My Week in Lisbon

As I was boarding my flight to Corsica with my host family, my host mom let me know I would have more an additional week off before school started back up again for T (my host brother). With the days in my head, I only had to find a location. I was between Lisbon or Spain, opting for Lisbon because my friend in Spain couldn't take time off from his work. Boarding my flight, the only plan I had for the five days was to take a free walking tour. I stayed at the Good Morning Solo-Traveler Hostel (a mouthful, I know) and I would summarize it as the quintessential hostel experience. The hostel offers an all-inclusive rate that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and free drinks (sangria or beer) for a few hours in the evening. I didn't arrived until late my first day and pushed the drink to food limit which allowed for an eventful first night (forever thankful for Ed and Britt) but wrecked my walking tour plans for the next day. Fast-forward to late afternoon when I finally wake up for the day, my local friend came to pick me up and then I walked around with him then chilled at his house for a few hours. Ate my first meal of the day at dinner time and then went back to my hostel where I attempted to drink a beer (couldn't do it, how do people drink while hungover??) and then turned in for the night to start fresh the following day. On my second full-day, I finally made it to my walking tour (Chill Out Lisbons Walking Tours, worth going but ofc be ready to walk a ton) and went back to my hostel, gathered my swimsuit, and took off again to chill at my friend's pool. That night, I returned to the hostel with my responsible going-out-cap on. Me and some new friends I met that night all headed off to attempt to find a rooftop bar, losing quite a few people in the Barrio Alto neighborhood on the walk (they ended up finding us later though, luckily). It was quite an eventful night, lots of dancing and laugh and, disappointingly, the occasional creep. My favorite memory of that night is between one girl questioning "wait, aren't you American" when another guy said he was Jewish and laughing in the street while waiting for food the only kebab place open around us (although all their lights were off so we almost walked past it. The next day some friends and I attempted a beach day, it was not successful so we ended up going for a long walk and then grabbing lunch. When we got back to the hostel, a few people were planning to go across the river to see the Cristo Rei so I joined. On the way we debated the difference between the statue in Rio and Lisbon, even though none of us had ever visited Brazil. Afterward we made our way back to the hostel for dinner and then went out for the night again. As we were all drinking during the hostel's happy hour, a legit pub crawl worker went around trying to find people to join her tour. No one took the bait but somehow as we all decided to head out on our own (with a previous hostel pub crawl worker spending the night with us for free!!!) we had a group of over 40 people. Our walk started with the usual hill climb that we all whined over but then we made it to our first bar where we got a free shot because of the hostel worker (it really pays to know people) before heading off to a bigger club where we could all dance. I finished this night with two slices of vegetarian pizza before attempting to race back to the hostel on a scooter with a friend while six other people walked the 30 minutes. Two different scooters I had picked had ended up dying, so sadly, we arrived wayyyyyyyyy after the walkers. For some reason we found it neccesary to come up with a cover story for why it took so long which we volunteered as soon as we saw everyone waiting in the common area (even though no one questioned us). That night, we went to be with plans to go to Sintra the next afternoon. Lucky for me, the Sintra trip ended up happening, although we all could have benefitted from researching because we had no idea that we were meant to climb to the top of a mountain (albeit, a small mountain) to see the main attraction. It was worth it but just not for the hungover, unmotivated, and under-prepared. We ended up pushing through and exploring quite a few sights, while also discussing our plans for what was the final evening for many of us (me included). Our discussion went from having an early night to respect our next day of travel to "a responsible night out won't hurt anyone." We made plans to go to the Time Out Market for dinner, where we met my local friend, and then we went off to get euro shots. I enjoyed my final night, getting back to the hostel around 0500 before leaving at 0830 to catch my flight back to Bordeaux, leaving behind a whole entire outfit (oops) but bringing a ton of memories back with me.

Two important lessons to take away from this:

1. bring solid walking shoes (not converse that have already given you a good life)

2. Lisbon is not hangover friendly unless you are superhuman

#travel #portugal #lisbon