LISBON, PORTUGAL

The flight from Sao Paolo was uneventful and I arrived on time at around 11 a.m. local time. It was a 9.5-hour flight and I really was surprised that there was only a 2-hour time difference between Brazil and Portugal. I slept maybe 2 or 3 hours on the flight, but that is a lot for me as I am rarely able to sleep at all on overnight flights. This was one of those airports where everyone files off the plane down the stairs and onto an awaiting oversized bus. For some reason I am always very patient on the plane no matter how long the flight is scheduled to last, but once the plane touches down the seconds feel like minutes. Those buses force you to wait a long time for slow-moving people who seem to have nowhere to go.

Once inside I jumped in line for immigration, but my line wasn’t moving. It turned out there was no one inside the booth in front of my line so I switched and had to get in the back of a long line. I had filled out an immigration form on the plane, which is standard procedure for any non-residents of a particular country. The lines all moved incredibly slowly and it seemed like every person in front of me must have been applying for asylum or something. Occasionally there would be someone who would take about 10 seconds then be waived through and I assumed those were Portuguese and others with E.U. passports, but most people took forever. When I finally got to the front, the guy looked at my passport for about two seconds then waived me through as he told me I didn’t need the immigration form at all. I guess American/European relations aren’t as strained as they seem, although it made me wonder where the hell everyone else was from that it took 5 minutes per person to gain entry.

My backpack was, of course, waiting for me when I found the baggage carrousel and I quickly found an ATM out front to withdraw my first ever Euros. Since I had had so little sleep I was prepared to pay the €10 taxi fare to my hotel, even though the airport is fairly close to the tourist district of town. I went to the TI booth in the airport to buy a prepaid taxi voucher, but the woman working there said I should take the special Aeropuerto Bus for €3 that goes directly through the popular hotel areas of town. Not only that, the fare buys you a pass that is good for the entire day on all buses, trolleys, lifts, and funiculars, but not on the subway. Having gotten used to the stress and madness of airport taxis in Latin America this was the first official sign that I had re-entered civilization.

I walked to the curb out front and about 10-minutes later the bus pulled up and filled up with my fellow newly arrived tourists and our luggage. The TI lady said I should get off at the Restauradores stop, which was the third stop I think and only took about 15 minutes total. Once off the bus it took me only a couple of minutes to find and reach my hotel, which was conveniently located on a small street about 30 meters up from a huge main town square. I had reserved a €25/night room at a 2-star place using an Australian travel Website so I wasn’t expecting much. It turned out the place was very clean and professional and a fantastic bargain at that price. The room was small and not fancy, but it had a TV, which had BBC World, CNN International, and two German channels, one of which was the Viva music television channel I have seen other times before.

I usually take a long and debilitating nap upon arrival in Europe, but I guess coming from South America was less of a strain. I took a very short nap and was ready to see the town. This was the first time in my entire life that I had arrived in a new city without the benefit of a travel guide of some sort. I looked around a lot in South America, but the very few I found were not the ones I prefer and also incredibly expensive so I assigned myself my first task of buying a book about the city in which I already was staying. It was already a bit of a novelty that everyone I spoke to at my hotel spoke decent English, and I was even more pleased when I saw bookstores that actually carried English language books. Since England itself is part of the E.U., the books are also priced as a domestic product, unlike South America where there is a huge and bizarre tax on English language books.

I strolled through the main shopping district just south of my hotel and came across several bookstores, each containing a good travel section with some books in English. I had some choices, but I wanted to test the waters before committing to anything since travel books are actually a passion of mine. A 3-year-old book by my favorite series is almost as worthless as a newly published one by a company I don’t like. I’m very picky so I wanted to look around first. I was thrilled to find a copy of the exact book that was at the top of my wish list in the third store I entered. I don’t know many other people who are passionate about travel books, but I am guessing that serious travelers probably make fun of Rick Steves. He is the nerdy guy who hosts a European travel series on PBS and has been churning out highly opinionated European guidebooks for about 30 years now. I was skeptical when I first tried one of his books, but I could not have been happier with the experience from using it religiously.

Again, I love guidebooks, but virtually all of them are little more than lists of possible attractions, hotels, and restaurants with maybe a short editorial as part of the description. Rick Steves takes it several steps further and breaks everything down to sights that should not be missed versus overrated or boring sights and the hotel and restaurant listings are a short list of personally recommended gems that he or his staff revisits each year. His country guides completely omit cities that aren’t particularly interesting, which was frustrating at first, but I eventually realized his tastes are well worth respecting. His 2005 editions break Spain and Portugal into separate books, but the 2004 version combines them. Since I was only planning on spend a few days in Portugal I didn’t want to spend $30 on a book, and there on the shelf was the 2004 combined edition, which I quickly bought for €22 and started reading the Lisbon Sights chapter while I ate a sandwich.

I was already very close to an outdoor lift (elevator) that was included in my bus ticket so I went up in this giant antique looking elevator near the main town square. Evidently it used to be a way to get from the square to the neighborhood up the steep hill next to it, but now the path is closed so you get a city view from a platform with a café and tables, but the only thing to do after that is go back down. I then took a cable car ride out to the western areas of the city and back. There wasn’t much to see. Lisbon is a very pleasant city full of well-dressed Europeans, but it lacks uniqueness in my opinion.

In the evening I wanted to go to the Barrio Alte, which is the “High Neighborhood” just up the steep hill from my hotel. It is known for its abundance of restaurants and nightlife, however this was a Monday night in February. To get there I took the Funicular that happened to dominate the street next to my hotel. It supposedly cost €1.10 for the ride, but I think most people had monthly transit passes. Once every 15-minutes or so this train car that sits on a severely angled mount trundles up the hill with the counter-weight of an identical car coming down providing much of the power. I got on board and sat for 10 minutes or so as it filled up with locals. Then it started up the hill and exactly 2 minutes later it reached the top. What? The hill was steep, but not THAT bad! I really found it odd that even young and fit locals prefer to sit in a car at the bottom for up to 15 minutes rather than walk up a hill that is steep, but less than 200 meters long. I walked down several times and it took 3-minutes, it might take 4-minutes going up and I saw people doing it, but most people preferred the funicular.

At the top I walked around a bit, but it felt like a typically dead Monday night. I wanted to find a restaurant that had a live performance of Fado (sort of a weepy, Portuguese blues that the neighborhood is known for) and I had several from which to choose. One was a reasonably priced eatery where the owner assured me the music is free with dinner as he saw me reading the menu outside. Most Fado places are fairly expensive so this seemed like a good option. There were only about 10 other diners, but the female singer was very good, as was the man who sang a few songs when she was done. I had a €10 roast pork dish while I had to fend off the singers trying to peddle their own CDs after they sung. It was a small price to pay for an enjoyable taste of this famous local music. I walked down the hill and called it a night.

I had two full days before I would leave town so the next day was going to be when I see all the remaining sights. Another thing about Rick Steves that I love is that he usually has self-guided walking tours described in a succinct and witty way in his books. He laid out two separate one-hour walks that could be combined into one that hits pretty much all the interesting things in town. I followed his full combined walk down to the letter and really enjoyed it. It starts by taking the Funicular with an explanation of the Barrio Alte and then heads down to the castle on the opposite hill, ending up in the old residential quarter that sprawls down the hill and into the Fado Museum. I think I paid about €10 in admissions during the three hours I walked, but everything was well worth their modest fees. I particularly enjoyed the Fado museum with its well-designed, high tech displays explaining the birth of the music up to the present. During that walk I sat down at a place that specialized in salads for lunch. It wasn’t terribly filling even though it was tasty, but the bill came to just under €10 and I didn’t have anything at all to drink. At this point I began to realize that sit down restaurants in Europe were going to be a budget buster and I need to do a little self-catering.

That evening I started out at a super fancy lounge at the top of the funicular whose sole purpose is to expose people to port wine. It’s operated by the Port Association or something like that and it feels like The Harvard Club in New York must feel inside. They feature 300 different ports ranging in price from a little over €1 to over €10 for a taste. I’m not sure I had ever had port before and it didn’t really sound that great as I am not usually fond of fortified wines. I tried three different ones starting with a 3-year-old bottle then a 20-year-old bottle, followed by a new one. The oldest one was obviously the most expensive and it was by far the best too. It turns out I really like port. It’s fairly sweet, but with a very rich and complex taste that I find easier to appreciate than dry wine. It cost me about €9 for the three small glasses, but it was a very interesting introduction to port in a very memorable place.

The following day I decided to go to the nearby town of Sintra for its attractions. Amazingly, in less than two days I felt I had gotten a thorough glimpse at Lisbon and another day there would be redundant. Sintra is a famous little town about 20 miles away that contains Moorish castle ruins and two interesting palaces. I took a subway out a few stops to a suburban train station and bought a round trip ticket to Sintra for €2.60. The train ride took about 45 minutes and left me at a tiny train station of the end of a commuter line. It’s a 10-minute walk into town and the old palace in the town square. Then a Tourist Loop bus is the best way to go a few kilometers up the mountain to the Moorish castle ruins, then further up to the more ornate palace. It was a very nice and interesting excursion that lasted about 5 hours altogether. I am finding it very nice to mix some more rural cities and sights in between the big cities that hold most of the famous attractions.

In Sintra, I also went to a tiny market and bought a knife, 2 rolls, cheese and ham, which turned out to make two large sandwiches that became lunch and dinner. The food was only about €4.50 and with the fresh local bread and quality meats and cheeses I found it even more delicious than any sandwich I had eaten in months. This is a big money saver, especially in places where the local food is not particularly notable.

I had a few drinks that night in the same bar/internet café up the hill I had gone to the previous night and the girl at the bar let me try some local drinks that were quite good, but charged me for less than half of what I was given. The people in Portugal have been extremely friendly and generous.

The next morning I checked out of the hotel at around 7:00 a.m. so I could make my way to a different suburban train station and hop a train to the southern coastal town of Tavira.