Porto a Lisboa

May 3, 2013-

Unfortunately, half of our time in Portugal was over. It was time to take the train to Lisboa: a city 2 hours south of Porto.

We got on the train (without any problems) and finally arrived to the beautiful city of Lisbon. 

After getting off the train we walked out the front door to a MASSIVE cruise ship in the port. Then we got on the metro and made our way to the hostel. 

The first hostel was a success, what are the chances we will have luck with both of them?

We arrived to our second hostel, starving, but was greeted by a tan American man in his 30s. He took us inside and checked us in and showed us our room. The hostel was very open air and looked like a fun place to stay. A lot of young people were walking around and the staff was young. Although it wasn't as brand new and modern as our last hostel, we could tell that were going to have a good time.

We set our stuff down in the room, freshened up, and walked to a restaurant we had passed on our way to the hostel called "American Rock Burgers." With a name like that it has to be good. We sat on the patio to soak up the sun while drinking peach flavored iced tea. For lunch I shared a burger with bacon and a salad with one of my friends. The burger was delicious and the salad was amazing. They even had salad dressing!! Something very foreign in Europe. The only complaint we had was that the menu was in Portuguese so we couldn't understand anything. Around the restaurant was old pictures of the early Rock days and outside was a statue of Elvis. It reminded me of the Hard Rock Cafe; same idea. 

After lunch we walked around the main avenue which was lined with grass, trees, and benches: probably the nicest avenue I've ever seen. Eventually we made our way down to the sea. Along the way we stopped at a winery that had wine tasting for free! We tasted the typical wines of Lisbon, bought a bottle, and then walked to the sea. 

We sat along the sea and enjoyed the hot weather and the wine. As we were sitting there a poor old man fell off his bike behind us and fell pretty bad. He landed right on his cheek so his face was cut up pretty badly. I thought for sure he has broken some teeth, so I couldn't watch. (I have nightmares about that). 

Eventually the ambulance came and cleaned his cut. After awhile he got back on his bike and started riding again.

My roommates sister was in town from the United States on her honeymoon so Cyd wanted to go meet her for dinner. We walked with her to meet with her, exploring the back alleys of Lisbon, and then turned around to go back to the hostel to eat our own dinner (which was free).

For dinner we ate at the big long tables in the main room of the hostel with everyone who was staying there. It reminded me of when I went to camp when I was little. They served us free wine and pasta with broccoli and it was free so we couldn't complain.