Monday, August 29, 2005
Day 95: Seville to Lisbon, Portugal
August 29: Up early this morning to make our way to Portugal. Very exciting, I´m in another country again!
Crossed over the border round lunchtime and over the very long suspension bridge over the Rio Tejo into Lisbon. Portgual is funnily enough an hour behind Spain and the same time as the UK - weird...
Checked into the hotel and got to have a whole afternoon to ourselves. I went with a few people to the castle, up on the hill - Castelo de Sao Jorge (Castle of St George). Great views of the city, got to see a video about the history of Lisbon too.
Walked around the main square Praca de Pedro IV and then the commercial streets and centre, Praca de Comercio. Can´t understand a word of Portuguese but trying to learn... I believe it´s similar to Spanish.
Decided to take another view of the city, from the top of Elevator de Santa Justa. It´s an experience just going up in the 100 year-old elevator...
Had an optional dinner tonight in the Barrio Alto area, where we got to experience the style of Fado singing/music. Very pleasant to the ear, but it´s meant to be sad, so I would possibly think twice about it if I understood what they were saying. The food was very good, so too hearing the 12-string guitar playing, unique to Portugal.
Portugal is like New York and has many burroughs. Hoping to see a few of them by the time I leave. Like Portugal... so far.
Very hot weather here ... hear the bushfires are slowly being put out.
Been keeping a close eye on the hurricane in the south-east of the USA too. The only English channels you get on TV at the hotels in Spain and Portugal are BBC and CNN... so trying to keep up on world news when I get the chance.
Crossed over the border round lunchtime and over the very long suspension bridge over the Rio Tejo into Lisbon. Portgual is funnily enough an hour behind Spain and the same time as the UK - weird...
Checked into the hotel and got to have a whole afternoon to ourselves. I went with a few people to the castle, up on the hill - Castelo de Sao Jorge (Castle of St George). Great views of the city, got to see a video about the history of Lisbon too.
Walked around the main square Praca de Pedro IV and then the commercial streets and centre, Praca de Comercio. Can´t understand a word of Portuguese but trying to learn... I believe it´s similar to Spanish.
Decided to take another view of the city, from the top of Elevator de Santa Justa. It´s an experience just going up in the 100 year-old elevator...
Had an optional dinner tonight in the Barrio Alto area, where we got to experience the style of Fado singing/music. Very pleasant to the ear, but it´s meant to be sad, so I would possibly think twice about it if I understood what they were saying. The food was very good, so too hearing the 12-string guitar playing, unique to Portugal.
Portugal is like New York and has many burroughs. Hoping to see a few of them by the time I leave. Like Portugal... so far.
Very hot weather here ... hear the bushfires are slowly being put out.
Been keeping a close eye on the hurricane in the south-east of the USA too. The only English channels you get on TV at the hotels in Spain and Portugal are BBC and CNN... so trying to keep up on world news when I get the chance.
# posted by mishij @ 12:21 PM 
