Lisbon & Surroundings (Day 5-9)

“Hash?” “Marijuana?” – you can actually hear these words whispered to you at least 10 times per day in Lisbon, especially when walking down its main streets.
However, in case you are talking to someone, minding your own business and not paying attention to the “whisperer”, you might even get a very loud “Spaaace caaake!!!” – shouted to you by someone who looks as if recently returned from space. 🙂
Other things which I found very amusing were those related to public transportation, which is always surprising, meaning you might wait for the bus in the right place to go to your desired location and the bus stops in a totally different place. Of course, everybody seems to know about this, except for the turists.
Or you may find yourself in the station, waiting for the bus, the bus comes and stops, but then the driver just disappears. And so you find yourself in the middle of the day, at 40 degrees on average, looking at an empty bus, your bus! If you stay long enough to see what happens, you`ll see that a stranger gets in the bus (as the middle doors were left open), starts the bus and there you have a new driver.
Shifts seem to happen all the time in Lisbon (or maybe we stayed too long), especially in supermarkets and in the public transportation network. In conclusion, when the person who is supposed to help you (to get from A to B or to get your groceries) simply disappears, don`t panic and don`t despair, another one will come (luckily soon enough) and life will go on.
What I also found very funny was how grumpy many of the Portuguese people can be. If they happen to come from the opposite direction and you don`t pay enough attention, they`ll just walk over you. If you hear “sorry”, then it`s a tourist! 🙂
Also, the ride with the old trams: they seem to dismantle every second (imagine they are considered “national monuments”, so they really are old), yet they run at very high speed.
The ride with the elevadors (looking like an old trams, also “national monuments”, but used for very steep routes only) is no less thrilling although they go very slowly. Imagine 50 people in one little tram, at least 100 years old (the tram!), climbing a hill. You are waiting for the machine to stop totally and go the other way, as the gravity would suggest.
There is so much chaos in Lisbon`s way of life, but this is what makes this city so full of energy and so alive! All these and, of course, the sun! Which shines the entire day, no interruptions. We saw two clouds one day and we thought that might be considered bad weather in Lisbon. 🙂
Here they are, the photos from the last part of the holiday, including:
– the arrival of Autumn in the city of never-ending Summer (at least that`s how I perceived it)
– cookies, trams, tiles, people and ice-cream
– more nights in Bairro Alto (with the same lively atmosphere as described in my previous post)
– more miraduros (beautiful views of the city as seen from above)
– Sintra palace (nice architecture, but too many tourists!)
– Cabo da Roca (most impressive part of the holiday: it is a great feeling to find yourself in one of the places where the world seems to end – and it does, if you think Europe`s the world!)
– Guincho beach (a place where pretty girls go to meet hot surfer dudes, but still a nice beach at the Atlantic, with rocky cliffs and almost no hotels and terraces – I only saw one, near the road, far from the beach)
– Principe Real (a neighborhood in Lisbon we wanted to see because we heard it`s cool: full of interesting shops, preferred by gay people as residential area etc. – and it proved to be quite nice)
– Oriente station & area (the modern part of the city, the place where I took my first photo in Lisbon 7 years ago and that I wanted to see again)
Of couse I didn`t quite respect the order, but hey, that`s the Portuguese spirit, get used to it and just enjoy!
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