Europe Day 1: 10/15/2008

Ola! We arrived in Portugal via Heathrow on Wednesday night in time for our very first meal in Lisbon. We settled into our hotel and walked down a pedestrian only street to a restaurant where we were greeted by an English speaking host holding a menu in English. As it turned out, he was South African and we pretty much knew his life story by the end of our meal. We were welcomed with plates of “salty pastries”, cheese, sardine pate, octopus salad, and fresh rolls. We thought it was a nice gesture and then we saw people at other tables refuse it and figured out that we were going to be charged for this stuff. Anyhow, it was a good thing because we were able to sample some of the local flavors. Our meal was great as we took it all in. It is always a treat to sit outside and watch the hosts compete to get people to come and eat at their restaurant rather than the restaurant next door-a sort of turf war, if you will. There were also TONS of young kids all hanging out outside of the theater and some were dressed in all black and had capes. Our host explained to us that the caped kids are graduating seniors of the university and they were basically hazing the freshman during “orientation” right now. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get some real sleep finally…
Our hotel: Pensao Geres. My dad found the hotel via Rick Steves. It is located in the heart of the city, a district called Rossio which is flanked with 2 big “places” and lots of connections to the tram, metro, and train station (well , one of them). The hotel is located in a building sandwiched inbetween 2 internet places. You have to ring the doorbell and a camera takes a picture of you and then you are buzzed in. Once you go up the 2 flights of stairs (loads of fun to carry your suitcase, especially after a long transatlantic flight and some downtime at Heathrow), you walk through another door that you are buzzed in and get your key from the person working the desk at that moment. I was in room 101 and my parents were down the hall at 106. Perdues don’t travel 4 star but this hotel is quite bare bones. It has all the necessities but that’s about it. We found out that night that the real downside was the walls were paper thin. I am close to the front desk (the first room) so I can hear everyone that buzzes in. But in actuality, we just sleep there so it’s not a big deal. For the money and the location, the place is great.
About the area: the thing that I noticed the most was how many people just “hang out”. Lisbon is a much poorer economy than say, France, and it became obvious. There are A LOT of peddlers, beggers, and drunks..and maybe it was worse because we were “downtown”. There are people who offer to shine your shoes and there’s a person roasting chestnuts for 2 euro on just about every corner of Rossio. But most everyone is nice or does not say anything to you at all. There are a lot of people who speak or at least understand English too, which is a nice surprise.

Some pictures from the first night: