November 23, 2010
Lisbon had a curious beginning.  I arrived at a hostel seemingly run by no one.  A fellow guest was the one who actually let me in and gave me my keys, and over the next four days the closest person I saw to the one in charge, would be a maid.  I guess this is what happens when I book the cheapest single room I could find on Hostelbookers.com.  You know what though?  In the end, there were no problems with this arrangement whatsoever.  My days were eventful enough, that I didn’t mind not having someone offer me tea or entry into a club for free, when I got back in the evenings.   So what was great about Lisbon?  Geographically, climate-wise and even infrastructure-wise, I found it very similar to San Francisco; hilly, damp, mass-transit options galore, draped with the occasional cable car track.  I especially enjoyed the white cobblestone roads and off-white buildings that kept otherwise drizzly days bright.  The people seemed warm enough, even if melancholic by reputation.   Specific highlights include being welcomed to join a group of twenty-somethings for shots of Ginja—a unique cherry brandy—and later a dinner of fried duck tongues and bok choy at an “illegal Chinese restaurant,” run out of an apartment near the base of Castle Saint George.  At the Castle itself the following day I marveled over a mirror in a tower that projected a black and white moving image of the harbor onto a large disc.  I also enjoyed a trip to the Belem District for tasty and Pastels de Belem, followed by a Kronos Quartet concert featuring the amazing Victor Gama, and his equally awesome instruments, some of which were made from abandoned military artifacts by Angolan children.  Best meals included a gamey pork chop in nieghboring Sintra and texture-to-die-for steamed cuttlefish in the Barrio Alto.  Most politically interesting event witnessed: Witnessing a NATO (along with whatever other issues were cool at the moment) protest surmount outside my hostel at Marques de Pombal, as Obama had been in Lisbon for some talks over the weekend.  Finally, the best random happening: stumbling into a hardcore metal festival after sampling some tawny and ruby ports.  I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7461316@N08/sets/72157625331075721/

Lisbon had a curious beginning.  I arrived at a hostel seemingly run by no one.  A fellow guest was the one who actually let me in and gave me my keys, and over the next four days the closest person I saw to the one in charge, would be a maid.  I guess this is what happens when I book the cheapest single room I could find on Hostelbookers.com.  You know what though?  In the end, there were no problems with this arrangement whatsoever.  My days were eventful enough, that I didn’t mind not having someone offer me tea or entry into a club for free, when I got back in the evenings.  

So what was great about Lisbon?  Geographically, climate-wise and even infrastructure-wise, I found it very similar to San Francisco; hilly, damp, mass-transit options galore, draped with the occasional cable car track.  I especially enjoyed the white cobblestone roads and off-white buildings that kept otherwise drizzly days bright.  The people seemed warm enough, even if melancholic by reputation.  

Specific highlights include being welcomed to join a group of twenty-somethings for shots of Ginja—a unique cherry brandy—and later a dinner of fried duck tongues and bok choy at an “illegal Chinese restaurant,” run out of an apartment near the base of Castle Saint George.  At the Castle itself the following day I marveled over a mirror in a tower that projected a black and white moving image of the harbor onto a large disc.  I also enjoyed a trip to the Belem District for tasty and Pastels de Belem, followed by a Kronos Quartet concert featuring the amazing Victor Gama, and his equally awesome instruments, some of which were made from abandoned military artifacts by Angolan children.  Best meals included a gamey pork chop in nieghboring Sintra and texture-to-die-for steamed cuttlefish in the Barrio Alto.  Most politically interesting event witnessed: Witnessing a NATO (along with whatever other issues were cool at the moment) protest surmount outside my hostel at Marques de Pombal, as Obama had been in Lisbon for some talks over the weekend.  Finally, the best random happening: stumbling into a hardcore metal festival after sampling some tawny and ruby ports.  I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7461316@N08/sets/72157625331075721/

5:44pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZtWEay1ZDOXK