Sunburned in Lisbon, Portugal

31.01.2012

We landed in Lisbon at about 7:20PM. Claimed our baggage, took maps from the tourist information counter and went to the bus stop which is right in front of the main entrance/exit.

We took the bus #745 which cost €1.75 to Praza do Rossio. Although the bus had no announcement which stop they're at. We actually had to peek at the bus stop name on the street and budget the timing because according to the direction we got from Hostelworld.com, it stated that it'll take about 30 minutes to reach Praza do Rossio from the airport by public bus.

So we saw the Plaza and got off. Asked a guy for the street name of our hostel. Our hostel is situated like 2 minutes walk from Praza do Rossio, it was in the middle of Downtown and the named of the hostel is DownTown Hostel Lisbon (can't get more obvious than that!).

Once we reached the hostel, we had to climbed up the stairs with our bags!! The reception is at the 2nd floor. The rest of the world's 2nd floor, not Russian's! So with our heavy bags and the energy we had, we carried our bags to the 2nd floor, and checked in. Sanjay who was waiting for us, checked us in and we paid the balance of the stay. Then he told us our room is at the 4th floor, more likely the attic. We were like OMG!! Sanjay offered to carry our bags, but we said, it's ok, then he saw us like dying, carrying the bags and walking up the stairs, he said "I think you girls do need help".. -___-" So he helped carried some of our bags.

Our room was like the last room!! It has 8 beds, very spacious, very IKEA-ish and VERY COLD!!! We couldn't really step on the floor because they were super cold! Thankfully they put a small carpet at the side of each bed, but it was still cold in the bathroom and we needed to run the water like 20-30 minutes for the hot water to come.

After resting for awhile and freshen up, we head out to Praza do Rossio and had dinner at McD's. After dinner, we went to Hard Rock Cafe, took pictures and Za bought her souvenirs.

Hard Rock Cafe, Lisbon

Then we went to Rossio Plaza and took some pictures before heading back to the hostel.

Praza do Rossio

We all took turns to bathe. After the shower, me and Tina went to the 2nd floor to use net and take the heater. Then we head back to our room and we all went to bed.

Climbing up the stairs back to the room

PS: The heater didn't helped though. It was freezing!

01.02.2012

Today I woke up at 5:30AM, on the shower to let the hot water run for awhile, and slept back. Mini woke up at 6 AM before the rest of us follows.

We got ready by 9 AM, made way to Rossio metro station where we bought the Viva Viagem unlimited card. It costs €5/day for metro, buses and trams. So we rode the metro from Rossio to Cais do Sodre station. Once arrived at Caise do Sodre, we took tram #15 to Belem.

We got down at the Belem Palace. Took a picture in front of the Palace and walked by the river to Discovery Monument and Belem Tower. It was a shame that the morning was too foggy. We couldn't see the Cristo Rei statue and the 25th de Abril bridge properly or took a clear picture of them. :(

Belem Palace

Foggy morning

Discovery Monument 

There's map of the world showing where Portugal had conquered at the Discovery Monument. Malacca was conquered in 1509. Uhuh~  

 Fishing by the river

Belem Tower

We were there for quite some time. Then we took back tram #15 to Afonso de Albuquerque Square. Took some pics and head back to Downtown. We rode again tram #15 to Commercio Square, admire and took pictures of the square before entering Rua Aguste. Suddenly, Devendran came out of the corner. So he joined us shopping. Rua Agusta is a road full of shopping stores! And there were seriously have better choices and varieties than Barcelona. Not to mentioned, we can claim VAT at €62!!! In Spain, we could claim our taxes only at €92!

 Afonso de Albuquerque Square

Tram #15

Commercio Square 

Rua Aguste and Commercio Square at the back

So after shopping, we went to this church. Not so sure if it's the Lisbon Cathedral or not. I didn't think so. Then we head out searching for this restaurant called at Restorante Coracao Da Se. I saw the place in one of my friend's facebook. The graffiti on the wall was so pretty, I told myself I just had to find the place!! We were going around and around almost giving up because no one seem to know the restaurant and the name of the road. Until we asked a Bangladeshi(I think) shopkeeper and he directed us the way.

