You walk along narrow paths that wind their way up a steep hill, choosing left or right, up or down, stairs or cobblestone at will. It is a maze that you have no fear getting lost in. You deliberately wander around, passing residential houses and small restaurants. Colourful flags hang from the walls high above you, slightly waving in the wind. These flags are actually freshly washed clothes, filling the air with a moist scent of renewal. You listen and hear kids scream, the sound of cutlerly, a football being kicked and people chatting in a common, friendly way. There’s no noise from cars, nothing disturbs the peaceful setting of a small village somewhere in Portugal.
Except that this is Lisbon, the capital city.
The Alfama district where my hostel is located reminds me of a combination of the Santa Theresa district in Rio and Valparaiso in Chile. While the famous tram line in Santa Theresa was shut down due to a serious accident with many casualities, a very similar tram in all aspects is still running in Lisbon, making its way up to Alfama through very narrow and steep roads and sharp bends. With this shaky ride, it is only a matter of time until it will suffer the the same fate.
There is much to do and see and do in and around Lisbon. I decided to take real slow. I didn’t much expect to pack away both my fleece and rain jackets, but with the sun shining almost all day and temperatures around 27 C, this called for a day at the beach. I wanted to take the bike and asked a bike rental if I could rent one the next day and the girl said, yeah, they would open at nine o’clock. However, even at 9:30 the rental company was still closed. I wasn’t so surprised, because it had been a public holiday. But she could have remembered that. So I took the ferry without a bike, took another bus to Costa da Caparica. And walked another 5km to finally reach the beach… Oh what a lazy day doing nothing, except for warming up in the sun and taking a quick refreshing bath in the freezingly cold Atlantic ocean.
Lisbon also has a bridge that crosses a very wide river before it melts together with the ocean. And this bridge looks quite similar to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. I guess the architect, who is the same for both bridges was inspired by the same kind of fog that turns up there, too.
During the free walking tour we learned that the massive earthquake (probably a 9.0 one), tsunami and fires of 1755 happened on All Saints’ Day, while most of the people were in the churches. It killed around one quarter of the population of the city and 90% of the buildings. That day turned Lisabon from a mainly catholic into protestant. A lot of people lost their beliefs — there was no explaination why so many infidels were safe from harm. So that’s how you handle fanatic religions…
There would be much more to say about Lisbon, but I guess you’d better find out yourself. This place is cheap (2.50 EUR for a Mojito, 15 EUR/night for my very nice dorm room) and really worth a couple of visits. I’ve uploaded loads of photos for you to appreciate.
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