Adventurous Annie takes on Lisbon!

This is going to be a LONG post. You've been warned!!

October 27th

It's our last day in Lisbon. Toni and dad made plans to visit the town of Fatima. It's pretty much a catholic shrine. I would have gone along, but it was our last day and I was not big on the idea of spending another couple hundred Euros it would take in transportation, sights and food. Besides, Megan still needed to see an art gallery for school and Kaytee wanted to go back and explore the mall some more.
So the girls and I slept in! We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It was free. Thank goodness cause it took me 3 tries to figure out the coffee machine! The first cup was WAY to strong. I would have had a heart attack if forced to drink it. The second came out with milk in it. Third times a charm. I wised up and filled a large mug with 1 shot of expresso then continued with hot water and a couple packets of sugar. Ahhh, coffee.
We stepped outside and took our pictures in front of this wall that is part of the hotel. Not all of the characters fit in the picture, so you get an idea of it's size. BIG!
Next, I consulted the map and we drafted a rough plan for the day. Mall, metro (subway), bus, castle, cable car (similar to our light rail system) down to Belem where the big art museums and monuments are, then back to the hotel. It was destined to be a fun filled day...if I could manage to navigate the city without getting lost...or in trouble. The latter proved to be elusive.

First up: The mall...again

While Kaytee shopped for everything...Megan and I walked around and watched a group of artists. They were good! You could rent time and paint if you wanted to, but it was expensive.
I bought a skirt and few more toothbrushes. As it turned out, I bought the wrong size skirt. I was confused with the sizes (they are different) and ended up putting back the size 6 by accident and buying the size 10. Oops! It's to late to exchange it now! O'well.

Our next adventure was figuring out the metro (subway). It was actually much easier than bart (bay area rapid transit). You simply follow the color line to where you want to go. There are 4 lines and they are not hard to figure out at all. You almost can't get lost. The hardest part is trying to decide what type of ticket you need to buy from the machine. And of course DON'T expect anyone who works there to help you. They hate you and will NOT acknowledge your pleas for help.
We got off at a place called "Rossio" where we emurged from the underground to this amazing site.

Can you see the Castle in the background? That was our next destination. But how to get up there? After doing some research, which involved talking to strangers and getting yelled at a bit, we managed to find the right bus. It was a small bus that you pay when you get on.
Once at the Castle (Castelo S Jorge) we were shuffled to the place where you buy tickets to get in. I was tempted by all the neat looking shops along the way. It was just like you see in travel shows. People, little foreign cars, all cobble stone streets and sidwalks...although most streets were to narrow to have sidewalks. In fact, I think in some places the ground never sees the sun because of how tall and tightly packed the buildings are together.

more to come....stay tuned!