where the grafitti is stenciled on

so i have probably mentioned that my roommate emma is gone basically every weekend. and there are a lot of people in the program here that are travling constantly. but i have no such plans. there are a couple of problems with everyone being gone while i am still here. perhaps the most important is that my meals alone with juaq are super awkward. we basically end up watching spanish who wants to be a millionaire and eating as quickly as possible.

so, when josh asked me if i wanted to go to lisbon, portugal for a weekend with him and kevin i was all for it. not because i really wanted to go to portugal. quite honestly, i didnt know a single thing about lisbon other than the fact that it was in portugal. what i did know was that going meant one weekend without awkward dinners of mushy vegetables and eggs. we booked our tickets a week before the flight, and went without knowing a single thing about the city.

but, really, not knowing was the best thing that could have happened.

we got to the airport having no idea how to get to our hostel. In fact, josh had even forgotten to write down the address, so all we knew was the name of the hostel and that it was supposedly in the main square downtown, accross from a theater. thankfully, the airport information man was extremely nice and figured everything out for us, and got us on a bus that dropped us off directly in front of our hostel!

we had a three bed romm in the hostel, with our own bathroom. other than the bathroom door having some trouble closing, it was a pretty nice set up.

after claiming beds, checking out the view from our window, and so on, we went on to get some dinner. the guy at the front desk gave us a map and showed us where mcdonalds and hard rock cafe were. but we gave him a mean look, so then he showed us where a restaurant with good grilled chicken was. apparently portugal is known for their grilled meats. we left, and the boys led the way to the restaurant. and even though the guy at the desk gave us super clear directions, the boys decided following the map was better, and got us lost. finally we decided to just stop at a random restaurant, and it was the right one!

we all ordered grilled chicken, and while we were waiting they put out some bread and cheese and this little ceramic container that seemed to have olive oil in it for brushing onto the bread. mm, olive oil bread. i soaked my bread with it, took a big excited bite...it wasnt olive oil. it hurt. my mouth was burning, and we hadnt even gotten water yet. we decided that it was mustard seed oil, and i got a new roll. i then proceeded to eat the biggest plate of meat i have ever seen, and ordering a mystery dessert (which turned out to be pineapple and whipped cream)

after dinner we tried to go to barria alta, where we had heard all the good night life was, but got lost again. instead of barria alta we ended up just walking up this huge hill on a super sketchy road with lots of strip clubs. I have never seen such a lack of pedestrian women on the streets. i convinced the boys that we were going back downtown, and ended up going to a small bar near our hostel and spent the night listening to top eighty hits from the 90's. (i have learned that all of the iberian peninsula listens to bad american music, and especially enjoy the eighties and nineties)

even the cafe we went to the next morning for breakfast (after eating an entire bag of pan con tomate tostas-aka, best pizza chips ever) was playing VH1 i love the eighties. ridiculous.

we woke up the next morning, and still have very little idea of what there was to see in the city. so we walked. we walked up random hills, down little alleyways. we ran into a castle (caste of sao jorge). apperently the castle foundations were built in the second century BC, or something crazy like that. but we didnt go inside becuase it was really expensive. at one point we recognized how awesome the graffiti was all over the city and had a photo shoot. seriously, the graffiti was amazing. other than the cool freehand stuff there was also a ton of clearly stenciled designs all over the place. the graffiti artists are super prepared.

we also tried to walk to this place in lisbon called belem, which is where another old castle and architecture and some war memorials...aka, tourist central. but then we realized half way there that we had been walking for over an hour, and it was still so far away. so we went to cafe and chilled. after a cheap dinner of sandwiches, and some rest time in the hostel, we decided to try to get back up to barria alta. but first we had to visit the beautiful bartended from the bar we had been to last night. this time there were live musicians singing bad music from the nineties. it was awesome. haha. but josh, being super lame, was falling asleep in his chair. so we had to get him moving and went on our way up the hill.

and i must admit, i wasnt sure it would happen. i thought we were surely going to get lost in the red light district again, and be followed by creepy men again down the hill, and walk by drug deals on the street. and we kind of did get lost. and kevin and i looked at josh and told him "we are in exactly the same place as we were yesterday!". but we kept walking, and saw some other people walking further up the hill, so we kept going. and the streets were silent. so not party central. up the hill, more and more. turn the corner....biggest block party in the world. block after block the streets were crowded with people drinking and eating these amazing looking toasted sandwiches. and people with their guitars and accordians playing together. it was amazing. the boys each got a sandwich and stood on the side of the street talking politics, while i talked to some locals. (we also saw some other people from our program in barcelona, but they were annoying so i am going to skip that part of the night)

around 3AM, i am talking to this group of portuguese guys about sports (haha, oh boy), and they are about to go to a party somewhere else, and ask if i want to go. i do not, so i tell them that i have to stay with my friends, and point to the political debate. they say, oh thats fine, just tell your friends they are coming. so i go over to josh and kevin, and we realize we dont know how to be polite in this situation, so we runaway. literally, we ran through the crowd, down the hill, until we knew they couldnt see us anymore. and returned to our hostel, a locked hostel! there was supposed to be someone at the desk to buzz us in at all hours of the morning, but nobody was letting us in. another group of girls from the hostel even showed up and wanted in too. i seriously thought we were going to be spending the night on this bench. but eventually the group of us was loud enough, apparently, and the person at the desk woke up and let us in. a hostel bed has never felt so wonderful.

the next day we figured out the bus system to get us to belem, and spent the day laying in the sun by the water next to beautiful towers and castles.