lisboa! finally!

6/27:
well that was not fun. dave had called as i was just leaving madrid and advised me to go hang out in the bar to pass time. unfortunately, i was short on cash... and the bar was pretty empty anyway, surprisingly. for 10 hours i was cold and uncomfortable and my neck will surely hurt for days. note to self: book a bed on the return train immediately after arriving in lisbon!

but anyway, at 7:30am, i arrived in lisbon!!! of course, i still had no idea where i was going to sleep and did not want to wander around town looking with my pack on my back. so i sat in the cafe at the train station, drank some coffee, charged my nearly-dead phone, and consulted hostelworld.com (my hostel bible) via blackberry browser. the trickiest part was finding a hostel that was not too expensive, and that accepted credit cards. hardly any of the hostels accepted cards. finally i discovered Lisbon Old Town Hostel, which advertised "the newest hostel in lisbon!". perfect! and i was able to reserve a room online! (to avoid getting all the way there and finding out that they were full) it was a bit more than i was hoping to pay (22 Euro), but that was fine. after a short ride on the metro, i hiked about a half mile to my new home.

as i arrived, they were painting the outside wall... a beautiful mural of the city of lisbon! i have to remember to take a picture before i leave. i walked in and the guy at the desk was very friendly. in fact all the staff was very friendly... and all about 24 year old, and male, and portuguese, and cute. sigh..

the hostel was way smaller than in barcelona, and way more quiet... and generally nicer. i was booked in an all girl, 8 bed room, but only a couple of girls were in the room. it was very clean and had a lot of personality. beautifully painted walls, and art everywhere. even the blankets on the beds were stylish (the fact that the beds had blankets... or even two sheets, says a lot about how nice this place was, as far as hotels go). our room also had an adjacent living room!

it was quiet and peaceful and very nice, i loved it. but i had noticed that there were not really any americans anywhere and many people were speaking various other languages. no problem, i kinda wanted to do my own thing for a couple days anyway.

as tired as i was, i only had three days here so i took a shower and headed to downtown lisbon. i wandered around, up the streets and into the shops, and then i decided to hike up the mountain to the cathedral and the St. Jorge Castle. the view from atop the mountain was spectacular, and i spent a few hours just wandering around and getting lost and re-finding my way. exhausted, i returned to the hospital at about 5 and passed out until 8. then i found some bread to munch on for dinner, had some beer with a few people and chatted for a couple hours, and went back to sleep.