Blonde in Lisbon

On Tuesday morning, after some difficulties at Madrid airport (just couldn't find the Departures area in terminal 1. I felt so stupid going back and forth only seeing signs with "T2, T3 or T4"" or "Arrivals". No "Departures", "Boarding Gates" or "Security Check". Finally I realized there's a sign with a picture of a plane taking off - still no text but I figured out it must represent the Departures. Luckily I was in no hurry, but still, after carrying all my stuff in vain for almost half an hour: I hate Madrid airport.Or maybe I should be dyslexic or illiterate to get the logic faster. That was actually like in the Madrid city centre: the street signs have both the name of the street and a picture illustrating it on them, because until Middle Ages most of the people couldn't read. Just that there was only the picture this time.), I finally arrived safely in Lisbon. 

Getting from the airport to the city centre was the easiest and cheapest that I've had so far on my trip: you can take the metro and it only costs 1,40 € (or 1,25 € if you don't have to change the line).

My hostel (Yes! Hostel) was located in the city centre near the Commercial Square and the Baixa/Chiado metro station. Great location, nice atmosphere, friendly staff, practical rooms (a sink and a huge safety locker for everyone under their bed where you could easily lock all your stuff in) and an all-round breakfast buffet. Price didn't hurt the wallet too much: 10 €/night in a 6 bed female dorm. An absolutely great place for backpackers!

In Madrid, I'd got a "Lisbon-guide" done by S's Lisbon-born friend P with all possible sight-seeing and culture-related tips. Sights: São Jorge Castle, Praca Comercio, Santa Justa Elevator. Alfama neighborhood with narrow alleys, tiny local restaurants, churches and great views from the top of the hill. Chiado neighborhood for shopping. Historical tram line 28. Belem neighborhood for the Belem Tower, Jeronimos Monastery and "Pastéis de Belem" which are delicious sweet pastries baked with an ancient secret recipe of the monastery monks. 25th of April Bridge (Lisbon equivalent for Golden Gate Bridge). Colombo shopping centre next to the Colégio Militar/Luz metro station. All in all, Lisbon is very hilly. That means there are lots of places with amazing views over the city, but also that if you climb on top of all of them, your thighs will kill you in the evening... No kidding!

Lisbon (Portugal) is very cheap compared to many other European countries, but what irritated me as a tourist were the entrance fees into the sights. The castle fee was reasonable (4 € for students), but in the Belem area you could only get discount with a youth card "Euro under 26". I find it a bit weird that there were no student discounts available, and no way I would pay 8 euro for climbing into a regular tower.

A downside in Lisbon are pickpockets: they are everywhere. I was almost paranoid with my purse and smart phone... Once I was buing some stamps when I realized my jacket pocket was open and my purse wasn't there! My heart jumped into my throat I kept blaming myself for being so stupid and careless and what would I do now with no money and credit card and everything - then I realized I'd just taken the purse out of my pocket myself 10 seconds earlier and was holding it in my other hand. Oh. Talk about goldfish memory... So no pickpocketing from me this time.

 Another irritating thing is that when you look different (blond hair), you really get all the possible attention from every male person in a 50 m radar from you. Some might find it flattering, but after two weeks in Spain and Portugal I swear you'll be ready to dye your hair into dark brown just to be able to walk on the street for a moment with nobody shouting "Hola guapa! Hey babe!" and winking to you. I totally feel for the celebs with paparazzis hunting them!

The weather in Spain and Portugal wasn't the best possible: at times it was quite windy and it even rained a few times. Anyway, I loved it, because the temperature was still near +20 degrees Celcius, so it was like the Finnish summer. What I will miss the most were the shopping opportunities we don't have in Finland (not in Germany, either?): the chains Bershka, Blanco, Pull&Bear, Springfield and Stradivarius in every street corner. Oh, and Hollister and Abercrombie&Fitch as well (didn't see them in Portugal though, but in Spain anyway). Though I'm still quite disappointed there were no shirtless male models in the Madrid Abercrombie... Haha.

Budget so far:

Flights: 142 €

Other transport: 232 €

Accommodation: 132 €

Food: 145 €

Shopping: 147 €

Others: 60 €

=858 €

Zigzagging Zaragoza

From Wednesday ’til Saturday I got to enjoy E’s hospitality in her Erasmus-city Zaragoza. This time we didn’t quite nail everything anymore…

On Thursday the weather wasn’t on our side (rain in Spain, what a disaster!), so after sleeping long, some jogging home-cooked lunch and drinking melted chocolate with a chocolate chip cookie in the cutest café in the world (with all the floral wallpapers, romantic furniture and girly decorations it looked like inside Tinkerbell’s hmmhmm) we decided to explore a huge mall located a bit outside of the city. The trip should’ve taken about half an hour with two bus lines (and a 10 minute walk in between the bus stops). Because we hadn’t needed a map so far on our trip (and because we were in E’s hometown), we just got going and hopped on the first bus.

When I look back now, I think the first mistake we made was to head into a 90 degrees wrong direction when changing the bus. No, actually the first mistake of E was not to take an umbrella with her, and my first mistake was to wear my old worn out sneakers with a hole in their foot sole (surprise surprise, they’re not water proof). The next mistake was to continue walking into that wrong direction for almost half an hour (why didn’t it ring a bell that the walking distance should’ve been much shorter?).

The third mistake was to finally try to locate us with E’s smart phone’s Google maps and do it wrong. After another 20 minutes of walking into another wrong direction the next mistake was made: we finally located ourselves on the map correctly, but didn’t return back the same route we had come. No, we were confident we could find a shortcut to another bus stop, so we just kept walking.

After one and a half hours walking in the forest and along a highway and finding two cemeteries but no sight of a bus stop, the sun had gone down and we both were soaking wet and cold since it had been raining cats and dogs all the time. There were almost tears in our eyes when we finally found the bus going to the mall. Luckily the mall (Puerto Venecia if my memory serves me right) was worth of all that trouble. I found a new pair of sneakers for 11 euro, and also bought some dry socks to change into and a pair of gloves (1.50 €) to replace those I lost in Seville. E bought a cute pink umbrella and we also treated ourselves with some over-expensive chocolate.

Lady Fortuna had obviously turned her back on me that day, because I got some kind of tummy bug from the dinner we had later that night with E’s Erasmus-friends. I ended up admiring the bathroom in E’s place for most of Friday. Eventually in the evening I could eat something again and we made a nice sight-seeing stroll around the city centre in the soft lights after sunset. It was great to end the day with a relaxing pizza/movie night watching a sweet rom com (Something Borrowed).

Now I’m sitting in a bus on my way to Madrid. Can’t wait to see my host S, a Spanish-German friend of mine who did her Erasmus in Tübingen this winter!

Budget so far:

Flights: 112 €

Other transport: 221 €

Accommodation: 102 €

Food: 116 €

Shopping: 87 €

Others: 31 €

=669 €