Nações Diferentes

Lisbon at night

Portugal is now on my list of countries I’ve visited! Over the weekend, Brad, Amy and I journeyed to Lisboa (Lisbon). As far as cities go, Lisbon is sexy. It’s beautiful, comfortable with itself, diverse, historic and completely unpretentious. The geography of the city reminded us of San Francisco – it’s very hilly (with trolleys to tote you up the hills) and perched on a huge body of water by the sea (the wide end of the Tagus River or Rio Tejo). Although Lisbon is just a 6-hour bus ride from Sevilla, it is quite different from Andalucía. Portugal has one of the oldest national borders in the world, and the Portuguese are very proud of that.

An unofficial symbol of Lisbon: the yellow funicular

While in Portugal, we tried not to speak Spanish, because that can come off as being ignorant or disrespectful. When Spanish slipped out however, no one was ever rude about it and they typically understood Spanish pretty well. Brad tried some of the Portuguese he learned in grad school, but his accent was usually met with raised eyebrows because he learned the language from a Brazilian. After my time in Lisbon, I identify myself as one of the people who think that Portuguese is one of the most beautiful languages.

During our visit to Lisbon, we stayed in the Bairro Alto (high neighborhood) and we were in the heart of Lisbon nightlife. After midnight, this grungy neighborhood becomes a huge street party, where you can meet lots of interesting characters and get offered lots of hashish. Every street has countless teeny tiny bars and restaurants to keep your glass full and provide plenty of entertainment. Young Lisboetas especially love chupitos (shots) and the three of us tried quite a few. Over drinks, we met Brits, Portuguese, a Pole and a Palestinian. One night, the guy from Palestine and a guy from the Azores took us to a dance club (it was called Xanax or something like that). Poor Brad stuck it out with Amy and me until 4am.

You may be wondering if we saw Lisbon in the daylight . . . we did! With all the hills around the city, there are some great spots for amazing views. We went up to Castelo Saõ Jorge on the highest hill in Lisbon and we could gaze at the entire city.

View from the castle

We also took various forms of public transport to get to Belém, an area on the Western waterfront. Belém has many parks, the president’s home, a 14th Century Jeronomite Monastery and a famous cafe that makes delectable custard tarts. We certainly didn’t want to miss that!

In front of the Monastery
My art shot of the Torre de Belém
The tower (behind us) was built in the 16th Century as protection for the port of Lisbon

Amy had to leave on Saturday to visit her old haunts in Madrid for a day, so Brad and I did some more exploring. We walked down to the river (the old wharves) for lunch. The food is fantastic in Lisbon, by the way. We were thrilled to have international dishes that involve sauces – things you simply can’t get in Sevilla.

Enjoying a Caipirinha (very popular in Lisbon) at lunch
The river

We also did some shopping in the vibrant downtown area. The stores were much more fashionable and varied than anything I’ve seen on this side of the border. And Lisbon has less than 600,000 inhabitants – that’s smaller than Sevilla! I can’t believe that the city is that small because it is quite cosmopolitan in some areas, and the different parts of the city have such distinctive personalities. It feels like 2 million people live there.

The aesthetic of the city also shows that quite a few residents care about architecture and art. Countless buildings have tiled facades with detailed iron balconies. (The oldest tiles, or azulejos, in Lisbon came from Sevilla.) I didn’t see one park or public space without a cool modern sculpture or antique-looking fountain. Even the bus station was designed beautifully. There’s a comfortable blending of historic and modern throughout the city.

In central Lisbon

Bus station
Tiled buildings

Brad and I could not leave Portugal without sampling some Port, so we spent an afternoon at a place where you sample Port. Quite enjoyable.

On our last night in Lisbon, we wanted to have one last meal of the delicious Portuguese-fusion cuisine. We found a tiny nook, and we befriended a couple waiting outside for their table. They were speaking Spanish, so we jumped in. The guy was from England, the girl from Valencia, and they’d met in Mexico City. (Lisbon was full of Spaniards who were on their Semana Santa holiday.) The couple invited us to dine with them, and we had a great conversation about languages, traveling and culture – my favorite topics as of late. Spaniards love to talk!

One of the symbols of Lisbon

To get back to Sevilla, Brad and I had return bus tickets for an 11am bus. The only other bus left Lisbon that night and got to Sevilla at 3am. We snagged a taxi outside our hotel, but several roads downtown were closed for Palm Sunday. We zoomed across the city – all the way to the eastern bus station. We jumped out of the taxi with about 4 minutes to spare and said “Obrigada,” (thanks) to the driver. As we frantically ran from platform to platform, we realized that there was no Sevilla bus there. With resignation, we slumped ourselves onto a bench and began to whine and moan about our terrible situation. That was when the bus to Sevilla pulled up in front of us . . . 30 minutes late. That was our first religious experience on Palm Sunday.

The bus ride to and from Lisbon made our trip especially lovely. We passed through hundreds of kilometers of idyllic pastoral landscapes – rolling hills with sheep and cows grazing, lots of wildflowers, cork trees, short leaf pines and storks nesting on top of tall posts scattered throughout the landscape. All the way home, Brad and I daydreamed about having a farm in rural Portugal some day.

Our second religious experience on Palm Sunday was in Sevilla. We arrived to a completely different city, first of all. All of Sevilla is breathing Semana Santa this week. Brad and I went out to watch our first jaw-dropping religious procession late last night. Tell you ‘bout it soon.