Lisbon 10/23/12 -
10/25/12
After less than a day’s recovery from Dublin, it was time to
head to Portugal. We took Easy Jet this time and it was a much smoother flight
than I had experience with Ryan Air. We arrived around 7:30 in the evening and
took the metro to our hostel stop. Sam then led the way to our hostel and
successfully got us there. All the guys that worked there are really young and
basically live in the hostel. They call it the Mansion and told us to make
ourselves feel at home. Before we were shown to our rooms, they made us all
take a shot for free. The girls of the group were all in the same room and we
had our own steps leading up to our room. There was a balcony in our room and
the guys at the hostel told us we were allowed to go on the roof. People do not
go out until really late at night in Lisbon, so the hostel guys took us on a
pub crawl the first night and it did not start until midnight.
On Wednesday, Lewis (one of the hostel guys) took us on a
walking tour that started at 11:15. We walked through most of the city, which
is extremely hilly and full of cobblestones. On the tour, we saw the Sé Catedral
de Lisboa, which is the oldest church in the city of Lisbon. My
favorite stop on the tour was the Praça do Comércio. This square is right on
the Tagus River and used to be the location of the Pacos da Ribeira until an earthquake
destroyed it in 1755. I found the buildings to be beautiful and the view of the
water was phenomenal, especially because the weather was so nice. We stopped by
a shop and they gave us free port. There were so many souvenirs made of cork,
because cork is Portugal’s number one export. Roosters are also extremely
popular in Portugal as well, because they signify good luck. It all comes from
the legend of the Rooster of Barcelos that tells the story of a dead rooster’s
intervention in proving the innocence of a man who was falsely accused and
sentenced to death. On our way out of the shop, a man approached David and
tried to convince him to buy a bracelet. After a few minutes talking to him, he
eventually gave David a bracelet for free and said “big man, big money.” He
then gave all of the girls in our group free bracelets and said “good luck,
long life.” He was such a sweet man, very different than the other people I have
come across who try to sell me things. For lunch we stopped by one of Lewis’s
favorite places to get pork sandwiches. They were only 1.90 Euros. Everything
in Lisbon was definitely extremely cheap compared to most other cities I have
visited. After getting back from the tour, we had so much time to just relax!
It was a bizarre feeling, because we are always on the go. That night for
supper, one of the guys that works at the hostel, Urbi, cooked us Portuguese
food. While he was cooking, he asked Allyson and I if we could help him peel
potatoes, so of course we helped out. The atmosphere of the hostel was just so
amazing, I definitely felt the most comfortable in this one that any other one.
After supper, we hung out at the hostel for a little bit longer and then went
to a fun dance club that was right near the water.
The next day, we took a short train ride to Sintra. We had
heard how beautiful it was from the guys working at the hostel. It was very
rainy outside, so we all were completely drenched after about an hour of
walking around. Eventually we got on a bus and went up a mountain to Pena
National Palace. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven
Wonders of Portugal. That night we got our stuff from the hostel and made our
way to the train station. We spent the night on a train, but luckily this time
we all had beds.
Granada 10/26/12 –
10/28/12
We had an overnight train from Lisbon the night of the 25th
that would take us to Madrid. From there we planned on making our way to
Granada. Thank goodness we all had beds this time and I didn’t have to sleep in
awkward positions like on the way to Budapest. Once we were all settled in the
train, Kacey went to go and get water outside in the vending machine. All of a
sudden the train started moving and Kacey was outside. Luckily Cody and I were
able to pull her onto the train, because the door was still open. When we
arrived in Madrid the next morning we found out that we would be arriving in
Granada much later than expected due to train reservations being full. We also
found out that there were no trains to Barcelona on the day that we had planned
on going. As a result, we had to sacrifice a night in Barcelona and stay in
Granada a little bit longer. When we arrived in Granada, the hostel was making
paella, so most of us signed up to eat there.
The next morning Allyson, Caroline, David, Cody, Holland, Alex,
and I all woke up very early and went to the La Alhambra. People had told us
that if you do not get there early then it is unlikely that you will get a
ticket for that day. Fortunately the line was not too long and we got tickets
for 10:30 that morning. The grounds were absolutely enormous so we had plenty
to look at before entering the Nazaries Palace section. The Alhambra’s Islamic
palaces were built in the 10th century for the last Muslim Emirs in
Spain and its court, of the Nasrid dynasty. The walls inside of the palace were
lined with the most gorgeous tiles and intricate marble carvings. I could have
spent so many more hours there, but we were all a bit tired by the early
afternoon. For the rest of the afternoon, Alex, Caroline, Allyson, and I walked
around and shopped. We came across a very cool market that sold a lot of
Moroccan inspired gifts. That night we ate at a Moroccan restaurant and then
went to a flamenco bar. The flamenco was very interesting and definitely not
what I expected. For the most part it was just an old man singing and there was
one male flamenco dancer that performed for about 10 minutes of the hour that I
was there. That night I went to bed fairly early, because the group that went
to the Alhambra planned on hiking the Sierra Nevadas the next day.
