ended up having to share our room this night with two English girls and it went fine. The showers at the hostel were the biggest pain as they were getting renovated and no one seemed to think a curtain on the showers was necessary. It became wet mess every time someone took a shower.