Lisboa is the capital of Portugal and was the starting point for a five week journey in which a foot was set in Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France and the United Kingdom. Lisboa was the first port of call for boring business purposes. Attendance was made at the "Measuring the changes" conference on deformation monitoring surveys, in which your humble narrator gave a short presentation on bla bla bla work stuff. The nervous butterflies of public speaking that had been fought with on the day long flight to Europe were quickly swatted away when it became apparent that the sleepy crowd consisted of just over a handful of onlookers. All that effort and worry, and zipp, it was over. Works done, now what.
Still wearing my smart clothes, I returned from the conference to the disgustingly common Holiday Inn Continental hotel. Sitting in the lobby I awaited the arrival of what I had most looked forward to seeing in Lisbon, my big brother, Ben. After reading and rereading stories of his adventures in India and Nepal for the last four months I was excited to see him and turn his travel adventure into our travel adventure. With a scruffy beard and a tired look he walked into the lobby, turned straight in my direct and stuttered a smile before we embraced. Both spluttering over our words, I took the back seat in the conversation as stories began to pour from Ben's mouth like a waterfall. He had been travelling a long time, had done a lot of new and exciting things and could not restrain himself from telling all to someone close. As tiredness and hunger began to kick in, it was time to get something to eat, drink and then we'd think about what we were going to do. From this point on in the story all references will be to "we" instead of "I". Throughout the journey Ben and I were essentially joined at the hip and rarely did anything without the other by our side.
The conference was how you say "poor", so we skipped out on some sessions and went off to see what Lisboa had to offer. Most of the Lisboa sites are located on the riverside. Which is appropriate as Lisboa was a launching point for many discovery voyages, particularly across to South America and India. An overlooking, ever watchful statue of Jesus, the Discoveries Monument, Belem tower and Jeronimos monastery were all visited. It can be nice to see old buildings and monuments, but it takes a fair bit to blow our skirts up. Inside the monastery cathedral it was pretty cool and interesting to see the tomb of discoverer Vasco da Gama, who opened up the trade route from Europe to India, with a direct passage giving Portugal a monopoly over the spice trade.
That was about the extent of touristy stuff we did in Lisboa, the rest of the time was spent fulfilling obligations at the conference, wandering around the maze of laneways along stone tiled paths between tile patterned buildings looking for cyber cafes and somewhere nice to eat. By chance we stumbled across a pastelarias in Belem (pastry cafe) famous for its Portuguese egg custard tarts. With a fresh batch served warm and blistered on top (as though burnt) with a little cinnamon on top these were the best thing ever. The atmosphere at the counter of locals climbing over each other for them and a stringy beggar putting his hand out, only added to the experience. In fact, post-Lisboa I continuously promoted Lisboa and Portugal with the expression "it is worth it for the tarts". I think they have a similar expression for going to Amsterdam.
Back at the conference we attended the social dinner which was a bus ride away at the local equestrian centre where they train horses (beasts) to trot about in a silly way and prepare them for the bullfighting ring. Apparently in Portugal they have horse mounted bull fighting. In a stuffy crowd of spatial industry stooges we watched the horseys parade around the arena, and tried to keep our sarcastic comments to ourselves. A pleasant dinner was put on, of particular note was the sangria (wine punch) and chorizo sausage. On leaving the equestrian centre we caught site of two horse trainers (a young boy and girl) canoodeling by the horses in the stable. We laughed as we found new meaning to the expression "Yeah, I'm in a stable relationship". It was even funnier if you were there.
Our last evening in Lisboa was spent with a wonderful group of Italians from the conference. We joined them for tapas and carafe after carafe of slightly sparkling white wine, then continued on for a delicious seafood dinner of mussels, codfish and creme brulee. The wine continued to be poured throughout the evening as we became more and more friendly and the laughter got more and more wild. A short glass of grappa (strong stuff of Italian origin) for everyone capped off the evening and sent us on our separate ways. Thank you Lisboa, but that's all we have time for. We're going to Spain.
In the morning we jumped on the train heading south from Lisboa to Faro, on the south coast of Portugal. We quickly found the bus station, grabbed a bite to eat and then were on the bus heading to Sevilla, Spain. We crossed the border to Spain without even knowing it, as we were both mid-siesta, already embracing the culture. Our arrival in Sevilla was perfect. Streets were closed down and fireworks were being let off in honour of the two Australians coming to visit, or some religious festival. Either way it was a cracker of a start. Not being ones for planning too far ahead and refusing to pre-book at a hostel (I don’t want to stay at a backpackers if you have to book a week in advance, which to me goes against the nature of backpacking), we set off in search of accommodation. We stumbled across a Canadian couple with confused expressions, gaping into their travel book, and offered to help them find their hostel. If they had space, we could stay there too. We bustled through the crowded streets, covered in rose petals and tried to avoid getting in the line of the firecrackers being launched at our feet. We located the very cool looking hostel, tucked down a little alleyway off a main shopping street in the heart of Sevilla, with a rooftop sitting area overlooking the neighbouring buildings. All checked in, time to eat, so we took a recommendation and went and enjoyed an evening meal of tapas with our new Canadian friends, in a local restaurant overflowing with voices and the colour of the festival.
After such a wonderful welcome we decided to give Sevilla a day and went for a look around. Sevilla is a great place to simply wander around the lanes and streets. We checked out the cathedral, with the Giralda minaret come bell tower, the elaborately decorated high altar and the tomb of Christopher Columbus, another well known explorer. The inside of the cathedral was impressive and worth a look. It was even fun taking on the little old fortunetelling ladies out the front, waving sticks of rosemary. I got my generic fortune read, but handed back the stick when the old bag started asking for folding money.
We had a good cheap meal of montaditos (tapas style baguette rolls) in a cool little bar and went off in search of a flamenco show. Unfortunately, the performance was to be in a bar jammed full of North American accents guzzling down pitchers of beer, which raised doubt as to the quality of the "authentic" flamenco show. We decided to leave before the show got going.
In the short amount of time we had been in Spain, we quickly realised that the Spanish women are extraordinarily attractive. After one day I officially fell in love with all the women in Spain, convinced, based on the near 100% strike rate, that they were each as beautiful as the next. It’s just a shame they all smoke like chimneys. Actually, I am sure there are some unattractive women in Spain, they just aren’t allowed out of their houses.
The next day we were up early and hoofed it to the bus station, just in time to catch the bus south through the rolling hills of farmland to Tarifa, a popular windsurfing spot at the very southern tip of Spain. A beautiful lunch of seafood themed tapas was had by the seaside as we waited for the ferry and watched the beautifully dressed Spanish women parade by. With more of Spain to look forward to we turned our attention to Morocco, Africa, visible to the south, and boarded the fast ferry to cross the Straight of Gibralatar.
