This is the end, my friends. I’m currently sitting on my couch back in the good ol’ US of A. I thought it would be a relief to be back home in the comfort of my own apartment but I already miss Portugal. I really missed the cats though, so it was really nice to see my boys again (they were pretty happy to see me too!).
It was an absolutely amazing trip and I’m glad that I got to experience so many wonderful things without any hangups. We were truly blessed in that aspect. Allison was an amazing travel partner and I feel so lucky that I get to spend the rest of my life with her. Anyways, enough with the mushy stuff…
For our last day in Lisbon Allison and I decided to check out the Castle of Sao Jorge. We hadn’t seen any castles yet so we figured we should probably see at least one. What an amazing choice! The Castle of Sao Jorge sits atop the tallest hill in the historic center of the city and provides some AMAZING views of the entire city. We spent most of our time at the castle taking in the views of the city and the views of the Tagus River.
As it stands now the royal palace is in ruins and most of the remaining structures are just walls and stairs. It was interesting to look through the walls of the castle and imagine what it would be like to defend it. I’m glad I didn’t live during those times because I’m clearly not the soldier type (but I would have made a badass king!). Although, family legend has it that my great-great-grandfather was the captain of a famous pirate ship out in the Azores, so maybe I do have a little bit of badass in my blood after all.
On our way out of the castle we spotted a little, shoeless asian guy selling animals made out of reed that Allison couldn’t resist buying. The insides of the figures have wire, so you can bend them however you want and they will stay in that position. It was a strange souvenir to buy at a castle, but it was cool nonetheless.
Walking and climbing around the castle gave us a pretty big appetite so we decided to find a lunch spot. I’d seen a cool little cervejeria (beer house) in the Restauradores area (a huge plaza with lots of restaurants) so I suggested we head over there. It was REALLY hot out and we wanted to sit under the umbrellas.
We arrived at the restaurant and the waiters were very slow to acknowledge us. When they finally did, they told us to sit anywhere. We found a nice table in the shade and sat down. Then, one of the waiters came over and told us that we were sitting at a four person table and we needed to move the the two person next to us. The problem was that the two person table wasn’t covered by the umbrellas so we told him we didn’t want to move. He did a half-ass job of moving a few of the umbrellas for us but half of the table was still bright with sunlight. At this point were weren’t thrilled with the place, but you can’t let the little things get to you. Then the waiter brings over the menus…
The menu was extremely small and everything on it was double the price of all of the rest of the places! This place was obviously a total tourist trap! It would have been around thirty dollars each, and we definitely weren’t willing to pay that for what would certainly would have been a very mediocre meal, so we walked away. If you ever visit Lisbon, avoid the Cervejaria Pinoquio! That, and the Ca Des Sandes, which gave Allison and I both upset stomaches (it gave me gas that smelled like garbage, literally garbage)!
We made our way towards the Avenida da Liberdade to get away from the masses of tourists and found a nice outdoor restaurant in the the middle of the avenue. We lucked out with a really nice Brazilian waiter and some really delicious food. I ordered a “large” beer which ended up being a full liter of Super Bock. Things were really starting to look up.
At all of the restaurants in Portugal, they automatically bring bread, pate, and cheese to your table. These are not free. We’d avoided eating them for most of the trip, but we were so hungry that we decided to bust into them. Allison selected the sardine pate to crack open and I couldn’t help commenting about how it not only looked like cat food, but it SMELLED like it too. She took a bite and said it was pretty good. I put a little bit of it on my bread and I have to admit that it was delicious. If you ever get the chance, try out the sardine pate (don’t let the cat food consistency throw you off, it’s delicious).
After our late lunch, we walked around and tried to do some last minute souvenir shopping. Again, we struck out. Portugal is a bit stuck in the past and all of the things that they sell is from the old days. As much as I love Portugal, the one gripe that I had was the fact that Portugal seems so resistant to change. All of the art and music and food is the same as its been since the 1940’s, which most Portuguese people consider to be the height of Portuguese pop culture. The only modern things we saw were mostly fashion related, and as a culture they seem to LOVE the high end fashion labels. I guess that’s a universal thing.
