Lisbon, part I - Flying there

Once again, this blog post has been... ridiculously long in the making. Time was when I could just write whenever I wanted to, yet for some reason, my inspiration has been running dry for the past year or so - and ever drier, as I penetrate deeper into the heart of society and adulthood, and I shed the yoke of my girlhood and leave it behind. What happened this morning then, you say. I woke up, refreshed after more than 8 hours of sleep as it were, with a dully fierce desire to write. I washed myself and went downstairs to the FamilyMart to get my black coffee, returned home and sorted through my pictures and fished out the ones I wanted to start this series with, and here I am, typing away.

And, oh, this is wonderful, I found my itinerary for Lisboa, Lisbon, so here I present it, in all its glory.

(5/21)

From Lisbon airport to the hostel:

From the airport
1) Take the red line direction 'São Sebastião'
2) Change to the blue line at 'São Sebastião' (direction 'Santa Apolónia')
3) Exit at 'Restauradores' and take the Glória tram outside the metro station OR go up that steep street, 'Calçada da Glória'.
4) You'll find us right across the street! 

(5/22)

2. Jeronimos Monastery (6 euros) (Tram 15) Allow 2 hours for transport

→Walk to Corpo Santo then take tram 15 to the stop Mosteiro Jerónimos

3. Torre de Belem (apparently not really worth going up?) (5 euros) (Tram 15)

(Go back to the hostel for lunch?)

(Corpo Santo to Chiado is 9 mins on foot)

→walk from the hostel to Chiado, then get on tram 28 (get off at Portas Sol)

3. St. George's Castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge) (5 euros, located on the highest of Lisbon’s 7 hills) (visit Miradouro de Santa Luzia nearby and Lisbon Cathedral [entrance fee 3.50], oldest building in the city)

4. Miradouro da Senhora do Monte (tram 28 uphill, get off at Graca)

→Take 28 tram back to Chiado, walk 4 minutes to Baixa-Chiado station and go to:

5. Santa Justa elevator (Metro: Baixa-Chiado Station)

(5/23)

1. Igreja de Sao Roque (walk 3 mins from hostel, free for students)

2. Igreja do Carmo (walk from Roque, 3 euros)

*****Transport: viva viagem/7colinas day pass 6 euros, trams/buses/metro unlimited.

I think it goes without saying, how struck I was by beautiful Lisbon, even though I was only there for less than three days. I didn't have time for more as I had to proceed to the last part of my journey in Maastricht, but it would seem that I'm finally getting there. I found Lisbon horrendously and almost laughably underrated - it seemed as if the entire world had been to Barcelona (my world anyway), Barcelona or Madrid or any of the other Iberia cities not in Portugal, but no one had been to Lisbon before. It was quite off the beaten track, since it was, in comparison, rather far from any of the other countries or cities - it's in the same time zone as the UK and juts out from the Euroasian continent, oddly far removed from any of the other countries. And yet this country was once one of the mightiest superpowers in the world, its explorers fey and determined, hardy men who sailed, literally, to world's end. The country that once passed Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa; and colonised Macau.

I mentioned in my last Barcelona entry how I went to the Esperanza Sqaure and took the Autogara to the airport with my favourite Hola BON card. Once more unto the breach.. all these airports, all this waiting, passing through customs, all these customs, all these security guards and backpacks and luggage and travellers and people passing through. My mode of transport this time was air travel since there really was no other way for me to get to Lisbon in a reasonable time frame, and by reasonable I mean any mode of continuous transport that lasts for less than 8 hours. The flight was delayed horribly and I remember pacing about the lobby restlessly - everyone there was antsy and slightly irritable. I had to fork out a bit this time, paid 40 pounds, but it's still much cheaper than any of these damned expensive Asian flights. I went by Vueling, and rather enjoyed the flight. It was very picturesque, and I was seated next to three Americans in their early to mid twenties, so around my age then. The clouds were very interesting, the flight was uneventful, and when the aircraft touched down the passengers rose to give the captain a standing ovation, whilst - and this is remarkable, this is - Gotye's 'Someone Like You' played in the background.

The flight I took was a late afternoon flight and it took about 2 hours, so by the time I arrived in Lisbon it was well into the evening.

I passed through the airport without any fuss at all - no customs, no guards, no security, no passport checking, no nothing, nothing to hold me back at all, no one to intercept me. The ease with which I sailed from Spain to Portugal was breathtaking. I might have just gotten off a bus, and it was the first time I realised the power of the European Union and of Schengen, and my own dumb luck and virtue of birth, that I was Taiwanese and therefore unbound by the constraints of border control.

I located the metro, which was easy to find, and then followed my own instructions, thinking that Lisbon's public transport system was very easy to use, and wondering why every city couldn't have a metro system like Lisbon's. It did take ages and ages to get to the city centre though and to my station.

Very European indeed

By the time I got there it was pitch dark and past 10, and I was slightly freaking out. I located the tram - the Gloria tram - and sat myself down apprehensively, all sorts of scary scenarios whizzing through my head; it was the first time I'd arrived at a new city so late.

The Gloria tram.

The tram went up, no problem at all, up the extremely steep street named Calçada da Glória. I got off at the stop the hostel indicated, and dallied around for ages trying to locate the hostel. I finally found it - it didn't even have a door sign - and finally managed to sign in at 11pm. The receptionist was a pretty Portuguese girl with their standard black locks and dark eyes and she could see that I was more than a little rattled, not to mention put off by how long it had taken me to find their entrance - 'Take it easy,' she said.

All in all, not the easiest hostel to find, but not the hardest either - that honour would have to go to the frightful Fussen hostel with that weird moat and even odder hostel owner.

The pretty miradouro outside of the hostel.

At this point, there was something wrong with my camera. Couldn't shoot night scenes properly, more's the pity.

The hostel bunk was very nice, to my relief, although I was less amused that I was on the third bunk - of all the hostels I've stayed in, this was the only hostel with three levels of bunks, and I had to climb forever to get there. And how fondly again I remember hostel bunking - how delighted I always was when I found that I was on the lower level, and how I hated having to climb up and down every time I was on the upper - what a chore, really.

The road upon which my hostel was located

Oh you, me, this, that and bric a brac. To be continued.