Somehow, someway, we made it to the hostel without even getting lost. It was truly a miracle. We get lost EVERYWHERE! Even at our home in Valladolid :) I think we were in an older part of the city. Where we walked through to get to our hostel was like a little fisherman town. But it smells and feels like ocean air everywhere and I LOVE it! One of the many things I miss from my home! But I could definitely wait 11 more days for that :)
This is the VERY old trolley that miraculously took us to our destination..which we basically stumbled upon by luck.
When we got to the front door of the hostel, we rang the bell and it unlocked and a nice little Portuguese woman was waiting on top of the balcony to welcome us. She asked what languages we spoke and used a little of all 3 of them! I'm starting to love hostels! These people are so nice! Instead of rushing to check us in and get us out of their hair, the guy at the front told told us to hold off on all the paperwork and go enjoy the breakfast while it was still out. A lot of the people staying here speak English and sound American. Time to get the scoop on Portugal!
We have 4 hours until we're allowed in the room. I feel dirty and probably smell like a wonderful combination of metro and airport floor...I can't wait those 4 hours until I can shower!
For now, we'll explore the streets of Lisbon...dirty!
A museum next to the monastery across the street from our hostel
A view of the monastery and fountain from the water front. Here there was a street market/fair going on so we walked around and looked at the different vendors...it was just like every other typical street fair, but with a Portugal touch.
Drew found a black version of the cane him and the other guys had in Valladolid, haha!
This is the train that takes you up and down the coast of Lisboa and to the surrounding cities. We took the train up as far north as it went, to Cascais, which is a beautiful beach town with some tourism, but still a lot of cool things to see!
A view of the beach front the train station
We ate lunch at this pleasant little "sports" bar on the beach called La Salamandra. This was our view during lunch :)
After lunch, we wandered around the town to see what all was there. I personally thought this town was was nicer/cuter than Lisbon, and it was better taken care of.
While we were in Cascais, I kept seeing touches of things that specifically reminded me of Brazil. Like these buildings! Almost everywhere we went in Brazil mainly had these bright colored buildings that were simple but still stood out because of their color! We also found a lot of Brazilian style food, and my favorite, churrasco! Which is like Brazilian barbecue/grill...delicious!
This part of Portugal was big on fishing...you can find all the equipment laying around almost anywhere
A cobblestone bridge leading to a secret beach and a mini lagoon
Lighthouse...next to a huge beautiful castle-like house!
The reefs we found just north of the center of the city. This is house the coast is for the next several miles. It reminded me of Hawaii! Shortly after this picture, I got BLASTED by a blow hole in the reef and got soaking wet! Thankfully I had just put my camera away! Drew was cracking up because he almost got it all on his camera in the splash free zone...
The docks
What the residential area looks like...it was so peaceful and cute wandering back here! It was almost like being back "home" in Spain!
When we got back to the hostel, we were exhausted, but starving. Luckily, there was a market right up the street from us so we gathered up the easiest dinner we could find and had a picnic in the back patio. This is when we REALLY fell in love with this hostel. Everyone was just so awesome and happy to be broke and eating bread wine/beer. I could definitely spend more time with these type of people!
The back patio where we enjoyed our dinner. Which eventually got a little more full as the night went on :)
