When my friends and I were deciding where to go for our February holiday, our only condition was that the weather was nice. So, after doing a bit of research we decided on Portugal; the internet promised sunny, blue skies and highs of around 17 degrees. Per-fect. And, according to everyone we spoke to in Portugal, that is exactly what the weather is like in February. Except the week we were there. Forecast: rain; rain when we arrived, rain the first two days, rain for half of the fourth day...it was like England, only worse because it isn't England. And that is the story behind my blog title: Lame Lisbon -- due to the rain, which was obviously totally lame, everything became lame. Lame bus, lame hotel keys that would never work, lame people, just lame. It was definitely a running joke by the end of the trip. The trip! Perhaps you would like to hear about that now?
So like I said, on day one it rained. And, since it was a Monday, nothing was open; most tourist-type-things are closed in Portugal on Mondays. So we decided to purchase a Hop-On Hop-Off bus ticket, which takes you all around Lisbon for two days for only 15 euro, and head to the aquarium (Oceanario de Lisboa). This was the stupidest idea anyone has ever had. I don't know how people can get so excited about watching a bunch of dumb fish swim around a big tank of water. I mean, I could have been in and out of there in about half an hour. Some people in our party of friends, though, were fascinated by these fish that all looked the same, and we were there for three I-Want-To-Kill-Myself hours. This was one of the first lame things that happened on our trip. The only cool thing that happened there was that I got my picture taken with a shark. I think that's a pretty great accomplishment, considering I used to be deathly afraid of the things and wouldn't even look at them on TV. So anyways, after the others were done looking at the fish, we hopped back on our bus and went back downtown...our bus that leaked, by the way. Like, excessive amounts of water. This was the third lame thing that happened on our trip.
On rainy-day number two we took the Hop-On Hop-Off bus to the other side of Lisbon and saw a number of really great sights. The first place we visited was the Lisbon bull ring, which was closed (lame), but was very nice to look at from the outside. And just to make life interesting, Kari and her brother Evan decided to jump the fence to get into the actual ring, and the security guard jumped in after them and kicked us out. Awesome. Next stop was the Lisbon Basilica, a very beautiful, and dry church, so that was nice. Then we went to the Tower of Belem, which was right on the water, and paid six euro to walk up a million really steep stairs to the top so we could look at the fantastic view which we couldn't see because it was so foggy. Super lame if you ask me. We did get to write words in the sand though, so that was fun. After the tower we stopped for lunch at a seafood place called Portugalia. I had BBQ shrimp and they were marvelous! Which reminds me, Portuguese food is really really good! All kinds of pastries and seafood - just yummy yummy goodness.
Anyways, after lunch we went to Jeronimoes Monestary, which is the home of Vasco de Gama's tomb. De Gama was this really important Portuguese guy that practically everything is named after - malls, museums, towers, restaurants...it's a bit much if you ask me. But this was actually one of my favourite places we went to. It was very beautiful; the area where the monks lived is so quiet and serene, and it's very plain, but so pretty at the same time. I loved being there. 
That night for dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Very Portuguese, I know. We spent a freaking fortune and watched the bartender sneeze into some poor soul's drink, but it was a good time. On our walk back to the hotel this car drove by us and the guys in it were yelling words I couldn't understand, and at first it seemed like just an innocent cat-call (which was, we found, quite a common occurance), when suddenly two of the four of us standing there (Kari and Sarah, not me, thank god) were hit with eggs. Yup. Eggs. Egg all over their hair and clothes and shoes and everything. When we got back to the hotel we told the guy at the front desk and he was like, "ya, it's Carnivale." So Carnivale is apparently every February and people dress up in crazy costumes all the time and act crazy and, it seems, throw eggs at tourists. Awesome. It was pretty funny, actually.
Day three was our first day of wonderful weather. It was sunny and decently warm and so we were in great moods. And what's better to do when you're in a great mood than go shopping? So off we went to the Vasco de Gama mall where I spent a hundred and twenty euros at Aldo, a North American store. Hahahaha. Whatever. I liked those two purses and that pair of shoes, okay? We also went on the gondola ride that took us a couple miles down the street, which was pretty cool because, since it was sunny, we could see mostly everything perfectly.
On day four we took a bus trip to Sintras and Cascais - this proved to be a totally worthwhile experience. The trip only cost 48 euros each, and we, the seven of us, got our own private tour guide in an eight-seater van; not what we expected at all but totally awesome. We were warned by one of our hotel people to dress warmly because Sintras is a mountain, and thank god we did because it was freezing! We went to Pena Palace which is at the very top of the mountain in Sintras, and which is my other favourite part of the trip. It was so beautiful, and the history of it was very interesting. It was built by King Ferdinand, in the fourth dynasty, as a summer home. This was the reason that Sintras is now as wealthy an area as it is today; when the King built his summer home there, all kinds of other rich people decided to build their homes there as well, so basically the entire drive up the mountain to the palace was a magnificant view of beautiful greenery and amazing palaces and homes. 
After the palace we had lunch in the little town of Sintras, and we also had some of their famous pastries (one in particular, called "the pillow," was absolutely scrumptious; it was almond and something else sweet. Made love to my tastebuds). After Sintras was Cascais, and on our way we stopped off at Cabo da Roca, which is the most eastern point in all of Europe. It was bloody freezing there, by the way. Totally lame, if you ask me. When we got to Cascais it started to rain, which was pretty crappy considering Cascais is their beach town (kind of the Portuguese equivalent to Grand Bend). It was really beautiful, but cold and rainy. We did get to see these pretty cool rocks, though, which together are called The Mouth of Hell -- this is because, twice a year, the water gets so rough that this particular spot is super dangerous. Must be pretty bad if something that only happens two out of three hundred and sixty five days earns a title like that.
That night for dinner we went out for a true Portuguese experience called Fado. Basically you eat traditional Portuguese food and listen to traditional Portuguese music and drink traditional Portuguese sangria. I must admit, I got a little drunk that night, and on our stumble back to the hotel was asked if I would like to purchase some, and I quote: "cocaine, hashish, sex?" -- I have failed to mention this, but nearly everyday we were offered drugs on the street by random Portuguese dudes, and this night sex was added into the equation. Nice, eh? Good to know it's so easy to come by.
Our last day in Lisbon was the nicest day we had; it was so warm and super sunny, absolutely beautiful. We went to see the Castle of Sao Jorge, which was at the very top of the mountain in Lisbon and really close to our hotel. The views from the top were just breathtaking! You could literally see all of Lisbon. I am really glad we waited for that day so that we could see everything. The castle itself was okay; I mean, it was only a castle. Sarah has named it the Lisbon-Too-High-Scary-Staired-Castle due to all the super-steep stairs we had to climb. But it was worth it to get to see all the sights. The next day was home time, and I was glad. I mean, Portugal was really beautiful and I'm definitely glad we went, but what with all the sun we had on that last day, I was really starting to miss the rain.
