lisbon has BA graffiti like ROMA!friday was the day we all traveled to lisbon (aka lesbian), portugal. yay! let the trip of a lifetime begin... lil coco and i booked the 2:00PM flight and cydney and johnny booked the 11:00 flight, so we just met in portugal. luckily their was a scheduled transportation strike on friday (how convienent), from10AM-2PM. thursday night we were unsure when we should aim to get to the airport and TAP (the portuguese airline we flew) emailed me to inform me of a delay for flight. YES! now we could sleep in even more - sleep is something i have been lacking in my european lifestyle. i feel like i never have the chance to sleep. in the morning the taxi conveniently picks us up and takes us to the airport. true to form we walk up and down the 'foyer' of the airport unable to locate TAP's check - in desk. as usual the taxi dropped us off at the door right by the desk. our bags were not overweight (YES) and we got a free snack from chef express (double YES). only negative was that our flight was a little late, like 25 minutes or so. the snack was kinda lame, we could choose something out of the deli counter and a drink. i choose a shortbread cookie, it is 2 cookies stacked with a 'hole' in the top one and jelly is filled in it. and a water. the water was better than the cookie.
next was walk back down the concourse and sit at the gate. as soon as we are seated and comfortable, the speaker says we have to move a gate over. ugh. so we get situated again and then everyone starts lining up, we had 15 minutes until they were going to start boarding but we decided to follow the crowd anyways.
i hand the stewardess/check-in lady my passport and boarding pass. she looks down at the documents and then returns her glance to me, and right as she is about to tear the pass...she stops. she asks me something in portuguese, which i immediately reply with 'i speak english.' she then turns to the computer and starts typing something into a search engine? soon another TAP worker comes over (i am assuming he noticed the massive hold-up), and offers assistance to the woman. he then proceeds to ask - very rudely i might add- if i purchased this ticket. i answered yes. and handed him the confirmation papers i had been sent (the inital purchase confirmation and the updated departure time email from the night before). he jerks them out of my hand and scans over them. i am still dumbfounded, i have no idea why i am being questioned. then he asks to show him the card i purchased the ticket(s) with. i get my card out, and he calls someone over the phone, calls some info off my card into the phone and then hands me back my card and documents and motions that i board the place. weird. what the heck was that all about? as lil coco and i walk towards the plane discussing the odd happenings we hear my friend walking and talking (on the phone) behind us. he would say things in portuguese and then add in 'brannan.' we increased our pace, we wanted to board this plane as quickly as possible.
safely in our seats, i wait anxiously for take off. i am not usually a nervous flyer but with the previous problems boarding the plane i just wanted to get to portugal ASAP. i am thumbing through the last few pages of my book (sTORI TELLING - an autobiography about tori spelling, very entertaining writer. i was impressed.) and i could hear the stewardess' behind me chatting (oops. i left out we were having yet another delay - something to do with baggage), and i think i heard one of them say 'heather.' i tense, and try to listen to what they are saying, with no luck because i know no portuguese. then i see one of the women walk down the aisle and she is noticeably checking the seat numbers. panic set in. 'they are looking for me. what did i do wrong? i wonder if they are checking my bag? was that guy calling the luggage people on his cell phone? are they going to kick me off the plane? WHAT DID I DO WRONG?!' i just wanted to take off and be on my way to lisbon...
eventually we were airborne. and this is when the real party started. TAP is probably the BEST airline we have flown in europe (remember - we have traveling college students traveling the budget airlines, baby). they are like a high class delta. not only did we get a little pre-boarding goody, we were also treated to a 'hotdog' meal. it was a unique italian style hotdog concoction.
a hotdog sliced in half and stuffed with cheese and basil, and some creepy muffin that no one has dared to try yet...soon the beverage cart was making it's way down the aisle. and we got the biggest surprise of the day. FREE WINE. yes you read that correctly, TAP offers free wine as a beverage. and it was not the screw off cap 1E kind either, they were straight up 'poppin' bottles' on this plane. passing a corkscrew and everything. they also knew how to share - one wine bottle would only fill 3 cups (meaning they were not stingy). our luck was back! or so we thought. we finally arrive in lisbon and so do our bags (YAY!). now we have to tackle the bus and getting to the hostel. we find an information desk and the woman tells us to take the bus to the last stop, that seems easy enough. the bus ride was kind of long, like 20 minutes or something. when we were a few stops away i get up to ask the bus driver how we would get to the hostel (i pointed to the address on the sheet). he quickly responds that we should have gotten off the bus 5 stops ago. whoops. he said when he loops around back to the airport he would drop us off. by now we are almost 2 hours late meeting cyd and johnny. i call them to inform them of our minor mshap (i guess that was my fault being in charge of the directions - i never really read them or follow them. a trait that i think i picked up from my daddy), and they are relieved to finally hear from us (lil coco checked her email later and krystle had sent her an email asking where we were, cyd had skyped her and informed her that we were really late. whoops). i tell them we are going back to the right stop and getting dropped off, cydney gives us directions to the hostel.
