This weekend was a 'puente' so I had the Monday off work, what better way to spend a long weekend than hopping over the border to Portugal?! The border, by the way, was completely unspectacular. It was literally a tiny sign that I missed on the way to Portugal.
We left early on Saturday morning to arrive in Lisbon at midday - after getting completely lost because I tried to be clever and take us on a shortcut.. we eventually arrived at the hostel. My first impressions of the city were that it was really really nice.. as long as you stay right in the very centre. If you stray out of the centre slightly it completely changes and it really isn't very nice at all. All the buildings are derelict and grey. It was later explained to us that barely anyone lives in Lisbon itself because it's far too expensive and if you go just outside of the city you will find an area where everybody lives, so in between the two isn't very nice at all.
After looking at a map for hours we finally decided where to go, we left the car in a nearby car park and went for a look around. This is when it became apparent that the main way to see the city was by Tuk Tuk! Which was incredible and I wanted to try one to see the city straight away.
The next day we went to a place called Belém, just outside of Lisbon. We wanted to take the tram as they have a really old tram service, but it wasn't running so we took the bus. The architecture in this place was just amazing. We went to the monastery and to the church next door, there were towers which protected Lisbon and an incredible view point where you can see all of Lisbon.
There were loads of viewpoints all over the city where you could see all of the city from different angles, mostly the views were amazing!
One thing that wasn't so great, was the amount of drugs that was in the city. If you walked ANYWHERE in the afternoon you were sure to be offered some kinds of drugs, ranging from weed to cocaine. It was absolutely mental the amount of people who came up to you to offer you drugs. Apparently its legal to have and use weed but selling it is illegal, all other drugs are illegal. Even so, the first time I was completely shocked by someone asking me if I wanted to buy some, he also seemed quite shocked when I said no! Apparently most of the people around my age do it because its legal, so its normal. Crazy!
We finally went on our Tuk Tuk around the city too which was fun, and visited a few more things like the castle and a huge church were there was a service happening which was really cool to watch actually. It was being filmed and recorded by loads of TV crews or something so it must have been something big going on!
What shocked me most about Lisbon is the language difference. I used to think it was very similar to Spanish so speakers can mostly understand each other, but that is completely untrue. Most people cannot understand Spanish so the language everyone spoke was English, which was strange - the countries are so close and share so much of the languages but yet they are so different that everyone speaks English.
There were loads of viewpoints all over the city where you could see all of the city from different angles, mostly the views were amazing!
We finally went on our Tuk Tuk around the city too which was fun, and visited a few more things like the castle and a huge church were there was a service happening which was really cool to watch actually. It was being filmed and recorded by loads of TV crews or something so it must have been something big going on!
What shocked me most about Lisbon is the language difference. I used to think it was very similar to Spanish so speakers can mostly understand each other, but that is completely untrue. Most people cannot understand Spanish so the language everyone spoke was English, which was strange - the countries are so close and share so much of the languages but yet they are so different that everyone speaks English.
All in all, it was an amazing trip and I had such a great time seeing everywhere and exploring a different place and a different culture. Would I go there again? No, I don't think I would - but I'm glad I've been there to experience it.
Este fin de semana fue puente, así que no tenía que trabajar el lunes. No hay mejor manera de pasar el fin de semana que en Portugal. La frontera entre los dos países no es muy emocionante.. sólo una señal muy pequeña.
Salimos muy temprano el sábado para llegar a Lisboa a mediodía. Después de perdernos porque yo intenté tomar un atajo, llegamos al albergue. Mi primera impresión fue que la ciudad es muy muy bonita, si te quedas en el centro. Si te vas fuera del centro de la ciudad, cambia y no es muy agradable. Todos los edificios son grises y abandonados. Luego, se nos explicó que nadie vive en el centro de Lisboa porque es demasiado caro, la mayoría de la gente vive fuera de la ciudad, la zona entre los dos no es muy agradable.
El día siguiente, fuimos a un lugar que se llama Belém, muy cerca del centro. Queríamos tomar el tranvía porque Lisboa tiene tranvías muy antiguos - pero el domingo están cerrados, así que tomamos el autobús. La arquitectura allí fue increíble. Fuimos al monasterio y a la iglesia de al lado. Había torres que protegían la ciudad y a un mirador de donde se puede ver todo de Lisboa.
Una cosa que no fue tan genial fue la cantidad de drogas en la ciudad. Si se camina donde quiera te ofrecerán drogas desde marihuana a cocaina. La cantidad de gente que vende drogas es tan loca. En Lisboa es legal tener y fumar marihuana pero no se puede comprar o vender - drogas duras son ilegales. La primera vez que alguien intentó venderme marihuana estaba tan sorprendido, y el estaba sorprendido que dije que no! Se nos explicó que es normal que la mayoría de jóvenes se drogan. ¡Que loco!
Lo mas sorprendente de Lisboa es el idioma allí. Yo pensaba que era muy parecido a el Español y los portugueses pueden entender español.. pero no. Así, teníamos que hablar Ingles. Los países están tan cerca y comparten mucho de sus idiomas pero son tan diferentes.
Fue un viaje genial y lo pasé muy bien. Tenía ganas de explorar una ciudad nueva pero no creo que quiera volver a Lisboa otra vez.
Adiós,
David.
Fue un viaje genial y lo pasé muy bien. Tenía ganas de explorar una ciudad nueva pero no creo que quiera volver a Lisboa otra vez.
Adiós,
David.
