4-17-09

Friday, April 17, 2009

It was a pretty good ride even though it was freezing cold and I was happy I slept quite a bit because otherwise I’d just sit there worrying about my … problems. I woke up about a half hour before we got there to the sound of Stephanie puking and quickly realized that my issues weren’t really that bad. The worst part is that her vomiting didn’t let up for the better part of the trip. Pretty much every time we were on any form of transportation or every time she ate or drank anything.

So after the bus station, Metro, then airport, we were finally on a plane to Lisboa. There were some super annoying people on our flight and Steph was collecting barf bags from everyone but other than that it was good, especially since I slept. The flight was technically only 10 minutes long since we flew back in time so that was nice! We took the airport bus to the Plaça de Rossio then walked ALL around the area trying to find our hostel which ended up being exactly where we got off the bus. Great. It was an awesome hostel though, definitely the best one we’ve ever stayed in. It had beautiful woodwork in the middle (to help support in case of an earthquake?), a movie room, free cubbies under the bed, and it was colorful and cheery.

We couldn’t check in yet so we dropped off our bags and walked around the city for a little while. We went through the Arc de Triomphe to the shore which we thought was the ocean but turned out to be a bay. Either way, I was excited because I thought it was the first time I had been to the Atlantic. (Wrong. Bahamas, Bermuda, Morocco, and maybe Florida? Duh Tammy.) There was a super creepy dude who kept looking at us, making inappropriate gestures, and even licked the salty ground – sick. We got offered marijuana from some shady dude in a suit that just flashed it to us from his hand… no thanks! This happened several times throughout the trip and Marco later told us that these guys basically crush up some herbs and try to sell it to tourists. So after that we went up to the cathedral which was beautiful. Sometimes I start to think they all look the same and I get sick of them but this helped me snap out of that jaded phase. On our way back we scouted a place for dinner that was having a Fado performance (their famous traditional music, singing love songs about distant love – dates back to explorers) then Whitney and Taylor got kebabs. Steph went straight back to rest and I wasn’t hungry at all.

We came back and Steph was asleep in the movie room so we woke her up and went to our room. We took naps, showers, and had some time to just chat and use the internet. Steph brought lots of food so we each had a little bit of bread and a couple strawberries that I saw about an hour later on the Metro. We went down to the lobby and Marco, the hostel worker gave us some advice on where to go and what to see for the night. We went to the Oceanarium (but not inside, too expensive and we were too late) and the area where the Expo ‘__? was. It was so much fun to just wander around, take some pictures and explore the area. There were lots of cool fountains, photo ops and some fun stuff to play on. I guess we were just easily amused!
When we came back the pills were wearing off (or they just never really kicked in) so I took some more medicine but I was so cautious not to overdo it. I learned that lesson in Mexico! We went to dinner and the performance was awesome. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t quite so hot – the cheapest thing on the menu was scrambled eggs so I just got the plain eggs and white rice. I figured that was the blandest, most filling thing. Came back and went to bed in our cute little room with the view overlooking the square and the castle in the distance.