From my nice clean hostel in a non-dodgy part of Paris, I bring you Clare's summary of her time in Lisbon. When I left you, I was labouring through an 8 hour wait for luggage at Lisbon airport which ended with them telling me that the luggage came in at the 7 hour mark but despite having my number they didn't call me and tell me this. On the plus side, I've now seen the luggage distribution section of an airport in all its glory and believe me, not that exciting.What I didn't include last time, as my mother is among my readers and I didn't want her to know until after the fact, is that when I wrote my last post, I had already been warned that my hostel was in a dodgy part of town. The girl at the travel info desk at the airport told me that it was where the hookers and the drug dealers hang out so I wouldn't want to be out too late but that I should be OK as long as I didn't speak to anyone on the streets after dark. I also discovered from her that the airport is not on the metro or train lines in Lisbon and what with me being there until 10pm at the earliest the bus was out of the question for my part of town, so taxi was my only option. Piling myself into the taxi at 10pm on a rainy Lisbon night, I was thinking while it can't get any worse. The cab driver reinforced the warning about the part of town the hostel was in but as he couldn't speak much English, his warning involved him pointing at the area around the hostel and giving it a thumbs down sign. He then proceeded to charge me 20 Euros for what I later discovered was a 4 Euro cab ride. The hostel was in a dodgy looking building on the main street of what was clearly the dodgy part of town. Getting to the hostel, I discovered behind the security doors it wasn't that bad if you just needed a bed. I wouldn't recommend it though as cleaning is something that clearly doesn't happen there often (my pillow case was dirty when I got there) and there is a tonne of mould in the bathrooms and a bit in the bedrooms. The walls are paper thin so if like me you are in the room next to reception you won't sleep at first as, when they are actually on the desk (they often weren't), the reception staff have personal phone conversations at 10000 decibels. Also as it is the top floor of an old building and the windows don't shut well so if it rains, and it did, the mositure gets into the room and if it is windy, and it was, the windows clunk loudly.
I had bought a Lisboa card so I could get into museums easily and cheaply and so my public transport was covered (I doubt I got value for money out of it as I didn't end up visiting that many museums covered on it- unlike the Amsterdam Card I wouldn't recommend it as I think it would be difficult to get value out it). On my first morning, I thought I'd check out the "famous" Lisbon sites so went out to Belem- the part of town where they all are. Bad idea....it was pouring and very windy near the river so within 10 minutes of getting off the bus I was soaked. The rain was so heavy that it leaked through the zippers of my waterproof jacket. I visited the Monument to the Discoveries which wasn't that exciting as I didn't go in just stood outside in the rain and then went to Belem Tower which I did go into but which was in desperate need of more displays/signage. After this I located some super cheap lunch and headed to the Jerónimos Monastery which was the most interesting thing I saw in Belem. Following my visit to Jerónimos Monastery, I experienced the highlight of my time in Lisbon- a pastéis de nata (Portugese tart) in its proper home...mmmm very tasty and at only 75 Euro cents a bargain compared to how much they cost back home. I decided to head back into the centre of town and explore a bit. It wasn't that exciting but did result in my finding the Museum of Modern Design which was free (not because of my Lisboa card but because it always is) and it is a very good design museum. The most interesting bits were a section on urban/street design (usually ignored by design museums) and their use of the building's vault (it used to be a bank), in what as an indication of the going value of them in the modern world, they have put seeds in the vault drawers.
 |
| Portugese Tarts |
Getting back to the hostel, I was feeling a bit let down by Lisbon. It was a capital so where were the beautiful old buildings and churches? I talked to the girl in my dorm who had been there for about four days and she said she felt the same. She and another girl from the hostel were going to check out the UNESCO World Hertiage listed town of Sintra the next day in an attempt to find the good in Portugal and I ultimately joined them. Sintra is about 30-40 minutes from Lisbon and it is MUCH more interesting than Lisbon. The first thing about Sintra was that while very foggy, it wasn't raining up there. Secondly and more importantly, it is just a profoundly beautiful place- Byron once said that he considered it one of the most beautiful places he'd ever been and this is guy who spent a lot of time in the Italian lake region. The girl from my dorm was committed to see one of the palaces (there are several) which she said looked in the pictures like something from Pan's Labyrinth- I asked her which one she meant and it turned out it was the same one I wanted to visit. The palace (mansion really) was Quinta da Regaleira and it is a crazy place. The guy who orginally designed it was into a whole bunch of wacky ideas and his designs of the gardens and building therein give it a very fairy tale quality. The best bit is the Intiation Well where you descend down many steps into what looks like an upside down tower- research on Wikitravel tells me that even the stair layout was planned as there is a plateau every 9 steps and this is supposed to symbolise the nine circles of heaven, purgatory and hell in Dante's Inferno- the well ends in a cave which loops around to an exit lower in the gardens. After this, one of the girls headed back to Lisbon to catch a plane while two of us continued on, jumping on the Sintra tourist bus which loops round all the palaces. We went out to the Moorish Castle which was possibly prettier in the fog than it would have been otherwise- it was also a bit on the dangerous side as it was quite damp up there and the wind was very strong and there are very few barriers, someone with slippery shoes and a poor sense of balance (especially a small person or child) could easily have been swept off the castle to meet an unpleasant end- worth the visit though. We had planned to take a few photos of the outside of Pena Palace but the fog was too thick to see it from the gate and we weren't paying to go on. Back in the centre of Sintra, we quested for an umbrella (for her not me) and in the midst of this ultimately fruitless quest we found a gourmet shop which gave tastings of its products (port, liquers, jams and cheese) as long as you first bought a drink of cherry liquer in a chocolate cup for 1 euro- score and all the products were very tasty. After this we headed back to miserable Lisbon where a massive storm hit that night preventing anyone leaving the hostel.
 |
| The Moorish Castle in the fog |
 |
| Quinta de Regalerie's Intiation Well |
I'm sure Lisbon has a pleasant side when it isn't pouring rain and plagued by massive winds but I didn't see much positive to report so recommend you visit Sintra but not the capital. The final twist of the knife came the morning of my departure when I was planning to catch the metro and then a bus to the airport- both of which would have been covered by my Lisboa card. I had to get up at 5.15am for my plane but then when I left the hostel, I discovered that the metro doesn't run that early (the bus I had checked but the metro I had assumed) so I walked with all my luggage trying to distance myself from the dodgy part of town thus being able to hail a cab without any chance of being mistaken for a hooker (the girl at the airport was right I found out as a guy and his 16 year old son who were staying at the hostel went wandering near the hostel at night and found less than a block away the major pick up place for hookers). This cab ride was only 6 Euro this time but the meter read 4 something so I'm certain above all that the cab drivers of Lisbon were ripping me off. Even though it was raining here when I arrived, I was just over the moon happy to be in Paris and having left Lisbon far behind me.
No comments:
Post a Comment