Lisbon Lovers

We are now writing from our hostel in Lisbon. We arrived this morning via night train from Madrid.

First off, our final day in Madrid consisted of touring the Museo del Prado. The museum had endless amounts of paintings from famous painters all over Europe. We also saw a lot of Neo Classical sculptures which all alluded back to Greek art.

The Museum wore us out. We snagged a couple cheap sandwhiches and a plate of Spanish cheeses and wandered off into the Parque de Retiro. The park was HUGE. It is basically the Central Park of Madrid. We had a picnic lunch and took a cat nap on the grass. We then went back to our hostel to book a few future hostels and buy our tickets to see the Statue of David in a few weeks! After a quick trip to the Mercado de San Miguel to grab some bread, cheese, and fruit, we packed up and took the train to the train station which would bring us to Lisbon over night.

The night train was a lot cozier than expected. We were actually really excited to try it out! Haha. We had our own room with 2 bunk beds and a sink. It was a tight squeeze alright. But when we woke up in the morning...we were in Portugal!

It's fair to say that we liked Madrid...but we LOOVEE Lisbon!! As soon as we exited the metro to smell the sea air and see the huge square over looking the water, the early morning lull we had had from the night train quickly wore off.

We dropped our stuff off in the hostel...which by the way is ballin' and very chic...and immediately ventured out into Lisbon. We wandered the windy hills of the sleepy sea faring town, admiring all of the brightly colored buildings and tilework. We toured the Se Cathedral. We then ventured alllll the way up the hill to the Castelo San Jorge. This was amazing. The Castle is only the reconstructed walls because it was devastated in an earthquake in the 1700's, but the view from the top is breathtaking. It overlooks the entire city. You can see all the red tiled roofs, the water with boats pulling up to dock, big white churches, people's terraces with laundry hanging over the cobblestone streets...everything. We briefly looked at the artifacts in the museum for the castle before wandering down the streets of the Alfama.

The Alfama is the Old Town of Lisbon. Because most of Lisbon was devasted by the earthquake, the Old Town is still mostly in tact. We just let ourselves get lost in the alleys. At the bottom of the hills of the neighborhood we found a place to eat lunch. Tricia and Christie had swordfish with potatoes and Nicole had a Portuguese meat called Isba or something...cant remember the name! But it was all delicious.

After lunch we were finally able to check into our hostel and shower..yeah..we were gross. We then wandered around the city and shopped. We bought some gifts at some street vendors...yes for you guys! Then we stopped for some pastries and coffee. The pastries here are AMAZING!! I believe Tricia has already had 4 and it is our first day here. Haha.

We're eating dinner here in the hostel tonight. It's an 8 euro dinner with unlimited wine, bread, a meal, and a dessert. Good deal! Hopefully we meet the people in our hostel. We have met people here from Australia and the United States so far. But one of the girls from the U.S now teaches English in Granada. After dinner we will probably venture out for some more pastries and maybe some drinks.

Tomorrow we are taking a tram, SO cute, to the district of Belem. Supposively there is a bunch of stuff the do and see there, and it is on the water. So we will let you know how it goes! We are already wishing we had more time in Lisbon. But it gives us more reason to come back!

Obregada!....thats the only Portuguese word we know!!! It means Thank You. Haha.

Love you all!
Christie, Tricia, and Nicole