soon we are back to the correct stop and get off the bus. we start walking down to find a street to cross over. eventually we end up walking up a steady incline...for an estimated 2 miles. we basically walked down the first main street to cross over and then walk right back up. the hostel was RIGHT by where we were dropped off, we just walked in the wrong direction. typical. after a 30 minute hike (uphill) we made it! the people at the front desk inform us that our friends had eagerly been awaiting our arrival.
hard rock cafe - night 1.
lil coco and i are starved, cyd and johnny inform us that their is a hard rock right down the street. lil coco and i remember seeing it on our 'bus tour.' we set off for dinner around 9:00 or 9:30. we walk and walk and walk some more...cydney told us it was kind of far, but with the track record we had with directions we thought it would be best if we stopped and asked someone. we stop at a little convenience store and the woman points across the street, when we walk out the door it is LITERALLY right across the street. f-idiots. as we approach the restaurant i notice the crowds outside the door, 'surely the hard rock isn't THAT popular.' i was proven wrong, the wait was like 45-60 minutes. whoa! we said no thanks and proceed back to pounding the pavement in search of something to eat. we soon realized why the hard rock was so crowded, everywhere else was closed. we returned to the hard rock and decided to wait...at the bar.
for the next part of the story i need you to use your imagination. keep in mind we have been traveling all day, so we have a good travel funk look going on. i am wearing my purple over sized switzerland sweatshirt with baggy gray corduroys and mary jane merrell shoes. the finishing touch to this look was the a purple glitter headband (sounds gay, but it is from j.crew so it is legit). courtney was wearing a patagonia sweatshirt and jeans with her NEON tennis shoes. after ordering the gayest drinks we could find on the menu, a pina colada and some strawberry daquari/ pina colada concoction we made our first friend of the night. nuno. as i stand sipping my drink a server walks up to us and starts speaking french, he initially thought we were from france. after some awkward conversation over the blaring music he asked us if we were going out after. um, we look like crap - i don't think so. he said we should go with him to the 'music box.' at first we thought that was slang for 'bar' or 'club' int portuguese, but nuno informed us that it was the name of the place. ooohhhhh. we said probably not, we are tired, yadda yadda yadda - all the stuff you usually say when you are blowing someone off. during these conversations with nuno we noticed 2 boys next to us ordering at the bar. these boys were so opposite. one was tall, decently handsome and had curly dark hair. his friend was unfortunately not as fortunate, he was short and very VERY awkward. he was the initial initiator, and got our attention with his 'hello,' and awkward mannerisms (he would never look someone in the eye when he was talking and he had poor english - it was quite the guessing game). we felt bad and continued the conversation, and it only went down hill. the little awkward one was playing translator to the taller mysterious one, who eventually started speaking english. we swapped stories and played the guess my age (they didn't believe that i was 22, i am sure the sweatshirt, headband and strawberry pina colada didn't help me seem any older).after trying to drag out/ carry this conversation our buzzer goes off (finally!). the awkward one immediately offers to 'sit with us and watch us eat.' weird. we try to let him down easy - but he insists that we get his number so we can call him after our meal (they really wanted us to go out with them for some reason). and then pulled the 'now you call me, so i can have you number.' really? what are you supposed to do in that kind of situation. reluctantly i gave in.
thankfully we were seated on the second floor and right on the edge, so we still had the chance to look down at the lower floor. before we left those boys to go eat, i kind of tried to let them down easy. i said we had been traveling all day, it was 11:30 and we were just getting seated to eat, and i was almost sure that we would be too tired to do anything after - this little spill didn't work. we noticed them still hanging out around the bar, all we could do was hope and pray that they were not waiting on us to finish eating!
