Day Thirtyseven - Jun 27, 2012
Night Train to Lisbon, Portugal
Daily Didactic
Our day started with a 6:00 a.m. wake up knock from the very nice train attendant gal. She let us know we had a free breakfast and were an hour and a half from Lisbon. We took another half hour for sleep and wandered to the dining car. The view of Portugal countryside over a breakfast of pastries and coffee was mostly of farm land. It reminded us of Oregon's Willamette Valley, the farmland we are both most familiar with. We landed in Lisbon at 7:30 and (for no particularly good reason) were without a good idea where we were heading. Fortunately the tourist information office was open, and soon we knew our metro, our connection, and the street we were walking to from there. With the help of only one newspaper vendor, we did surprisingly well until the very end. We didn't have a street number and all Brian had was his recollection of the building from Google street view. Would have totally worked if we'd got to the right street, instead of a freakishly similarly named street two over. With the help of a nearby building security guard, we eventually found the excitably named Oasis Backpackers Mansion hostel. Not able to check in until 1:00, we hung out in their common area and internetted and arted for a while. Eventually, we went out for a bite of lunch at the ridiculous sounding but awesome FlowerPower cafe and then checked in, bathed, and napped for few hours. In the very late afternoon we did a little shopping, got a snack on the interesting patio of the Pharmacia restaurant, and returned to our home. Theresa painted in the commons and met some "really cute" Australian girls on holiday and Brian read. In the long run we spent the evening in, relaxing, reading, and catching up on didactics. Everything we've read tells us Lisbon has some "not to miss" night life, we'll try harder tomorrow.
Today's Photos
