Day 1 Destination Reached!

My flight, as I'd mentioned, wasnt until 8:30 am, which meant a camp out in the Azores. Now, I figured it would be a little hilarious, a rando blonde chick napping in the airport overnight, but it was not... It was awful. Something I never thought would be one of my problems - what with being in the Mediterranean in August, and heading to kenya afterwards - was being cold. However, even though the benches were hard, the airport deserted (and dark) and the kiddie rides (á la old school mall variety) kept spitting out creepy carnival music at intervals, my biggest complaint was that I was freezing! I had a sweater, and a light scarf, but my god it was not even close to enough!

Enough bitching though, I did a bit of reading on the Azores, and thought since i'd never heard of them, perhaps there are others who would like some info. Basically smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic between the Americas and Portugal, they helped facilitate Portuguese colonial ambitions and trading  during previous centuries. Still a contributor to the economy in fish and beet sugar (of all things0, there are gorgeous trails and waterfalls all over the islands, of which San Miguel is the largest. This is where Ponta Delgada and it's godforsaken airport are located! I wanted to get down to the pier and happenin' area during my layover, but there are no buses so I stuck it out in my personal (freezing) hell! Ah well, Lisbon will wipe my slate clean and be well worth it I'm sure!

Rua Augusta, where my hostel is located! (right side of street)

I slept most of the plane ride, save for brekkie (gluten free ham sandwich and fruit salad!) and a study break to study some swahili from my cheat sheet, though the scenery was gorgeous. I checked into Traveller's House, located in the main area of Lisbon, after disembarking from the second leg of the trip, finding it with the metro system no problem. The metro system here is a lot like Montreal's, only picture the trains going half as fast, and certain lines having only two cars. All in all not too bad, but there's this alarm noise when the doors are going to close that really starts to get to you! The neatest thing happened though as I was waiting to buy my ticket. These three hemp-smelling hippie people were failing pretty miserably at using the incredibly self-explanatory machine, but like a good Canadian I waited in line patiently (while cursing them in my head of course). This man approached me, and handed me his metro pass, which was good for the rest of the day, as he was catching a plane and no longer needed it! SCORE! I was really enthused by his gesture, and thought I'd share it with all of you... it was a nice touch to start Lisbon off with!

The pier near the hostel really is breathtaking, and across the harbour there's a sort of smaller version of Brazil's famous statue of Jesus, not surprising considering all the Catholicism that's flying around out here. The big statues are of course spectacular.

My hostel is wonderful. Clean, friendly, with a large under-the-bed storage box and lock for piece of mind. My pack fits wonderfully, so I quickly changed out of my plane clothes into a flowy skirt to keep cooler, and grabbed the camera for some sight-seeing in the area. I originally wanted to go to the beach, but was kind of bummed to discover that Lisbon HAS no beaches! Never fear, they aren't far, but you do have to do a sort of train/bus situation, so I wanted to wait until I made some friends... strange beaches are always more fun in a bit of a group!

It's a gorgeous sunny day, so I was glad to start exploring! There's an old area of Lisbon called the Alfama, which is all red tiles and white stucco, windy streets and cobblestones. The flip flops I was wearing required a little concentration with this last feature, as I'm pretty used to flat streets... though in montreal it's not all true is it? There's also this amazing castle in the middle of the area, though being cheap and whatnot, I just snuck a peek around the outside.

There are all these cool little apartments and shops in the area, and a neat feature are the little budgies people keep in cages outside their doors. Every couple feet there's a grey, blue or yellow greeter, and it sounds so tropical and cheerful up there that I just wandered for a few hours. Another amazing thing about the city is the streetcar system, which in addition to the old buildings and history is a charming sight to see winding up the hill.

Tonight there's a happy hour thing here, and a pub crawl, which I'm going to partake in (thank you very much!) which goes to the Barrio Alto area, where cheek by jowl literally hundreds of bars are located. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a tad less lonely as I meet some new friends... for which I am prepared with a 1 Euro bottle of wine from the nearby grocery store. boo-yah

I hope to have plenty more time to write in the near future, so I'm sending love for now, and signing off!