 I'm an angel

Finally we found the place! Unfortunately the restaurant was closed. Not so sure why, but we went to restaurant next to Coracao Da Se. Don't remember the name though. We ordered our lunch, I ordered salmon steak. I wanted something else, but they were out of it. Za and Punits ordered Cataplana, Dev and Tina ordered the tourist special and I don't remember what Mini ordered but all of us ordered fish.

Superb salmon steak!

Let me tell you, the salmon steak was THE BEST SALMON STEAK I HAVE EVER TASTED!!!! It was sooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooood and very filling!! Za's cataplana tasted like tom yam + asam pedas! They were yummy too!! All of our meals was very yummy indeed. It was satisfying. After lunch, we took picture at the Lisbon Cathedral, then we head out to Oceanarium.

boo!

 Lisbon Cathedral

So we took the metro to Oriente station. We had to walk through Vasco Da Gama shopping mall. So we did some window shopping. Nothing interesting much there. So we walked towards the Oceanarium. We were debating whether it was worth it to enter the Oceanarium since KL has Aquaria and they're basically the same. I told them I saw in the internet a picture of a whale in the Oceanarium. So Tina and Za went to ask whether they have whales. It goes something like this:

Za & Tina: Do you have whales?
The cashier: Whales?? No. We don't have whales.

We were disappointed they didn't have whales. Then suddenly when we were leaving, the cashier put on the speaker and said "Wait! Wait! We have whales!!" and he was laughing with his colleague. -___-"

Entrance to Vasco Da Gama Mall. We got sick looking at these "penjajah" 's name all over Lisbon. ;-P

Oceanarium

Za and Mini went into the shop to check out the stuffs. She came out and said, she went through a book of the Oceanarium and there was no whales. So sad.

So then, we decided to ride the cable car. We bought the one way ticket costs us around €4/person(If I'm not mistaken). The ride took about 20 minutes. We got down and decided to go Saint George's Castle. Although the sun was setting, we were like, "oh well, what the heck, lets just go". When we arrived in Baixa, it was already dark. We took tram #28 that took us all the way up the hill. I can't remember which stop we got down to because we were following Devendran and he knew the way around.

 View from the cable car

 Inside the cable car

When we got down, we had to hike the hill to get to Saint George's Castle. It was really a pity that we didn't came here during the day. The view must be superbly gorgeous! We could see the Crisco Rei statue from here! Couldn't see the bridge though. I was a bit sad. We didn't get a chance to enter the castle either.

Place to pee?? LOL!

 Entrance to Saint George's Castle. 

Cristo-Rei statue at night, view from Saint Gorge's Castle

 The stop where we got down from tram #28

So then we walked back down took the tram back to Rossio. Me and Za went into the metro station to ask where to buy the tickets to Sintra. The guy said the train station was on the other side of the Plaza. Something hit Za's head and she said, "Oh! The place with the big clock and Starbucks in front of the building?" and the security said "Yes!". I was baffled for awhile and just had to ask how did she knew about it. She said she just had a feeling. :P Then we had dinner at McD's before heading back to the hostel. We also ordered takeaways for breakfast tomorrow.

We rested, had our bath, kept our McD's takeaways in the fridge, used the internet, and went to bed. Tomorrow we're going to Sintra! We have to wake up early!

02.02.2012

Today we woke up really early because we're going to Sintra! We got ready by 8:30AM, packed up, heat up our mcD's in the microwave, check out, kept our bags in the store room and head to the train station. We missed the 8:37AM train, so we had to wait for the 8:53AM train. We bought return tickets that costs about €4.50 or was it €4.25? I can't remember, but it's somewhere around that price. :P

So we got on the 8:53 train, ate our breakfast inside the train and arrived in Sintra about 40 minutes later. We got off the train, wanting to ask the tourist information centre about the bus that goes around the town, but it was still closed. -____-"

Sintra Train Station

Luckily we had done our research properly, so we wanted to wait for the #434 bus. I don't know why Za passed by the #434 bus stop, and went to the #433. There were no bus that passed us but we saw 2 buses that made a U-turn from the other bus stop. I didn't know that she didn't realized that there was a bus stop right in front of the train station exit which has a huge #434 number on the side. I guess it was still morning. I told her about the bus stop, and she was like, "really?". So we walked back towards the bus stop in front of the train station, only she said "LAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.... boleh tak perasan!" and we already missed 2 buses.

