Lisbon. Portugal

Goodbye Portugal and thank you for the party. A party hard to forget even harder to remember. Well Played, Abrigado.

India awaits as we leave the city of Lisbon, flying to Dubai for a quick layover, only to be stranded with delayed connecting flights. This wouldn’t be the first time, on these travels that the captain and admiral have landed themselves in the waiting areas of middle eastern airports. A fantastic time to slow down this rollercoaster and reflect on (try to remember and piece together) what has happened over the last few days.

Happy New Year. 2016 was off to a good start with a cadet being spear tackled to the ground by security, ending up with cuts and grazes on his elbow, all for 6 Euro – more on this later.

Landing in Lisbon from Morocco was a restructure of our minds, not knowing what to expect we had been transported from one ancient city to another. However between the two cities, the age was the only common factor.

Departing the airport our taxi driver was an angry angry man, barely speaking a word to us during our 20-minute commute into town. However, he did have enough to say to other drivers as he weaved past them hurling abuse. A little scared, both Admiral and myself enjoyed the contrasting architecture of the city.
An Air BnB would be our castle for the following 4 nights, and once again we arrived to find… 3 stories of stairs. Our Host had been waiting and due to the delay we had made it to our resting spot by sun down, a lovely apartment located in the city of Lisbon, in the heart of Bairro Alto – the bar district of Lisbon. I would say this was an apt spot for the captain and the admiral. With great difficulty and assistance of our host, we hoisted our luggage up to the room.

Exhausted and hungry we set out to explore Lisbon, walking along the town hunting some dinner. Walking out of our apartment we noticed that we were located in the heart of the Lisbon tourist district, this will no doubt come in handy.

Turning the first corner we noticed a long line outside a bright store, curiosity getting the best of us we shuffled our way in. The store sold Portuguese Custard Tarts and well .. that’s it.
Admiral Akbar had heard of these tarts before, as her comrade had previously told her that these were the Portuguese specialities. With Curiosity getting the best of us we worked our way to the counter and ordered ‘one’ tart to try, the girl at the counter astonished and responding with confusion “one!?”. I replied “yes one, we just want to try these” she looked at me, smiled ad said “These are like heaven”. We were advised that “ the locals sprinkle theirs with Sugar and Cinnamon” to which we followed suit. Quickly exiting the store, wondering what heaven tasted like, i had a bite into the pastry… THESE WERE THE MOST DELICIOUS THINGS EVER!!! i lost my mind as i passed them to the Admiral to try, soon after she too was mind blown at how yummy these tarts were.
We left the shop ecstatic and vowing to grab another 2 after our return from our walks we moved on (little did we know that during our 4 day stay we will end up devouring 13 of these tarts) – see * for Tart counter

Walking 50 meters down the road our fist Gyspy approached ushering “Hashish, Marajuana, cocaine” as he walked past, startled both the admiral and i kept our heads down and kept walking. we turned to each other a few meters down and validated what we had heard. Continuing along the hustle and bustling city, another gypsy approached stating the same cause. We declined and continued. What followed in the space of a kilometre was several other of these tradesman approaching us, some even showing us the goods and saying that “its legal to consume in Portugal” we politely declined and made a note to google this back at home. Exploring, we walked past the Oldest bookshop in the world (random).  Our first meal was some Portuguese grill done badly at a ‘tourist trap’ restaurant, without being disheartened as we knew the heaven tarts awaited. *(+2 = 3 Total)

NYE. things were going to get heavy. Following lessons learnt, the hydration started early, with both the admiral and the captain competing with our Moroccan camel friends in terms of water consumption and retention. Recovering from the constant jet lag, a sleep in was well  earned. We started off by booking our night’s festivities, ensuring we had planned our destruction of Lisbon to bring in the new year. We were to represent ourselves in a Lisbon Pub Crawl.  Once the night was sorted we booked a walking tour of Lisbon.

As we had time to kill before the walking tour, firstly we grabbed our tarts *(+2 = 5 Total) we headed out to see the church of Sao Roque, which is the richest church in the world after the vatican. As we arrived we had been advised by security that we cannot enter until after the Mass, which both he Admiral and I requested to attend (not realising the entire thing was to be in Portuguese) we were allowed to join. Walking into the church our mind was blown – the whole thing was GOLD. These words cant give it justice – please refer to the photos and see the Sao Roque in all its glory. Shiney eyed and holified we left to join the Walking tour.

The group was assembling on Hashish Square (The square lovingly named by us, where we had been approached by the aforementioned gypsies the previous night) we joined the tour, which comprised of people from all across the globe and a fantastic tour guide. Walking along the 7 hills of Lisbon both were astonished at the history and stories of ‘The oldest city in western Europe’.
I would like to share one of the learnings that astonished us.

Captain’s Quick History Lesson: Did You Know  “In 1755 Lisbon had an earthquake that measured in at 9.0 on the richter scale. The earthquake destroyed the city, it went for 10 minutes!! The survivors ran towards the sea and saw a path opening in the water, they believed god was opening the sea for them. This however was a tsunami, that destroyed whatever was not left in the city. Since this happened on Saint’s day at 9:30 am most people were in Church… when in church you have candles, this means fire, and that’s what happened, a 4 day fire that killed everything that the earthquake and tsunami had spared. In fact more people died from the fire than the earthquake and tsunami combined. The people that survived were the Sailors, Prostitutes and criminals as they were in Bars and establishments far away from the city.”

