laughs in lisboa

basics of travel day: pack up, head to the train station, destination either Paris or Nantes. lucky for us, it was Nantes so a quick train ride and shuttle to the airport. while on the TGV, the lady checked our tickets. I managed to forget my carte jeune, which is basically my discount card for certain trains. you're supposed to have it with you when they check tickets, and though I've been good up until this point about having it with me and them rarely checking my ticket, I forgot it. I shuffled through all of my bags and then asked if she could look in her system to see that I do in fact possess a card I just don't have it on me. she said she'd look in her system for both of us (HA she will be looking until I'm 80 for Tess's because she doesn't have one..) but I was prepared to pay a fine for Tess, sort of playing the lottery on whether or not our tickets would be checked. the french are pretty aggressive when it comes to confrontation, so I was dreading her return. she left, and then every time the door was opened Tess and I would peek up over the chair infront to see if it was her. I was like, hey maybe she will be merciful today. and Tess was like, uh i don't think so. didn't seem like the type. well, the train ride was pretty quick, and she never returned, so we put our heads down and walked our American buns quickly off the station platform. a first bump was in order for scooting out of that one for sure.

we arrived at our hostel, which was the cutest place. the owner furnished and fixed up this really old building and it was so pretty and homey. we dropped our bags and ventured out to find dinner. we decided on tapas at this crazy tiny restaurant on a side street. great decision because the food was incredible - we shared a few tapas, split a sandwich and a bottle of wine. there was a ton of hustle and bustle and we thoroughly enjoyed the people watching and each other's company. we stopped on the way home for a drink at a really pretty & rustic restaurant/bar. Tess had a mojito (the strongest she's ever had evidently) and I ordered a passion fruit margarita. normally I'm a big margarita fan and how can you really botch a marg but wow this place did. they put brandy in there I guess and it was pretty disgusting. I was choking it down and Tess was laughing at me..

Saturday morning we made our way to what would be central Lisbon to catch a tour. our tour guide's name was Lexi and she was incredible. from Manchester, so her accent was fantastic and her touch of humor and history together made for a really enjoyable tour. I hadn't realized how much Portugal was involved in pivotal parts of history - you go guys. we saw the worlds oldest book store (peeked in as well.. had about 4 English books ha) which beat out a store in Bologna Italy for the Guinness book of world records by 6 months. after the tour we popped into the market for lunch. SO yummy! reminded me a lot of paper island in Copenhagen where there were many food stands to choose from and cafeteria style seating (but more like throw some bows and nasty looks in order to secure a seat..) I had fish and Tess had prawn rice, both delicious. we split a bottle of wine, people watched some more and then carried on. after the market we walked down by the water a bit, and then made our way back to the hostel so we could pay for our stay as we'd be leaving early Sunday morning.

we hung out for a bit in the room, I managed to get caught up in the blankets and fall face first out of the bed (typical) and then we freshened up to go back out for dinner. we took a scenic tour in finding the place for dinner, but the weather was nice so it was alright. we shared a Portuguese style steak and this time red wine instead of white. neither of us are steak gals but it was tasty for a change. we stopped for gelato on the way home, people watching and giggling some more. the hills started to really get to us at the end of the day, Lisbon is so similar to San Francisco with the hills & the trolleys. back at the hostel, packed up and ready to roll for our early wake up call. Barcelona, the kromars are coming for you.

cheers, jkro