When we woke up, we went to the bus station and tried to
find the correct bus. Cody had everything planned out, but for some reason no
one knew where the bus was that we needed to take. They also had no idea that
the town we wanted to go to even existed. That being said, we decided it was
probably best to stay in an area that we knew. Allyson, Caroline, David, Cody,
Holland, Sam, Alex, and I instead all went on the three hour free walking tour
provided by the hostel. While on the tour I learned that the pomegranate was
actually named after Granada, so Granada came first. The tour was extremely
hilly, but we were able to see everything that Granada was famous for. We saw a
great view of the Alhambra and then went to the cave houses. These houses were
hidden deep in the mountain, but had normal doors leading into them. After the
tour, we went to a tapas bar and spent the whole afternoon there. With every
beer that we ordered, we got free tapas that are basically just snacks and
appetizers. Needless to say we were there for a while. We basically spent the
rest of the day hanging out in different tapas bars and then made our way to
the train station to head to Barcelona.
Barcelona 10/29/12 –
10/31/12
We got to Barcelona on the 29th after another
overnight train from Granada. This time we did not have beds and all had to sit
in regular seats. The train problems continued once we got to Barcelona. We
found out that there were train strikes on the day that we wanted to leave, the
31st. When we got to the hostel we figured out that we could catch a
bus on the night of the 30th and make our way to France in order to
train back to Switzerland. With this none of us were happy whatsoever. This
meant that we would only have one night out and two days in Barcelona. So we
wasted no time and started to walk around Barcelona right away. Our hostel was in
Plaza Real which was right off of las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona. Stefanie
had been in Barcelona for a while and knew of all the places that we should go.
We started off by going to Bo De Be’s to get chicken and feta sandwiches which
were absolutely delicious. The marina was absolutely gorgeous! Afterwards we
went to Park Guell, which was designed by Antoni Gaudi. It was probably one of
the coolest parks I have ever been to. The entrance had two buildings that
looked like gingerbread houses and the walkways on the inside were lined by
mosaics and cavern-like walls. We also stopped by la Boqueria, which is a world
famous market. They had delicious fresh juice and some interesting truffles. Holland,
Cody, and I somehow ended up getting split off from the rest of the group. We
walked around and went to see the Olympic village and the University of
Barcelona. The university was absolutely gorgeous and I would love to study
there. Afterwards, we went to a nice tapas place that Holland had been to in
the past. It was nice to just sit down with two other people and have a
relaxing meal. The sangria there was extremely delicious. Once we got back to
the hostel I quickly got ready as we had a big night planned. We started off by
going to the dow jones bar and then worked our way over to the famous shots bar
and ended up at a club.
On Tuesday, Allyson, Holland, Cody, and I all decided to
just walk around the city and find cool places to go. We started off by going
to the Barcelona Cathedral, which to me looked exactly like every other church
I had been in. Next we went to Camp Nou where Barcelona plays. That was a
unique experience and the stadium was massive. Afterwards, we went to the
Sagrada Familia and waited in a very long line to get in. It took about 45
minutes, but the wait was well worth it. I have never seen a church like it.
This church was also designed by Antoni Gaudi and is still being added to
today. The inside was so modern and unique; it felt as though I was in a
forest. The stained glass windows were another amazing aspect. They were
extremely vibrant, I hardly knew where to look. After spending about an hour inside,
we went to another park and then went back to the hostel. We had bought tickets
for a bus that left Barcelona at 1 am and took us into France. Before we went
to the bus stop, we all decided to go out for one last hoorah in Barcelona.
Surprisingly we all made it to the bus stop on time, except
the bus ended up being two hours late. All of us were sitting under an
overhang, freezing cold in the pouring rain and feeling absolutely defeated. It
was only the start of our trip home and it was a terrible one at that. Once the
bus arrived we got on but knew that our plans to get back to Switzerland from
France would be ruined, because we would miss all of our connections. After
another restless overnight trip, this time on a bus, we ended up in a random
city in France and made our way to the train station. Of course all of the fast
trains were full and we had to take regional trains to a big train station in
order to figure out how to get home. Needless to say we were pretty much
screwed. We ended up sending out management professor an email, because we
realized at this point we probably were not going to make in back in time for
class on Thursday morning. This seemed ridiculous to us, because we had left on
Tuesday night. Eventually we found out a way to get to Lucerne a little bit
after midnight. Unfortunately the first train out of Lucerne to Riva was at 6
am and we would still be late for class, because it started at 9AM. So we had yet
another night without a bed, this time on Halloween. The train station in
Lucerne was all outdoors, which was a problem because it was freezing and there
was snow on the ground. We were able to stay in McDonalds until 3 AM, but the
eventually kicked us out. After that we went to the ATM room in the train
station and all 15 of us laid on the ground. Drunk people kept coming in and
taking pictures of us. They could not stop laughing. Some people threw Francs
at us and others threw French fries. Many people could not believe what they
were seeing, because it seemed a little bit ridiculous to have 15 “homeless”
people piled into an ATM room. The police then came and kicked us out, so we
found another warm place in the parking lot stairwell. Getting kicked out of
here was terrible, because the police brought a dog with them this time. Feeling
sleep deprived, we had no idea where to go and decided to stay standing until
the waiting room opened at 5 am. I feel asleep there for a little bit until
finally our train arrived and took us back to Riva after 38 hours of traveling.
We arrived just in time to take a quick shower and run to class. I am not quite
sure what we learned that day, because all I could think about was cuddling up
into my bed and having a wonderful night’s sleep. I worked out that out of the
last 4 days of our trip, we only spent 1 of them in a bed. The rest were spent
on an overnight train, a bus, and a train station. Looking back at this
experience at least at least I can laugh at the ridiculous things that
happened, not many people can say they have done those things before. And I
suppose I did dress up for Halloween this year, I was a homeless person.
So this was an update with no updates?
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