Travel journal + mosaics of my favorite Lisbon photos.
Plus I commandeered an email my sister sent out about our Portugese adventure.
Every morning we left our delightful Chiado apartment with a loosely woven plan of what might occur that day. The best thing about going on a vacation should be that you don’t have too many things to accomplish. We marveled that travelers were able to enjoy the city of Lisbon and surrounding areas in 3 days. It took us a full 10 days. We prefer the itinerary where you wake up when you want to, scout out the side streets for café’s for breakfast , hop on a mode of public transportation, and head in the general direction of something you’d like to see or do. Figuring out tram, bus, train, and metro systems is fun. They all eventually cross somewhere and something always leads back home. Experiencing the people of portugal when you are all packed tightly in a tram that often causes you to lose your balance gives you a unique perspective. Just ask my sister who happened to lose her balance and found her
hands on the seat in front of her – each hand between a different man’s legs.
Everything you have heard about the beaches in Portugal is true. The water is an inviting shade of blue/green and the sand is a fine grain and excellent for sitting upon – especially if you have a US Airways beach blanket. As for attire – anything and everything goes and truly no one gives a hoot about what you look like or what parts of your body you choose to leave unclothed.
This area is known as boca del infierno (the mouth of hell). My sister was determined we should see it despite the fact that it involved a long hot trek which might have caused me to whine a bit. They have diving partners at the top and for the small sum of 50 US dollars they strap you to their body and you get to experience a thrill of a lifetime without breaking your neck or getting water up your nose. We both of course gave it a go and highly recommend it should you find yourself at the mouth of hell. My diving partner was the great, great, great, great, grandson of Vaso de Gama. I suggest you try and get him if you can.
We each brought a book with us that we ended up tearing into sections so we could easily store them in our purses. Reading a book on a bench in dappled sunlight in the middle of a park is something that we don’t ever do enough of at home.
The most delightful experience of the trip was probably the night we wandered up to the ruins of an old convent that were in a little neighborhood square on the hill behind our apartment. We could hear beautiful music and decided to be brave and wander into the ruins and see what was going on. It was the Lisbon metropolitan orchestra playing a concert in our honor. We were invited to sit on chairs on the grass in the middle of the ruins while the music surrounded us and the gulls flew overhead. Enchanting is really the only way to describe it. This is the memory I want to have imprinted on my brain when I can’t remember anything else. It will be enough.
And that concludes this travelogue. When you decide to go to Lisbon be sure and give me a call so I can hook you up with our crazy night time taxi driver, advise you on the best Fado restaurant in the city, instruct you in ordering from a Portuguese menu, give you tips on walking on slippery cobblestones so you don’t fall down in public, lessons in exiting quickly from a tram so you don’t get separated, and many other invaluable tid bits that are sure to make your stay memorable in many ways.
We currently accepting suggestions for our next international vacation. Please send your entry along with a paragraph describing why we should place it in the running.
Signed,
The traveling Moss Sisters
I was not sure on which post I should leave a message. There are just so many to choose from. Speed reading your posts are not easy, I don’t want to miss anything.
Firstly, your Portugal journal is spectacular.
I was there two years ago and went to many of the same places. Sintra was like going to Brigadoon. Encased in fog and other worldly. Cascais, I know that is not spelled properly was where I stayed. The tiles everywhere were just beautiful. I also went to Porto up north.
I very much enjoyed your traveloge, Mary Ann. Where to next?
“This is the memory I want to have imprinted on my brain when I can’t remember anything else. It will be enough.”
Aw for pete’s sake, i was sitting here innocently reading your blog and you threw that line in, and made me all gulpy and start bawling. Dinner parties in your family must be just a barrel of laughs.
Great blog, fab photos, with snorty funny bits too. Don’t ever stop.
merci.
Try Montréal next trip. We will treat you right.
Oh my dear Mary Ann! Your highlights of Lisbon are amazing and have me wanting to go now!!!
May I sugest Dobrovnic, Croatia? It is a lovely city! It is resonably priced, not on the Euro yet and most of all the people are friendly and love Americans, the food is divine! The sights are amazing! We want to go back and explore the rest of the country! We went about the same time of year you did and the weather was wonderful! It is right along the ocean and right across the channel is Italy!
no, I choose to believe it was real story and that it happened, even if it was with Vaso deGama himself… I want to believe it is possible to be that free and brave, cheerful? okay…disregard for the truth? NEVER! the truth is relative and since it was from your relative, it makes it so!!
Enjoy your Sunday my friend. smooches
there was a bit of cheerful disregard for the truth re: the cliff divers…….just in case you missed that.
ha ha
It’s official, I have run out of adjectives…my mind is blown. The images, the words, the adventure! You strapped yourself to a stranger…and dove off a cliff…and lived to share that with us…you are my hero! Don’t stop now…tell us more, show us everything…that should be your full time job…smooches
These really are just lovely posts and lovely photos and lovely journal pages. It is a wonderful thing you have, to travel with your sister…
Oh the adventures you had! Lovely indeed and thanks
for taking us along. Hope you have a delightful classroom full of kids! You deserve nothing less.
Oh dang. The Knights of Malta, not Nights… duh.
Get outta here!
You strapped yourself to a stranger and jumped into the sea? Next you’ll be sky diving!
Go to Malta in the summer. It’s hot as hell, you probably don’t know too many people who have been there, the limestone walls that surround the place are truly unusual, to say the least, and the Nights of Malta are buried under the marble floor that you walk on in the Cathedral in Valletta. Also there’s a Lybian Consulate.
I was there in 1997, and they were having a heat wave, which is sort of like a heat wave in Death Valley. Maybe I’m exaggerating. It was really quite beautiful but none of my photos turned out because the film did not hook into wherever it was supposed to hook into and I took 36 photos, without the film advancing. I think it was the ghosts of the Knights – they can be pesky.
I never thought of Lisbon as a place I would like to go. BUt now you have made my mouth water with longing to visit. Thank you , you should have been a travel writer.
lee
Thank you for sharing the journey..It was nice to see.
Hi, Mary Ann,
Been just in swoon-phase over Lisbon…….whoa…..
Can,t seem to get my computer to send an email but I want to take the stitching
stencil class. Please send me the registration thingy…
makes me feel like the needy student……thanks mucho!
Thank you for transporting me to Lisbon. I love the pictures you show us and the ones you so artfully paint with words. The traveling Moss sisters may like Barcelona. It is a fab city!
I’m really enjoying your posts and photos about Lisbon. It wasn’t even on my radar as a place to visit. Lovely.
“This is the memory I want to have imprinted on my brain when I can’t remember anything else. It will be enough.”
Yes! Mine will be stopping along a backroad north of Loule … warm sun, grassy hillside, goat herd wandering the slopes, bells tinkling in the breeze while the goatherder had a siesta under the trees along the river. Peace.