Enough History for today – On the tour coincidently we met a couple from Melbourne, the Cadet after some time getting acquainted asks if I went to RMIT, to which i said yes, he then asked if i did Business information Systems, to which I was shocked and said yes. Turns out we were a few years apart doing the same degree, in the same campus. we exchange details and realise we have 10 mutual friends and a hellovalot in common.  The world keeps getting Smaller. Mind full of history and mystery we leave the tour and hunt for some sustenance – 2016 is around the corner. *(+2 = 7 Total)

Pepped up and ready for the Pub Crawl, patrons await us at Hashish Square – we join the group, which seems like a heap of small groups which are not mingling at all. This has the admiral a bit worried, however i assure her that as the night goes on – these things only get more and more messy.
Bar 1 and things start to get loose. 1 hour of unlimited beer and sangria could only spell disaster. We meet some new fellow Cadets – one from Brisbane and another from Sydney. Drinking and socialising we come up with a genius idea to go and see the fireworks and join the pub-crawl later. We are warned by the Pub Crawl master that, there are too many people and you will never find the group. The cadets have decided – we don’t want to spend our NYE in a bar or club. Our 2 new friends by our side and 2 beers each in our hand at 11:42 the squadron moves, rushing, drinking and trying not to get lost as we make it toward the Lisbon Pier to watch the fireworks. Things are getting hazy as we join the crowds of thousands of people rushing to see the fireworks. We make it. The countdown is spectacular, the fireworks amazing and the street festivities manic. We dance, we drink, we laugh amongst thousands of people all celebrating.  NYE experience like no other.

Time to join the pub-crawl group again, the 4 cadets, drunk and happy with life as well as booze, we make a pitstop at a bar to hydrate and to pee. We grab a beer, chat and then decide its time to go, sneaking out the beer glasses as we move. Public drinking with pint glasses is a great experience. Exhilarating. Stumbling bar to bar we are unable to find the pubcrawl. We enter one bar, and as the bar tender is busy one of our newly found cadets takes it upon himself to rush behind the bar and top up his glass – without anyone noticing #legend. we still cant locate our pub-crawl – so we go to another bar and request a vodka lemonade, which is half vodka and a dash of lemonade. These guys know how to drink.
In our lapse of concentration we loose one of our cadets, we look and look and he is just missing. With no sign of the pub-crawl we decide to walk to the final venue – The Beach club, the best club in Lisbon.

Prancing along the streets toward the final destination, I hear a yell. Mr Cadet (the only one left with us) has found the pub-crawl group! They were walking down to the club themselves! happy times, everyone is laughing as we walk down, asking about our adventures. Things were not all fun and games when one of the girls has a domestic with her partner and one other girls has lost her phone and is crying #drama. in our drunken splendour we walk to the club socialising with our worldly counterparts.

We arrive at Beach club to find our lost cadet is also there! he said he lost us so he walked to the club and aside from getting knocked back a few times had been waiting for us. The group re-united we enter the club and boy is it epic. Upon entering we get our Drink card – the club operates with a system that; every time you buy a drink they swipe the card and charge it – at the end of the night you pay a bill. Everyone gets a card as they enter.

To cut back to the epicness of the club I’ll summarise it as such: dancing, tour guides, Akbar chundering in the toilet, Captain chundering in the line for the toilet, heap of vodkas and blur blur blur. One part I do want to highlight and possibly the funniest part of the night is when Mr Cadet decides ‘I am not going to pay for the booze’ – when exiting the bouncer asks us for our cards which we pay for (well kind of – i am short  of cash and a knight in shining armour in the generosity of his heart covers me). Mr Cadet however only has 1 beer on his card worth a measly 6 Euro, he decides to Run for it! he makes a dash past the bouncer and as he is running, he trips and three bouncers jump on him! Spear tackled to the ground! Grazed and with cuts and wounds he pays the bill and joins us. We stumble back to our apartment, picking up randoms as we walk. We finally farewell our new found friends and I drop the admiral to the apartment. I then head off for a last drink at 5 am as the sun is rising – i don’t need to look far to find a bar, and as I buy my last drink as it starts to rain, I realise that the Admiral has no keys, rushing back beer in hand, I open the door. Enter the house and pass out.
<end nye carnage.>

The next day waking up at 1 pm we rush for our next walking tour, but not without having a few more tarts *(+2 = 9 Total). Both captain and Admiral wounded with a terrible hangover and feeling like death we walk around the Alfama area, struggling hard as we look at the castle and try the local liqueur Ginginha (sour cherry liqueur) doing our best not to throw up on our tour guide. Feeling like death we go home immediately after, cancelling our fancy dinner plans and trading them in for some sleep and terrible thai food.

Our last day in Portugal, we decide to spend it in the city of Sintra, a town that is 40 minutes by train from Lisbon City.  we grab our supplies *(+2 = 11 total) Sintra is a beautiful region filled with beautiful castles and plenty of secret passageways. We walk around, observing the castles and the scenic beauty of the region,both of us can clearly say that the aftermath of NYE has not left us yet. Sentra’s history and its gardens could not be captured in the photos, yet we try, taking selfies and artistic shots.

Rushing back we grab some lunch at a burger joint and pack our bags, followed by a large exercise of lowering these from the 3rd floor.  Our flight is to leave soon, but not without our final dosage of tarts *(+2 = 13 Total) we load our luggage in and depart to the airport, saying goodbye, mesmerised by the history and beauty Lisbon has to offer.

Portugal you have been beautiful, Abrigado

The Motherland is Calling

Lisbon the City of History, Mystery, Hashish and Tarts.