Friday morning of last week I awoke thinking the following week would be a normal work week. By that same afternoon I was prepared to act as a courier for my company to take 4 boxes from Laredo to Lisbon. I had lived in Germany for 2 and a half months in 2010, so I was familiar with Europe. Lisbon wasn’t high on my list to visit, but it intrigued me.
Monday morning came around I was prepared to fly to Laredo via Dallas, then fly to Lisbon via Houston and Frankfurt. I had never spent so much time in airports. I did survive. Made a few single serving friends. Like the guy who was from Lafayette, TN and was on 3 of my 4 flights that day. Then there was the American woman on the flight from Houston to Frankfurt who lived in Graz, Austria and didn’t want to return to Europe. Other weird things were seeing the foreigners, the German and African or Indian with cowboy hats on, while no Americans were traveling to Europe with cowboy hats.
My cell phone almost ran out of battery power before I left Houston and was relieved to find plugs under my seat in the plane. So I stayed up almost the entire flight trying to make sure it was fully charged by the time I got to Frankfurt. It never would charge with the electrical plug, so I charged it via my laptop. I had to keep my laptop from shutting down throughout the flight.
German customs was a breeze. Customs clerk stamped my passport and let me through. Luckily the Frankfurt airport had one free hour of internet access which I used to make contact with my employer to let them know I was en-route. My cell phone never did work. I don’t know why.
After arrival in Lisbon and going through a myriad of mazes to get to baggage claim, I was relieved to see the packages arrived. My contact in Lisbon was there and after a brief period of time I was free to go.
After withdrawing some Euros, I headed toward the Lisbon subway to buy tickets. A local (possibly scammer) approached me to try to sell me a Subway card. I told him to go away.
Found my way to the hotel. I was really tired but decided to head out to see the town, to Rossio station. I found myself somewhat overwhelmed seeing a dark town with no reference point, so I kept my guard up. I took some pictures and then headed back to the Pizza Hut beside my hotel. My waiter spoke good English and make good recommendations for specials on pizza.
The next day I had breakfast (bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast). Then I headed out to either find the Jorge Castle trolley or trolley going to Belem. I found the Jorge castle trolley first. I got out at the wrong place. I think it was at the end of the route. I waited a while, then went back and caught the trolley back to start the route all over again. I go out at what I thought was the right spot, but I went the wrong direction and got lost in the winding medieval roads of that neighborhood. Little did I know this was to be highlight of my trip. These roads are so small that trolleys are barely able to make it through.
I found the castle. It offered nice views of the city with cannons pointed toward the river. Cats and a peacock were around.
Afterwards I found a crowded trolley to catch a ride back on (consequentially there was an identical trolley on the same route behind us that was empty.
I went to the only McDonald’s I was aware of at Rossio. It was a good burger, but I had no free refills. Honestly I don’t know how Europeans do it. Don’t they get thirsty? Or am I just cheap for not buying another cup? Consequentially most times you had to pay to use the public bathroom in Europe. No free refills means no need to use the bathroom.
Well that’s it for part one. I’ll post more about Belem later on.