Written in Lisbon airport

[And posted from the Fez medina where I am sleeping tonight in a cool house rented by an American girl and two (I think) Brits.]

Ok, I am at the gate and my flight starts boarding in 50 minutes. So: Lisbon. It was nice. I'll have to talk to Karen to see how it went for her, doing the long layovers to eventually get to Casablanca, but if that was a pain then I would stop here again. It was fun to be able to go around and see some different stuff, but at the same time, it's also nice to just get where you're going and be done with the whole travel thing.

I stayed at the Goodnight Hostel here. It was nice, clean, really friendly staff, and pretty cheap. At the same time, I am not sure if they have AC. I didn't see evidence of any. They just had the windows open the last two days, which was fine because the weather was pretty much perfect. But later in summer, I couldn't stay there without it.

But who's Karen, you ask? Funny, that. I was waiting with the rest of the people from my flight to get through customs in Lisbon (which seemed really slow, but we were out of the airport an hour after we landed, so not bad, really) and lots of people started kind of chatting. After being bored for the last 7 hours, it might be natural, but maybe it was just a talkative bunch because people don't usually do that. Instead, they stand there, staring boredly at each other. The guy behind me was heading to work in Toulouse. He's already worked in Strasbourg, and speaks a little French. The guy behind him was going to Amsterdam then... Armenia, I think. Sthg like that. He was chatting with a girl that was heading into Lisbon. While Toulouse and I were talking, I said something about learning Arabic, and when there was a lull in the conversation, the other girl asked if she had heard me say that. Why, yes, I'm going to Morocco. Her too. I'll be in Fez. Her too! At the same school. She's had a year or so of Arabic, so we won't be in the same classes, but we'll be at the same school.

She was sticking with the 12 hour layover, so we decided to go explore the city together while she was there. She had heard that you really have to go up to the top of 'the hill' for a great view of the city, so after dropping my bags at the hostel, we set off up the nearest hill. There are actually a bunch of hills in and around Lisbon, but we could see what we guessed was a fancy church at the top of one, plus it was close. We didn't have a map (another employee at the hostel gave me one later and tisked that the first guy hadn't) so our only direction was 'up.' Come to a crossroads, how to choose? Which one goes up more? That way.

At one point, we were on a road called 'costa do castel' and figured there meant there was a castle nearby. We went on the up side once more. And eventually came to a big old church. Not a castle. But there was a cute garden, and a nice view, so no problem. 'This is our hill,' she said. Then we wandered back a bit, a little bit down, and through several back streets. Kind of nice not having a map, when you know that where you need to be next is in the center of town (and I had printed a google map for that area.) We ended up finding another giant church, Sao Vicente, and a lady was just opening the doors so we went in. It was big and old, of course, but it also had one of the most ornate priest areas I have ever seen. Ok, I don't know what it's called, but it's the area that I imagine the priest should be during church service. I could be totally wrong. It was nice, though, and when we got back out there was a British couple with a map trying to figure out where they were. We figured it out together, and I looked up and saw the top edge of what looked like a castle! A 'proper' castle to the American imagination, with the up-and-down top edge and all. I wanted to go that way, but the British people had pointed out something nice the other way, so we went there first since it was further from town. It was nice, but it was castle-finding time.

We headed back toward town, and up a little more, but it got less clear where exactly to go because the ground was somewhat level. Then I saw a sign with a little man walking toward a castle and an arrow. Castle this way. About two minutes later we did find it! You had to pay to get in, and I wasn't sure, but Karen said, 'we don't have to, I can come back later.' And I realized how silly it was to not go in since we were there. It turned out to be 3.50E for students and there was a map of inside the castle grounds that made it clear that the price would be well worth it. Hooray for student IDs.

