22 May 2008

Lisboa: El Fin

I spent most of my last day in Lisbon in the area called Belem. It is down on the water, and has some of the oldest sights in Lisbon, as well as the president's residence. I went into the monastery, which had a beautiful church, but didn't go any further because of the massive tour groups (mostly Portuguese kids and Germans).

It was soon time to eat, and I resumed my search for liguicia. I must have looked at over 50 restaurants for it while in Lisbon. (the front desk worker at my hotel even tried to fond me some) I finally found a place with it listed on the menu! I was so excited...but, when I sat down and asked for it, the guy looked at me like I was crazy and said no. As if they would actually have something listed on their menu! After lunch I went and got a pasteis de belem, a really famous and delicious custard tart type thing. Yum!

There were two monuments down by the river that I wanted to see - the monument to discovery and the belem tower. I could not, however, figure out how to cross the street (there was a fenced railroad track in the middle). I finally figured it out, only to later find the stairway that led underground. Anyway, it was SO windy by the water, looking at these things wasn't much fun. I saw the monument (which is pretty awesome), but, as I was heading to the tower my bus arrived, so I jumped on it. Oh well!

Mybus didn't leave until 9.30pm, so I spent the rest of the day wandering aimlessly and shopping. Before I knew it, it was time to head to sevilla!!

Lisbon is a beautiful city; it reminds me a lot of buenos aires. Lots of old, historical sights, but it isn't as well taken care of as other parts of Europe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Best linguicia in the world is in New England. Provincetown, New Bedford etc. Great stuff !!
BostonBill