A Week in the Last Sunny Place in Europe

No, I am not dead, nor have I gone missing. I apologize if my lack of journaling has been upsetting - I just haven't had a whole lot of free time. Today is my last full day in Lisbon, Portugal, and I have been here nearly a week now. I have been staying with a couchsurf host - again making me thankful for that website - named Ricardo in his apartment near the University of Lisbon. Like a number of couchsurfing places I've been to, it is a far nicer home than I would've ever expected. It's his parent's second flat, since they live in the Algarve region in the south of Portugal, and he gets it all to himself for university. Not a bad setup. Anyways, minor details.

First, a little bit of history of where I am. Lisbon (pronounced Lish-BO-a in Portuguese) is the capital of Portugal and is the south-westernmost capital city in Europe. It was founded over three thousand years ago by the Phoenicians who used it as a trading post, taking advantage of the natural harbor created by the Tagus River estuary. Over its history, it has been controlled by the Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Spanish, and today the city encompasses about three million people in an urban area stretching to the Atlantic. The most prominent geographical features about the city are the Tagus River (the Rio Tejo - in Portuguese unlike Spanish, J's are pronounced as J's) and the seven hills of Lisbon. The old city of Lisbon is situated between two of the hills (they don't have names), and is the area that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755. As a result, the layout of the streets is entirely rectilinear, a rarity in Europe. To the east of the downtown is the Castelo Sao Jorge, the old fortress built originally by the Moorish around a thousand years ago. As far as castles go, this one is extremely cool - it looks out over all of Lisbon and offers a stunning view, and you can climb all over its walls and such. It's rather neat. To the west of the downtown is the Barrio Alto, or High Neighborhood, because it's on a hill and some streets seem almost vertical at times. This is also where all the bars are, and on Friday and Saturday nights, the streets are thronged with people. Lisbon is only on the north side of the Tagus, because here at its mouth, it's narrowest point is still over a mile wide. Thus, there are only two bridges across the Tagus in the whole of Lisbon - the Ponte 25 de Abril, built in the style of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Ponte Vasco de Gama, the longest bridge in Europe at slightly over seven and a half miles in length. Having only two bridges for a major metropolitan area creates numerous traffic problems.

When I left Germany, it was freezing cold, cloudy and rather dismal, except seeing Anja and saying goodbye, which was as always, nice. Arriving in Faro in southern Portugal, it was almost 60F, sunny, and green! The leaves are still on most of the trees, and the grass is still quite alive. Lisbon, even in January, is quite lovely and warm enough that I don't need to shiver every instant I am out of doors. In sunlight, I don't even need my jacket! Hurray! So, now that the history lesson is out of the way, I shall describe what I've been doing...

I arrived on the 5th from Germany, which I describe in my last entry, and met Ricardo at the Lisbon bus station. He is a mechanical engineering student, and it is the middle of exam season for him. Our first night, we both more or less vegged out. I recuperated, and he studied linear algebra. The 6th, we both went into the downtown area to walk around. We had lunch - I had bacalhau, Portuguese cod. Despite my usual indifference towards white fish, I liked it. It came with rice and razor clams. After that, we went to go meet two other couchsurfers that Ricardo was hosting - Vilja and Vilma from... FINLAND! I've never met real, live Finns! Just imitation Finns, like Judy or my friend Chelsea. They decided they'd had enough of the cold, dark Finnish winter, and had come to Portugal for a brief respite. Once we got their bags back to Ricardo's apartment, we went to Belém, a neighborhood of Lisbon on the Tagus that before the 1755 earthquake used to be in the Tagus. The Torre de Belém, a fortress tower that once defended the city against pirates, once stood in the middle of the river, and is now firmly on the bank. There is also the monument to the Discovery - the period of time when Magellan and Vasco de Gama were taking off for parts unknown. Belém is also famous for its Pasteis, little pastries made of cream that are both affordable and tasty.

I forgot to mention, but Portugal is the most affordable nation in Europe. This is because until 1975, it was a fascist state under the control of the dictator Antonio Salazar. His rule, coinciding with the global end of colonialism, meant that the Portuguese were forced into defending their colonial holdings from pro-independence movements. The subsequent wars, especially in Angola, have left the legacy of Portuguese colonialism extremely tainted. It is interesting to note that Portuguese is, I think, the 6th most spoken language in the world. This is because of Brazil, that one-time holding of the Portuguese that I would like to travel to one day. The Colonial Wars that Portugal fought, along with being under fascist rule for nearly forty years left the national economy destitute, and while joining the EU and other investments in the public good have improved the standing of many Portuguese, it still means the standards of living are lower than say, France or Germany. This, coupled with warm weather, makes Portugal an extremely beautiful place for tourists.

I have to run get dinner now, and rather than suspend writing this even longer, I'll post this, and continue the rest later this evening, hopefully. Tchau!