soon we are back to the correct stop and get off the bus. we start walking down to find a street to cross over. eventually we end up walking up a steady incline...for an estimated 2 miles. we basically walked down the first main street to cross over and then walk right back up. the hostel was RIGHT by where we were dropped off, we just walked in the wrong direction. typical. after a 30 minute hike (uphill) we made it! the people at the front desk inform us that our friends had eagerly been awaiting our arrival.
hard rock cafe - night 1.
lil coco and i are starved, cyd and johnny inform us that their is a hard rock right down the street. lil coco and i remember seeing it on our 'bus tour.' we set off for dinner around 9:00 or 9:30. we walk and walk and walk some more...cydney told us it was kind of far, but with the track record we had with directions we thought it would be best if we stopped and asked someone. we stop at a little convenience store and the woman points across the street, when we walk out the door it is LITERALLY right across the street. f-idiots. as we approach the restaurant i notice the crowds outside the door, 'surely the hard rock isn't THAT popular.' i was proven wrong, the wait was like 45-60 minutes. whoa! we said no thanks and proceed back to pounding the pavement in search of something to eat. we soon realized why the hard rock was so crowded, everywhere else was closed. we returned to the hard rock and decided to wait...at the bar.
for the next part of the story i need you to use your imagination. keep in mind we have been traveling all day, so we have a good travel funk look going on. i am wearing my purple over sized switzerland sweatshirt with baggy gray corduroys and mary jane merrell shoes. the finishing touch to this look was the a purple glitter headband (sounds gay, but it is from j.crew so it is legit). courtney was wearing a patagonia sweatshirt and jeans with her NEON tennis shoes. after ordering the gayest drinks we could find on the menu, a pina colada and some strawberry daquari/ pina colada concoction we made our first friend of the night. nuno. as i stand sipping my drink a server walks up to us and starts speaking french, he initially thought we were from france. after some awkward conversation over the blaring music he asked us if we were going out after. um, we look like crap - i don't think so. he said we should go with him to the 'music box.' at first we thought that was slang for 'bar' or 'club' int portuguese, but nuno informed us that it was the name of the place. ooohhhhh. we said probably not, we are tired, yadda yadda yadda - all the stuff you usually say when you are blowing someone off. during these conversations with nuno we noticed 2 boys next to us ordering at the bar. these boys were so opposite. one was tall, decently handsome and had curly dark hair. his friend was unfortunately not as fortunate, he was short and very VERY awkward. he was the initial initiator, and got our attention with his 'hello,' and awkward mannerisms (he would never look someone in the eye when he was talking and he had poor english - it was quite the guessing game). we felt bad and continued the conversation, and it only went down hill. the little awkward one was playing translator to the taller mysterious one, who eventually started speaking english. we swapped stories and played the guess my age (they didn't believe that i was 22, i am sure the sweatshirt, headband and strawberry pina colada didn't help me seem any older).after trying to drag out/ carry this conversation our buzzer goes off (finally!). the awkward one immediately offers to 'sit with us and watch us eat.' weird. we try to let him down easy - but he insists that we get his number so we can call him after our meal (they really wanted us to go out with them for some reason). and then pulled the 'now you call me, so i can have you number.' really? what are you supposed to do in that kind of situation. reluctantly i gave in.
thankfully we were seated on the second floor and right on the edge, so we still had the chance to look down at the lower floor. before we left those boys to go eat, i kind of tried to let them down easy. i said we had been traveling all day, it was 11:30 and we were just getting seated to eat, and i was almost sure that we would be too tired to do anything after - this little spill didn't work. we noticed them still hanging out around the bar, all we could do was hope and pray that they were not waiting on us to finish eating!
caesar salad, oh how i have missed you. but you would have been better without all the bacon and olives. random.after we finished eating, we RAN out of the hard rock and back to the hostel. thankfully we did not run into them. whew. but we did get a few random texts over the next 24 hours. here is a little sample of what some of them said:
"Hey there beautiful...probably won't be seeing you tonight but i was thinking if you and your friend want maybe tomorrow me and my friend can show you both the city...what do you think? answer plz and kisses..." that was an ACTUAL text. L-A-M-E.
"Hey there how are you? i was thinking tonight wanna go for a cofee or something?" the last text, i think he finally starting to get the picture that neither of us were interested in him...but his tall mysterious friend was a different story. we both thought he was cute, but neither of us wanted (or wanted the other one) to take one for the team and pal around with the weird short awkward one.
