Little Lisbon and the Bus System
PORTUGAL | Friday, 9 November 2007 | Views [863] | Comments [11]
We have now been in Lisbon for 17 days or so. Every Sunday, 3/4 of the museums are free until some certain hour. Keeping that in mind, we save museuams for Sunday; however, the Oceanarium is never free. With that in mind we decided to take the bus trip out to the newer part of the city (on the outskirts) which was built in anticipation of the World Expo 1998. There they have one of the largest Oceanariums in the world. I don't know what it is about these type of things, but they are just cool. The fish may be ugly, and of course, they aren't appetizing to Andrew and I, but its flipping crazy to see a creature that lives a mile under the ocean and never sees light, and somehow has developed body parts like lighting bugs. Also, I don't care what they say, it wasn't the media that make sharks the feared creatures of the sea (although I am a little more afraid of jelly fish I think), it's because they are scary. They have cabbage-patch like eyes, and teeth on the outside of their mouth, and some can grow as many as 22,000 teeth in a lifetime. Anyhow, the Oceanarium was really great. We even splurged two dollars (euros) on the headsets. Does anyone need to guess Andrew's favorite part? I'll give you a hint, they were dressed nicer than we have been during this entire trip...yes the penguins. Andrew stood in gleeful joy in front of them, and later, on the below water level, watched as they raced about. The sea otters were pretty awesome too, they just chill and dive, and eat. Andrew decided this could be what he would like to come back as in his next life. We had spotted a mall on the way in, I think it has somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 shops. Anyhow, the bottom floor is dedicated to a grocery store called continente. Andrew and I have developed a great fondness for grocery stores, and this one was no exception. We decided we would come back and go grocery shopping on the way home, before picking up the bus. After four hours at the oceanarium, our legs were about done out. We headed back to the grocery store. We decided to get really heavy stuff, like cokes, 5 kilos of potatos, a six pack of beer, and lots of other groceries, as we were taking a bus. Then we started the ride home. We found our bus, and trundled up with our bags in tow. After a 45 minute bus ride home (which was pretty direct), as we were discussing the best stop to get off on, the lady behind us tapped us on the shoulder, and asked if there was anything she could help us with. We told her which bus stop we wanted, and she pointed it out to us. We exited the bus, only hitting a few people with our bags, and then we began climbing the stairs which continued for about 15 minutes.) after which we walked uphill for five minutes. By the time we reached our apartment on the third floor, I couldn't feel my middle finger (I was carrying the potatoes although Andrew pretends like he didn't know about it :) Anyhow, we came home and watched Chocolate and ate dinner. All in all a great day. The next day we went antique shopping (er...browsing), after the fourth shop we were bored so we headed for the botanical gardens, which were beautiful. That night we went out with one of our flat mates (Valentine -- a great girl from Italy) and had Mexican food. The ambience was great, lots of oranges, and greens. The music was typical, but the food...well...Andrew ordered green chicken chili enchiladas. In keeping with my vegetarian theme, I ordered the meal that had vegetario written beside it. I should have translated the word Crepe in the description, which must be Portuguese for crap. It was crepes with a greyish brown gravy filled with mushrooms. It really wasn't too bad, just not mexican. We also ordered nachos as an appetizer. To understand the authenticity of the meal, let me explain the nachos. It was a flour tortilla which had triangles cut out so that the remaining edges would have looked triangular like tortilla chips. Then in the center was ranchero beans and chunks of meat with four jalapenos artistically arranged. I am not forgetting to write about the cheese, there was none. It didn't really matter though, Andrew was so happy to be in a mexican food restaurant that the whole evening was happy. So that's what we have been doing...only one and a half weeks left before heading to Italy...and....pizza!!!!!
Tags: Sightseeing