While waiting for the bus, I bought an egg tart from the Cafe right across the train station. It was the best egg tart I've ever tasted!!! Although it was a bit more expensive.

Then the bus came, we bought the tickets that costs €5/person. You can hop on and hop off the bus anytime of the day for that €5. =)

So first stop, we got down at Moorish Castle. We bought the combined tickets Moorish Castle + Pena Palace for €12.

 View of the valley.. Gorgeous aint it? 

Moorish Castle

So we hiked Moorish Castle which overview the valley of Sintra which was absolutely gorgeous! Absolute beauty. MashaAllah. There was no words that could describe the feeling of being up there. It was just beautiful. And it felt so nice feeling the cold wind blowing. Just thank Allah that it wasn't so cold though. ^_^ You can even view Pena Palace from Moorish Castle.

 On top of the world!

View of Pena Palace from Moorish Castle

After Moorish Castle, we took the bus and got down at Pena Palace. Then we bought the ticket for the funicular which costs €3 (or was it €2.50?) >.<" I forgoooot! sorry! Anyway, you can choose to hike the hill to Pena Palace if you don't want to ride the funicular or keeping the budget but we were to lazy. ;P

So we rode the funicular and arrive at the Palace. We went around, touring the Palace. It was really beautiful, but some part of the palace was undergoing renovation. But still, nothing can beat The Louvre in Paris. That is just the most beautiful Museum Palace I've ever been to. I'm just impressed at how they were able to build a beautiful castle on top of the hill like a hundred years ago!! No wonder they could build a town on top of Fraser's hill. I just love over looking the valley from that high. I can't imagine the royalties that used to live there. It would just make your day every morning you wake up, all you see is the world! I can see the blue colour of the sea and the sky come together from afar!

 Pena Palace

Not sure whether they're roses or carnation but they were everywhere around the Palace. Pretty! ^_^

We didn't take the funicular going back down because we didn't want to wait. So we walked downhill. Then we took the bus back to town. Then we had a break at the cafe right across the train station and ordered (the best) tarts (ever!) and tea!! We wanted to to go Cabo da Roca but the time wasn't on our side, so we took the 1:53PM train back to Lisbon.

The original Portugese tarts. And they were the BEST tarts I've ever tasted!

Break! ^_^

We all fell asleep in the train and woke up with a full crowd in the train!

Once arrived in Lisbon, we took our bags and head to the bus stop near Rossio metro entrance. There was an aerobus, so we ran for it.

Last shot of Rossio Plaza

While we were boarding the aerobus, I saw Rua Aguste. I was like, OMG! Rua Aguste is just like one step away from our hostel and we didn't even realize it! I showed Tina and Tina sighed. Then Tina showed Za, and we were like so disappointed we didn't know about it. We didn't even used the Lisbon map we got from the airport because they were so detail-less. One of the reason why we couldn't find Restaurante Coracao Da Se was because of the stupid map.

Aeroporto Lisboa

Then we arrived at the airport. Funny thing happened here and I regretted it so much! I accidentally saw the ticket time of departure 19:50 as 17:50. So we arrived at the airport 5 hours earlier. -_________-" And I only realized it after spending 3 hours at the airport. While the others already realized it a while back and they finally understood why I was spazzing out! :P I felt so bad... Could've spent a bit more time in town, maybe chill at Rua Aguste. Sigh.. Oh well... Maybe it's a sign I should visit Portugal again? huhu.. So we just hang around in the airport, playing uno cards and eat egg tarts! yummehhh~!

Our last adventure: Blown Away in Madrid!