"Hey there beautiful...probably won't be seeing you tonight but i was thinking if you and your friend want maybe tomorrow me and my friend can show you both the city...what do you think? answer plz and kisses..." that was an ACTUAL text. L-A-M-E.
"Hey there how are you? i was thinking tonight wanna go for a cofee or something?" the last text, i think he finally starting to get the picture that neither of us were interested in him...but his tall mysterious friend was a different story. we both thought he was cute, but neither of us wanted (or wanted the other one) to take one for the team and pal around with the weird short awkward one.
lil coco, nuno and me.
check out our BA outfits.saturday excursions.
our first full day in lisbon, and the weather is BEAUTIFUL! sunny and warm :) we head to an area of lisbon called alfama. to find a castle and a flea market. we get off the subway and head in the 'general' direction which turned in a HIKE. up and down and down and then back up. kim has nothing on me! we located the castle before the flea market.
our first full day in lisbon, and the weather is BEAUTIFUL! sunny and warm :) we head to an area of lisbon called alfama. to find a castle and a flea market. we get off the subway and head in the 'general' direction which turned in a HIKE. up and down and down and then back up. kim has nothing on me! we located the castle before the flea market.
SB 2010 girls! cyd, lil coco and mshap.
CAT!
another CAT!
some of the castle. look at the wonderful blue sky :)
view from the top. so nice to be by the water again! 
we found a peacock, at the castle, in a tree. we are all unsure how it managed to get up there.
after exploring around the castle we find the world's LARGEST flea market. table after table of junk. mind you some of it was pretty cool. cydney got some cool horse bookends and some vintage keys (i got one too to make a keychain). after what felt like a never ending walk, we were all hungry and in much need of break(to rest our legs). next stop, lunch. walking around the area we found a great little cafe. the menu was reasonably priced, which is always a good sign. then a local dish on a nearby table caught our eyes. it was a plate piled with meat, egg, rice and french fries. it sounds totally odd and crazy, but it was really good.
the culprit, who helped me realize that my body does not like under cooked eggs.or maybe eggs in general.
these are a few of my favorite things, tile and graffiti in lisbon!
how could you not love lisbon? next we wanted to find the metro and go back to the hostel. finding the metro was a little hard, so i stopped two police officers and asked them where the metro was. they offered to walk us there because they were headed there too. how BA are we? police escorts. woop woop!
police escorts.don't worry they totally caught us taking this picture, and laughed at us!
next stop. CHANEL store! i really wanted to get a new pair of sunglasses in paris for my birthday, but we ran out of time to find the chanel store (we tried a bunch of random sunglasses stores and they either didn't have the right color or jacked them up BIGGGGGG time). we learned after a hour trek all around lisbon that a chanel store does not exist here. sad. so i settled on a new longchamp bag that i have had my eye on. :)
hard rock cafe - night 2
dinner was a repeat. we ate at the hard rock...again! everything here has really weird hours and that is about the only place you find open to eat. it was fun, lil coco and i got to introduce cyd and johnny to our bartender friends (we make two we made the night before) and nuno! they were impressed with our socializing skills :) the wait was re-dic, just like we expected so we parked it at the bar and ordered a round of drinks. i started with a lemon drop, and then after trying a sip of cydney's bloody mary i changed my drink to hers. it was sssoooooo good. after an eternity of waiting we were finally seated, and i ordered a totally boring dish of chicken fingers.
after we were all full and shoved all our food onto johnny. 
my girl : gwen stefani.we ran into our friend nuno again, okay maybe we went out of our way to say 'hi' to him, and he gave us his cell phone number in case we changed our mind and decided to give the crazy lisbon night life a try. second number in 2 days...in the same sweatshirts. maybe we should give them a try at skybar in auburn...