After walking around for a while we decided to head back to the room and rest for a while. At this point we’d been walking all day, every day, and it was starting to take a physical toll. The walking combined with the heat made the air conditioning in our room sound pretty amazing.
After a few hours of resting in the room we decided to have a drink at the hotel’s bar/lounge. We sipped on Jameson and played a few games of backgammon.
After we’d each won a game we decided to end on a positive note and head out for dinner. Allison had a craving for pizza, so we got a recommendation from the girl at the front desk and headed out to a place called Valentino’s. The funny thing about Valentino’s was that it was located right next to Cervejaria Pinoquio, the overpriced tourist trap we’d walked away from earlier. It was jam packed with people and I couldn’t help but think that those people are were idiots.
Valentino’s was delicious, and we ate outside. I ordered a Hawaiian pizza and Allison had the Valentino special (spinach and gorgonzola). Our waiter seemed to take a special liking to me and seemed to be awkwardly hitting on me, especially when he found out that I was from San Francisco (the city with the gayest reputation worldwide!). I definitely think I would do better as a gay man than as a straight man, I get hit on by men a helluva lot more than women. Allison teases me constantly!
With dinner wrapped up, there was nothing left to do but head back to the room and pack. We tried to stay up as late as we could so that we would be tired for the flight but I only made it until midnight.
The next morning we caught a cab, made it through the extremely confusing Lisbon airport, and after MANY hours of standing in various lines and sitting on a airplane we made it back to SFO. It weather was cloudy and rainy and exactly how I remembered San Francisco. It was such an amazing trip, I will never forget any of it!
A few other random observations:
1. Lisbon (and to a certain extent, Cascais) is full of street artists that act like statues. If you’ve ever been to Pier 39 in San Francisco you’ve probably seen a similar version of what they do. In the US, they dress in solid gold or solid silver outfits, stand on a pedestal, and remain frozen for long periods of time. It doesn’t seem like a particularly interesting expression of art, but I guess to each their own. Anyways, the people that do this in Portugal are HORRIBLE at it!! Seriously, they’re fucking terrible! They’re constantly moving, shifting their eyes, and doing other un-statuesque things. Their outfits range from medieval to modern soldiers, as well as Elizabethan characters and priests. I felt pride in how superior American artists are compared to these European posers.
2. Portuguese people have no problem staring you down. In the US there is an unspoken two second rule about staring at someone. Anything more than that will likely lead to a fight. Allison and I both noticed that people would just sit and STARE at us. I think part of it is that they were trying to figure out what nationality we were, and the other part is that they’re not used to seeing asians that look like Allison. All of the asians that we saw here butt ugly and fobby as FUCK!
3. Portuguese people LOVE their sweets, which unfortunately extends to their wines. Everywhere you go you see Port wines and little else. I’m not overly fond of sweets and I especially dislike sweet wine. Going in to this vacation I was thinking that I would be drinking all kinds of Portuguese wine on the trip; I ended up not having a single glass. I suppose I should have tried some of the ports, but they were all pretty expensive.
4. If you like pork, you will love their food. Pork is a staple of their diet and that made me a very happy man. Pork, various forms of steak (bife), chicken and shell fish are on every menu. Again, I was a very happy man! Even Allison contemplated eating pork this trip, despite not having eaten it for over eight years now (although, one of her cravings was during a druken Cutty Sark night and she wanted a hot dog).
[Nasty hot dogs in a jar at Jumbo]
5. I found Portuguese people to be extremely, extremely attractive. I live in a city full of women that dress in some of the most retarded styles on the planet. I understand that San Francisco is “fashion forward”, but shouldn’t your fashion make you LOOK better?? The Portuguese women know how to dress themselves, and that just adds to their natural beauty. I’ve never been in a place where so many natural beauties were just roaming the streets. Also, the black guys in Portugal are extremely fashionable (even more so than all of the other guys on average). I’m so used to black guys wearing sports clothes and baseball caps in the Bay Area that it was really strange seeing how styled out these dudes were. I have to admit, I was definitely jealous…
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