Saturday, January 12, 2008

West Coast of Western Europe Pt 5

cont'd from West Coast of Western Europe Pt4

Ok. This is what the Lonely Planet has to say...

Portugal is a quiter, calmer place than its exuberant neighbour, Spain. But it's far from dull. Thanks to the country's relative geographic isolation, Portugal has retained a strong and fascinating sense of identity and culture....

The economic base is still very traditional, relying largely on fish, wine and textiles. The flip side is that although EU funding has vastly improved the infrastructure, Portugal is still relatively a poor country.

And that was where I stopped reading.

Yes, this city girl isn't that easily impressed by less wealthy nations, she admits very sheepishly. But then again it's not to say Malaysia is VERY wealthy either...but that's different :)

I had very low expectations of Lisbon thanks to the excerpt from the book. Little did I imagine I would fall so much in love with the place...

We arrived very early in the morning following the night bus from Sevilla. The thing is we were to suppose to fly in to Lisbon, but our flights got cancelled 2 weeks before our trip, so the 7 hour bus was the only option we had. Can't really complain because come to think of it, we were lucky to get transportation out of Sevilla on Christmas Day...

We were there so early the metro guys weren't even ready to serve us yet. But I bet we amused them very much with our half-awake "ok-we-got-to-figure-out-where-the-hell-are-we" looks. Haha.

And neither were we ready to converse with the locals too, given we know absolutely no Portuguese! I remembered thinking at that time that if we had to resort to so much sign language in a moderately advanced and tourist-friendly country like Spain, then one does wonder what magic we had to perform to get people in Lisbon to understand us...

But all that worry was unnecessary, for people in Portugal spoke GOOD English! Well, in Lisbon at least. That really put their Spanish counterparts to shame!

Lisbon is a port city by the sea. We first went to Balem to see the famous Torre and Museu do Design. Had lunch at a Chinese Restaurant which - in OUR opinion (this is not just me) - served the BEST Chinese food we've tasted in the 3 chinky restaurants we've customed on this trip. The roast duck was oh-so-saliva-inducing, and the seafood noodles! Never have I seen such fresh prawns in years!

A-huh. I can see you going..."Chinese food? When on a Europe Trip? Hello???"

Well, you would too if you're sick of paella (like I was), and literally, sick (which I was).

I fell ill when in Sevilla (was down with a cold) and I craved for soup like no other. I felt instantly energised after downing that bowl of chowder! No kidding!

After the Balem, we went over to the other side of Lisbon which is the Oceania, home to the Europe 98 Expo. It's a newly developed area, boasting cable car rides, a casino, an aquarium and high class apartments around that area. Walking around Oceania on that beautiful afternoon gave my nerves a lot of serenity and tranquility, of which they have been deprived since starting uni in September. How therapeutic.

It actually reminded me of the same relaxed feeling I had as we strolled along the harbour in Copenhagen 2 years ago. Both are capitals of the country, both are by the sea, both were blessed with enormous sunshine when I was there, and both were the last stops of my Europe trip. Hmm, how uncanny...


The current background on my desktop :) - Oceania

Days are much longer in this part of Europe, which means we got to do more during the day. As the evening approached, we went up to Largo das Portas do Sol (which is the terrace the guidebook recommended for getting snapshot souvenirs of the city). Overlooking the Lisbon skyline during sunset was indeed very picturesque, but moi unfortunately haven't got the photos on her so she couldn't them show off...

To be continued.

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