Lisbon: Day One

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  Lisbon, Portugal
Sunday, August 13, 2006

In an attempt to leave Spain, Kelly and I took a midnight bus to Lisbon. This was not nearly as exciting as a midnight train to Georgia, but I digress. Actually, this bus ride was down right painful. I was stuck in a non reclining seat next to a Chinese girl who insisted on putting her head on my shoulder and snoring like a chain saw. Worse than that, however, was the fact that the bus driver played his music at roughly 2000 decibels. Worse than that, was the music that he was blaring. Phil Collins, The Cutting Crew, Roy Orbison, and HERO by Mariah Carey were all blared on a loop for eight painful hours. Kelly slept like a baby. When we arrived in Lisbon, it was six in the morning on a Saturday. Nothing is open. I tried to find us a place to crash... No dice. So we did what any sleep deprived logical person would do. We found where the Gypsies were sleeping on the water front, plopped down our bags and crashed hard. When we woke up the gypsies started laughing at us and made snoring noises. Then they went back to fishing for lunch. Confused, but refreshed we plunged back into Lisbon and after numerous rejections, found a place to stay with a Pakistani family. I'm talking from Grandparents to little kids... and then the Cropps.

Lisbon is a very beautiful city. It was leveled in 1755 by an earthquake, so the buildings are newer than in most European cities that weren't leveled by bombs in WWII. Its got a similar vibe to Spain, but doesn't seem to take itself as seriously. I really liked it. Kelly and I spent most of the day, as we do most days, just walking around looking at stuff and watching people. We ate a picnic lunch, our new money saving custom, in the park. And as we were so wiped out, for the second time in a day slept in a park.

Later that night, we splurged and went out to a nice dinner. It was great, the street was alive with musicians, flower hawkers, and guys trying to sell me hash. I'm not kidding, I bet I got asked to buy hash a dozen times... We sat by a nice older couple on a date and next to a couple of girlfriends who insisted on singing all through dinner. They actually had angelic voices. Their taste in music(To All The Girls Ive Loved Before) left something to be desired though. The older gentleman bought all of the girls at the table a rose at the end of the night. I should really take a lesson from this cat. Women love flowers. We had to be up early the next day to meet my buddy Neill at the airport, so we cashed in early. It was going to be a long week.

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