CSI sunday.
lazy day, i was exhausted...i got sick AGAIN. my mom's hypothesis is, my body does not like the eggs here, and both times i have gotten sick has been due to under cooked eggs. anyways...we set out to a potruguese art museum. we got on the metro and then switched to a bus. as usual we got off at the wrong spot (we always manage to over shoot or under shoot our potential destinations), and had to walk forever.
we quickly realized the sketchiness of the area when we saw a black man sprawled out on the side walk 'sleeping' face down in the middle of the day sun/heat. weird. a couple men that were walking in front of us bent down and nudged him and go no response. even weirder. we assumed that he was just another homeless drunk of lisbon. not to long after we found this....
lazy day, i was exhausted...i got sick AGAIN. my mom's hypothesis is, my body does not like the eggs here, and both times i have gotten sick has been due to under cooked eggs. anyways...we set out to a potruguese art museum. we got on the metro and then switched to a bus. as usual we got off at the wrong spot (we always manage to over shoot or under shoot our potential destinations), and had to walk forever.
we quickly realized the sketchiness of the area when we saw a black man sprawled out on the side walk 'sleeping' face down in the middle of the day sun/heat. weird. a couple men that were walking in front of us bent down and nudged him and go no response. even weirder. we assumed that he was just another homeless drunk of lisbon. not to long after we found this....
a car that obviously hit a large object. we jokingly said it might have been a person. but we didn't joke too much longer, because as we continued down the sidewalk i noticed some streaks on the sidewalk and was about to say 'hey - that looks like someone drug a bloody hand down the sidewalk.' then i noticed IT. a big pool of red liquid, but not like fire engine red, it was more red-brown. it looked like de-oxygenated blood red. we immediately increased our pace. pretty sure that we might have walked through a crime scene and i am not about to be caught 'in the wrong place, at the wrong time.' our scenario was, someone hit that man and then dumped him and the car in the 'sketch' side of town. i mean it could happened - it was all on the same block. thank goodness we were lucky enough not to find out...after what seemed like the never ending journey we made it to the museum! and even better it was free on sunday. the art was cool, but i feel like i am getting fairly jaded in the art, church and sculpture department. we see them alllllll the timmmeeeeee. every field trip somehow incorporates the all three, on the weekends all we see is all art and museums, etc. etc.
cool room in the museum. i love interiors!
this sculpture thing,that was drenched in precious stones (emeralds, rubies, diamonds).
next stop, lisboa oceanarium. or the lisbon aquarium. we knew the general location it was located so we thought spotting a huge building that housed marine life would be fairly easy. wrong. we must have walked up and down the boardwalk for an hour. we would stop and ask someone which was the oceanarium was and they point towards the way we just came, and then we needed an ice cream break, next we would be turned around again. eventually we found it!
down on the boardwalk.check out the cool cable cars and the dubai style building.
I LOVE AQUARIUMS!
sea otters are sooooo cute.
rocking the signature pose in front of the main tank.this tank was MASSIVE and in the center of the aquarium,
cool design.
last day monday.
monday was our last full day is lisbon. how sad! our trip has gone by so fast, now we are on to bigger and better things. we decided to visit a palace, it wasn't that old it was erected in the 19th century and used until the early 1900's by the portuguese monarchy. some of the rooms, like the dining hall, are still used today.
monday was our last full day is lisbon. how sad! our trip has gone by so fast, now we are on to bigger and better things. we decided to visit a palace, it wasn't that old it was erected in the 19th century and used until the early 1900's by the portuguese monarchy. some of the rooms, like the dining hall, are still used today.
i didn't think the craftsmanship of the interiors was nearly as great as some of the other palaces we have had the chance to visit (ie. versailles and chigi palce). some of the fabric that covered the walls looks shabby and most of the fabric that donned the sofas was shredded around the edges.next we wanted to find a famous pastry place. famed for their 'secret ingredient' pastry recipe from the monks (their is a monastery right down the street). i bought a slice of quiche for lunch and then headed to starbucks for some iced green tea. best lunch ever...or so i thought. the quiche was cold - because they didn't heat it up, and the only green tea that stabucks had was arizona green tea. i guess that will do.
most famous pastry place in all of portugal.
if you are ever in lisbon it is worth the bus ride,to the middle of nowhere to try their pastries.
this is THE signature pastry.it was flaky filo dough cup with some type of egg
custard in it and sprinkled with cinnamon.
soooooooooooooo gooooooooooooood!
the monastery down the street.
lil coco is getting was getting tired...of all the walking!
am i spring breaking in san fransisco or lisbon?
awesome luxury hotel and spa we saw.i know where i am staying next time i come to lisbon - atlis belem.
cool little modern restaurant right next door.
good bye lisbon! see you next time...oh and in case you are wondering, our fare-well lisbon dinner was at the hard-rcok cafe :)
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