It was nice inside. Of course, THAT was the tallest hill in the area (where else would you build a castle??) so the view was very pretty. We saw a peacock, too. He must've been there for the view. Or something. Then we headed toward the 'archaeological site' because it was furthest from the door on the map. Turned out that you had to go through the castle to get there. It was cool, though. The hadn't made it into a museum inside or anything, and there was no ceiling, but with the walls you got a very good sense of how part of it was. The stairs were really tall. It was funny to think that people would have been shorter (which could mean my height, who knows) with stairs that were 9 inches tall and uneven. I can't imagine running around on them during a siege.

Over at the archaeological site, there were the traces of housing back to the 7th century. Pretty crazy. And then artifacts back to the iron age. Honestly, they should have put a date range for us historically-challenged folks, because I'm not sure when that was. There was an old islamic 'quarter' that looked to me like two houses put together. The word in Portuguese I think meant 'neighborhood' but it was more like 'these are your quarters' to me. There, though, they had made a cool walk-through display thing. You could see the original walls down at ground level, some sticking up more than others, and above that they had built a big white plastic thing with a ceiling to be like the quarter might have been in the 11th (I think!) century.

It was really neat, and we wandered through the museum, but we were getting hungry and the sun was getting hot, so we headed back toward town. I bought a small thing of sunscreen and allergy meds. The allergy stuff because I didn't have any, the sunscreen because I didn't realize that we were just 2 blocks from my hostel. Darn it. Totally unnecessary as I had a whole bottle in my bag. That's what you get for wandering without a map. Lunch was ok, nothing great. I asked the guy what the main dish came with, he said potatoes. Tasty. When it came out it was fries. Soaked in grease. No thanks. Should have realized we were in tourist zone.

Then we headed out to Belem for 'world famous pastries.' The trip was worth it, but I bet they had the same pastries in the main town. We took the tram out and while waiting, an American guy starting talking to us, so we all went to the pastries together. It was good we had him because we didn't know where it was so he just asked someone. He spoke Spanish, not Portuguese, but most people we ran into actually spoke English. Oh, except the pharmacy lady, we spoke in French. It was fun. She didn't know the word for sneeze, or 8, but we had an easy conversation otherwise.

After the pastries and coffee (both tasty) Karen had to head back to the airport. Nick, the guy, had a picture on the front of his map that he thought was out there, so we went searching for it. It turned out to be a cool little old fort place that wanted 5E to get it. It was really small, and didn't seem worth it, but we got pictures from outside and then headed back to town. We split up, I finally got to shower and find a map, then I went up another hill on the advice of a super sweet girl at the hostel.

Even with a map, I got thoroughly lost, but it turned out ok. I ended up at a park overlooking the city outside of the touristy area and had another coffee and a different pastry. It wasn't as good. It was like a cornmeal bread surrounding a center that I couldn't figure out. It definitely had cinnamon, and the texture was kind of custardy, but there wasn't much flavor. I was getting really tired by that point but told myself I couldn't go back to the hostel til 8 (it was after 7 already). I found another cool park with another cool view, this time of the castle, took more pictures, then wandered to a street the hostel girl mentioned as having stuff made my young Portuguese people. I went into a hat shop where the guys who own the place design most of the hats. There was a really cute one in a style that I hadn't seen before, but though I should get one that would cover my ears a little. I got a different one that was somewhat unusual with a small brim all the way around. The guy gave me their card and made sure I knew my hat size so I could order online if I wanted to. Right....

I finally got to go home by my own rule. I wandered back down the hill, found a place that sold cheap sandwiches on a baguette near the hostel, went home, ate (there was a bug in it, I flicked it off and continued eating. It was gross, but I was hungry and tired and really didn't want to go the 2 blocks back to complain.) And then I made sure I had the info on where to meet the girl in Fez, packed my stuff, and went to sleep. For about 10 hours. Very nice. This morning I walked around a little more, had a tasty spinach and cheese pastry for lunch, and headed off to the airport.

I hadn't thought about when I should get there and arrived a little less than 2 hours before takeoff. I was nervous on the bus here, but it was no problem at all. No long lines for check-in, passport check, security or customs (all separated, which I think helped) and a leisurely stroll to the gate. Now they've just started boarding, though, so I suppose I have good timing