Well, we’ve made it to the end. I can’t believe today is already our last day here in Portugal. I’m so sad that I can’t just stay here forever, but I knew this day would come.
After I finished writing in this travel log two nights ago, Allison and I ended up getting drunk on Cutty Sark and talking until two in the morning. It was a really fun night and it just reminds me about how happy we are together and how much more amazing this trip has been being just the two of us. Any woman that’s down to drink warm Cutty and wants to order hot dogs from room service at two in the morning is ok in my book (we didn’t actually order them)!
[Nasty hot dogs in a jar at Jumbo - Al.]
We woke up yesterday morning feeling a bit hazy from the Cutty Sark, so we headed down to check out the breakfast at the hotel. They have a cool little bar/reading room area (with really cool art deco design) where they set up a buffet. The food was decent but it definitely didn’t compare to the buffet at the Viva Marinha (I suppose that was to be expected).
After breakfast we showered and got ready for the day. Allison had her heart set on checking out the Ocenario de Lisboa (Europe’s second biggest aquarium) so we hailed down a cab and headed over. It was a fairly long cab ride, so we got to see lots of different parts of the city. The ocenario was located along in the water in an area that reminds me a lot of the SOMA district of San Francisco (Parque de los Nacioes). The weather was beautiful and the family tourists were out en masse.
The line to get into the ocenario was really long so we ended up having to stand in line for a solid 30 minutes. Once we got inside we headed for the temporary exhibit about turtles. The design of the museum was really cool with its glass floors, little underwater rooms, and lots of other ways to really create ways to immerse you inside the aquarium. The sea turtles were huge and looked majestic and intelligent as they floated by. We really loved the first exhibit.
After the turtle exhibit we headed over to the permanent exhibits that exist over in a separate building. The two buildings are connected by a really cool elevated walkway that provided some great views of the ocean. Once inside, we quickly discovered that there were lots and lots of families with bratty little fucks running around all over the place. The exhibits were really cool but I found it extremely distracting having those kids shoving me around the entire time.
Being around that many kids is a really effective form of birth control! Those kids were annoying as FUCK! They were pounding on the glass, screaming at the animals, running around like wild animals, and doing lots of other super annoying things that the parents should have prevented them from doing.
Despite the kids, I had a really great time seeing all of the animals. The sea otters were particularly entertaining. Two of them were wrestling with each other the entire time we were watching them and it was pretty funny.
After the oceanario, we hailed a cab and headed over to the Alfama neighborhood. This neighborhood is known as the birthplace of Fado, a music genre characterized by sad tunes and lyrics that focus on the sea and the life of the poor. The neighborhood is known as a good place to walk around and take photos of the windy, narrow streets. Since Allison and I live in San Francisco, we didn’t necessary find it overly interesting, as it reminded us of walking around North Beach or something like that. The neighborhood seems to still be a poor neighborhood, and some of the people lingering about the streets seemed a bit sketchy.
We grabbed lunch at an excellent little café at the bottom of the hill and relaxed in the shade for a while. Allison ordered a traditional Portuguese dish call Arroz con Mariscos (rice with shellfish) and I had a finely cut steak with a mushroom sauce that was absolutely delicious! We both really enjoyed our meals! As Allison said, “carbs never went out of style in Portugal”, so they serve both rice and batatas fritas (French fries) with all of their red meats and some of the fish. Basically, I’ve been in heaven.
The day was really hot and I was wearing pants and a long sleeve button up shirt (it was overcast in downtown when we left our hotel room) so we headed back to our room so I could change into something cooler.
We relaxed in our room for a while before coming up with a plan for the evening. We got dressed up a bit and headed over to a super swanky hotel on the Avenida da Liberdade to grab a cocktail in the lounge area. I had a scotch and Allison ordered a dry port (ports are the signature wine of Portugal), and they gave us some delicious little snacks. There were olives and some other kind of hard legume in an herb and olive oil dressing, dried cranberries, and flavored almonds.
After our super swanky (and super expensive) cocktail hour we headed over to a little seafood restaurant a few blocks down the avenida that we had noticed the previous day. At times, it seems like all we did this trip was eat and drink!
After dinner it was dark out so we walked around the downtown area and enjoyed the sights. There were lots of super aggressive Arab dudes trying to sell us hash and “good weed”, which reminded us of being back home in the Haight. I told Allison, “…if there’s one thing that Hollywood and Locked Up Abroad has taught me, don’t buy drugs in foreign countries!” (not that we were considering it anyways).
I bought two soccer scarves for myself at a little tourist shop and was really happy to have more souvenirs. The problem was, I was shopping for my brother and Sharon and hadn’t been able to find anything good. Portugal is a horrible place to go souvenir shopping because they generally don’t sell anything that isn’t made in Portugal, except for the trinket things that are probably made in China. We walked into the little pirate grocery store and I spotted the Absinthe section. I saw a really cool bottle of mango Absinthe that seemed right up Jamo and Sharon’s alley, so I bought it for them. I was really happy to finally find them something!
We headed back to our room and called it an early night again. With all of the eating and drinking that we’ve been doing during the day we simply have no energy to make it out at night.
We had breakfast at the hotel buffet again this morning, and are currently making plans for our last day here. I suggested seeing the Sao Jorge castle, which is located downtown and looked really cool at night. We have yet to see any castles so we figured we might as well while we still have the chance. After that we’re going to check out Rua Augusta Street for some shopping (it was recommended in one of our travel guides).
The next time I update this thing I’ll probably be back in the States, or on an airplane. I’m so sad that the trip is winding down but we’ve had such an amazing time!
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