Lisbon, Portugal
What to say about Lisbon… I have not a clue. There was not a whole lot to do, but then again we weren’t expecting much. The architecture there is interesting and eclectic. It seems to have several influences but nothing really that it can call its own. There is a strange mini Eiffel Tower type thing in the narrow street between buildings that was designed by a student of Eiffel. The longest suspension bridge in Europe (a mile-and-a-half-long) is also located in Lisbon; however, it was designed to be very similar to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. There are also many Spanish and Italian looking buildings, with a little bit of French thrown in too. They do, however, cover their buildings in tiles called Azulejos. They are usually blue (obviously) and white, but can sometimes be all sorts of colors, and is the main art form of Portugal.
The shuttle dropped us off in the center of town, and it looked busier than I expected it to be. It turns out that Portugal was playing in the World Cup, and there were screens and stands set up all over the city center to allow its citizens to gather together and watch. And did they watch. They sat on top of bus shelters, on each other’s shoulders, on trash cans, and anywhere else that even slightly resembled a seat. Any where you were in the city, you could hear the celebration when something good happened, and the disappointment of an error. All of the bars and restaurants were also showing the game, and there was no places to sit anywhere near a TV. We wandered around, taking a few pictures and avoiding the crowds as much as possible. We found an internet café and spent a while there just because we could. And because it only cost €2 for an hour, whereas on the ship an hour would cost $45. Makes me sick to think of that. Anyways, we got back on the last bus (we almost missed it because we didn’t pay attention to the time of the last shuttle… anyone else noticing a pattern here??) and got back to the ship.
Tonight, we ventured up the Da Vinci dining room because of the incident last night and in hopes of better company. And we found it, in the form of a couple from L.A. Their names were Ken and Sherri, and they were just about the cutest couple yet. We decided to start up our earlier tradition of asking couples how they met, and this one may be one of my favorites. We asked them, and Ken simply said, “I picked her up a bar.” Sherri decided to go into more detail, as did Ken (he admitted he just liked to say that line to see people’s reactions) and their story goes like this. Ken was out with his friends, and was checking out all of the women, but all of them were the same until he got to Sherri. Sherri was forced out of her house that night because her girlfriends wanted to go out and she was already ready for bed. Ken had to make three trips to the bathroom in order to make sure Sherri didn’t have a ring, and when he was sure she didn’t, he asked her to dance. And they did. And three weeks later, he proposed. She didn’t say yes immediately, but 6 months later they were married. And they bought a house a few years later that they have been redecorating and renovating for the past 15 years or so. From their description of the state of the house when they bought it, it seemed like it belonged to a crazy cat woman who loved all the colors of the rainbow. Anyways, they’ve been together for 25 years and are just as in love now as they were in 1985 at the cowboy bar they met in.
The shuttle dropped us off in the center of town, and it looked busier than I expected it to be. It turns out that Portugal was playing in the World Cup, and there were screens and stands set up all over the city center to allow its citizens to gather together and watch. And did they watch. They sat on top of bus shelters, on each other’s shoulders, on trash cans, and anywhere else that even slightly resembled a seat. Any where you were in the city, you could hear the celebration when something good happened, and the disappointment of an error. All of the bars and restaurants were also showing the game, and there was no places to sit anywhere near a TV. We wandered around, taking a few pictures and avoiding the crowds as much as possible. We found an internet café and spent a while there just because we could. And because it only cost €2 for an hour, whereas on the ship an hour would cost $45. Makes me sick to think of that. Anyways, we got back on the last bus (we almost missed it because we didn’t pay attention to the time of the last shuttle… anyone else noticing a pattern here??) and got back to the ship.
Tonight, we ventured up the Da Vinci dining room because of the incident last night and in hopes of better company. And we found it, in the form of a couple from L.A. Their names were Ken and Sherri, and they were just about the cutest couple yet. We decided to start up our earlier tradition of asking couples how they met, and this one may be one of my favorites. We asked them, and Ken simply said, “I picked her up a bar.” Sherri decided to go into more detail, as did Ken (he admitted he just liked to say that line to see people’s reactions) and their story goes like this. Ken was out with his friends, and was checking out all of the women, but all of them were the same until he got to Sherri. Sherri was forced out of her house that night because her girlfriends wanted to go out and she was already ready for bed. Ken had to make three trips to the bathroom in order to make sure Sherri didn’t have a ring, and when he was sure she didn’t, he asked her to dance. And they did. And three weeks later, he proposed. She didn’t say yes immediately, but 6 months later they were married. And they bought a house a few years later that they have been redecorating and renovating for the past 15 years or so. From their description of the state of the house when they bought it, it seemed like it belonged to a crazy cat woman who loved all the colors of the rainbow. Anyways, they’ve been together for 25 years and are just as in love now as they were in 1985 at the cowboy bar they met in.
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