Lisbon
Got to Lisbon on the 27th about 7:30am and got to Rossio square about 8:00. The night before, when I left my hostel, I checked the directions on and it implied it was right on Rossio Square above the Metro stop, so I decided I didn’t need to find a pen and paper to write down the directions, I would be able to spot it when I got there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t RIGHT there. I wandered around for an hour looking down all the different alleyways for anything saying Rossio Hostel, but it was no use. Couldn’t find it anywhere and the worse part is, it started to rain, right when I walked out of the Metro stop. I finally found an internet café and looked up the address. It was right in Rossio Square, the only problem was, in order to find it, you have to look at the doorbells. That’s the only place that says anything about it being a hostel. Nothing on the door, outside wall, nothing.
I finally got in, was given my room, and took a shower. By the time I was done, it was pouring, so I was forced to stay inside the first day. Even if it was nice out the next day, I wasted 1 day getting there, 1 day inside because of the rain, and 1 more day getting to Paris. I highly doubted that the next day would be worth all the hassle…
The next day I woke up to the sound of rain. Many cuss words were going through my head. Got up, took a shower, and decided that no matter how hard it was raining, I had to go out and see Lisbon. Thankfully it stopped raining by the time I was done showering.
I headed out to Castle of St. George. Pretty impressive. With student discount it was only 2.50 Euros, and it had nice views and provided over an hour of places to wander through. My mind kept going while with images of the castle under siege, pretending I was there.
Later I checked out Place de Commercio, and got a beer in Rossio Square before meeting up with Gun Sil, one of the girls I had class with. We headed out to Belem, saw the Monument of Discoveries, Belem Tower, and had little custard pastries that Lisbon is famous for. We later got a bite to eat and wandered around a little more. I mentioned how much I wanted to go back to Asia, and she really tried selling Korea. She filled me in on opportunities in Korea for English tutors if I wanted to spend a lot of time over there. Pretty tempting. $50/hour with meals and stuff included. After that she headed back to the house that she was couchsurfing at. I had to get ready for another extremely long train ride to Paris the next day. 22 Hours!
Tags: Belem, General, Lisbon, Portugal, Rossio, Travel
mrnational
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