Belém

I was hit by a truck this morning. A truck called Pub Crawl.

Met some nice Brasilian friends in the hostel and they peer-pressured me into going.

It was fun, but man oh man. It was also probably good that I finally got to see the late night scene in one of these cities. There were about twenty of us stumbling around Lisbon, including five crazy Aussie's travelling around Europe for two weeks for a bachelor party. I got home around 5am, I think. Two bars and a nightclub, all had fun dance music and very hopping. I managed to trip on the way home and hurt my knee. Chalking it up to travel battle wounds. I also have a nasty bruise on my arm from my pack.

Anyways, when I was ready to face the day this morning I took the train with a few other hostel folks and got off in Belém. They kept going, destination beach.

Belém is a very nice neighborhood and I did the walking tour from my guidebook. When I asked the guy that works at the hostel how long it would take to walk there he looked at me funny, so I figured it best to follow his instructions and take the train.

Once I hopped off the train I took a stroll through the Jardim do Ultramar, but they may have changed their name to the Jardim Botanico Tropical. Or I may have been in the wrong place entirely. Either way it was a nice walk, lots of trees from all over the world. There were plenty of swans and ducks to keep me fascinated. Watched them for quite a while. And then I had a stare contest with a peacock. I won.

After taking in the natural scenery I headed to the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, famous for their little pasteis (custard tarts). There was quite a line. Once I dug my teeth into the tart I understood why. Delicious.

I then wandered into Starbucks because I met an American couple in the hostel who collect Starbucks mugs from all over and they wanted me to report back if they had the mugs or not. To each their own. I then noticed a veggie sandwich so got one and sat down. An older man came up and sat at my table. He shared that he figured I wanted company, when really I just wanted to sit and people watch. He was very nice and gave me his digits in case I wanted to get dinner sometime. I told him I had plans tonight (which I did at the hostel) and then he said ok tomorrow. I told him I was going to Sintra tomorrow (which I am). And then he said Oh! I'll take you. He told me not to be scared of him, but he finally got the hint. I'm sure he had good intentions but I watch too many crime shows.

I then walked over to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. It was cool, my favorite part being the church which houses Vasco da Gama's ornate tomb. The monastery was built in the 16th century and just celebrated its 500th year anniversary in 2001/2002. Crazy old.

After that visit I walked over to the riverfront, to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, followed by the Torre de Belém. The tower was built in 1515 to defend the city, but then under Spanish rule in 1580 it became a prison. You can go in it but I wasn't feeling it so I just admired it from the outside. Once I was done soaking up some rays I headed over to the Praça do Império and soaked up some sprays from the fountain in the center when the wind picked up. I read a few chapters of my book there, which I'm having a really hard time getting into (Pride & Prejudice).

By that time it was 7:30pm and time to head back to the hostel to get mentally prepared for my bacalhau dinner.

Dinner was actually delicious. A squash soup, salad, and the cod was all cut up and served almost risotto style. So it was easy to eat and pretend that it wasn't fish. Trying bacalhau in Portugal. Check. Although I know it's not the typical way they serve it, but I'm ok with that. And then brownies for dessert. I lucked out because they served flan lats night. Not a fan of flan. All of that and 3 drinks included (beer, wine or sangria) for 8 euros. Pretty nice. Calling it an early night tonight.

Of note:
1) Rising Cock - now knowing the legend of the rooster I understand the naming of this hostel. But the penis jokes in my head are still funny.
2) Most people that have asked my age assumed that I was 22 or 23. Insert smile here.
3) I thought that smoking was banned indoors, but everywhere we went last night people were smoking inside. Real bummer. My clothes reek.
4) The Ponte 25 de Abril looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge so I just looked it up. It was actually built by the same company that built the Bay Bridge, but not the Golden Gate. To my surprise the Golden Gate is older than the 25 de Abril.
5) I was also curious about the Cristo-Rei. Sure enough it was inspired by the Cristo Redentor in Rio. For some reason I thought both the 25 de Abril and Cristo-Rei would be older than the Golden Gate and Cristo Redentor. Not the case. Interesting? I think so.