An Aussie, a Kiwi, an Irish Man, and Two Americans Walk Into a Bar...

Last weekend I hopped on a bus and went to Lisbon with Robyn and Karen. (Okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly a hop and it was more like a 10-hour bus ride of doom, but it was worth it. So so worth it.)

I was pretty sure the trip was destined to fail since a) it would be my first time traveling without the super savvy rents and b) because I’m not the best planner. But somehow without even trying we planned the perfect trip. The itinerary was the following:

DAY 1:
We arrived in Lisbon at 5 in the morning? 6? I don’t remember. Whatever the time was it was too early. We walked into our hostel and although it was too early to check in we put our stuff in storage and relaxed in the common room. Notice Robyn diligently planning our trip. “Momma” then made us eggs and toast and we made our first hostel friend! Brian, another American, who just graduated UCLA and was traveling alone before he goes to work in a consulting firm in San Fran. Turns out he was on the same bus as us and thus was also awake at yuck 'o clock in the morning.
Although we spent all of breakfast flipping through travel guides for Lisbon we were still at a loss and couldn’t decide what to do first. So we asked one of the people working at the hostel, Joao, for recommendations. Luckily, Joao just happened to be the nicest and the most knowledgeable person in the world because he ended up planning an entire itinerary for us, highlighted map and all. And so we were off! Our first experience of Lisbon had begun.

Somehow I became in charge of the map and led us around Joao’s route of sweet sites to see in Lisbon. I led us to some pretty cool places:



… but of course got us lost as well:




Soon it started raining and we decided that the only REASONABLE thing to do would be to stop at a free wine tasting place (once again suggested my Joao) and try Portuguese wine until the rain stops.



The tasting was free as long as we left detailed descriptions of each wine including how much we would pay for a bottle, what food we would eat the wine with, how the wine smelled, etc. Obviously, with my plethora of wine experience (ummmm Franzia?) I gave them a lot of great answers. (i.e: How does this wine taste: makes my tongue feel funny! What would you eat with this wine: meat? How does the wine smell: Shmeh.)

After a fun day of gallivanting (where really I only got us lost once… maybe twice) we went back to the hostel for Joao’s roasted sausage dinner. The Sangria was unlimited, the cheese tasted like butter and we met tons of cool people. Including Mana:





The cutest Japanese man ever. Who literally squatted next to us as he told us that he really should stop drinking since he is a lightweight (He didn’t stop). Eventually a couple of the people in our hostel asked us if we wanted to go out and even though we were exhausted from the bus ride we decided that as it could be the only Friday night we ever spend in Lisbon, we better go out. And that is how an Aussie, a Kiwi, a Japanese Man, an Irish Man, a Brit and two American girls, ended up in a bar in Lisbon.


DAY TWO:

I’ve realized that I miiiiight be blathering on too much about how much I love Lisbon. So here’s a quick summary of Day two in picture form!

Hopped on the Tram 28:


Went to a Flea Market:



Visited a Monastery with a sweet view:



Had the best five euro home made burgers (with avocado) eveeeeerrrr:



Randomly saw a peacock on the street:



Visited a castle and pretended blow up some invaders:



Went on the Pub Crawl with these fools:


Okay! The café I’m at is getting busy and I’ve finished my coffee ages ago, so the rest of my Lisbon adventuring will just have to wait till tomorrow. Hopefully I’ve done an okay job conveying how amazing Lisbon was. I’m not even entirely sure why I fell in love with it. If I was a real adult that could use words instead of shmehs and smileys and, you know, if I was emotionally aware, I’d explain it with real words. But the best I can say is Lisbon = love. :)



Yes that IS a picture of me falling in love with a pineapple. It was a damn good pineapple.