But...I woke up early. Jared stayed up all night again working. I knew Jared's other brother J. was coming into town around 1pm so I left to go check out the ruins of a Roman 14th century church early in the day. I headed out early with Justin and Tina; I ate at a sweet shop in the main square as they left for their errands. The paneceria (spanish word - don't know the Portuguese word) was great! For $2 euro I got an espresso and a dry coffee cake that was truely wonderful.
After breakfast I headed out for the ruins. What should have been a 10 minute walk took an hour and a half. My mistake was to write out google directions on my small pad of paper - turn R here, L here - what a mistake. It is hard to see the road signs in Lisbon - there are not signs on every street corner (nor on every third corner). I should have just gestalted it. I knew it was right an up from the apartment...I would have just done better with that plan. Nevertheless I saw much of the city, the shopping district (Chiado) and of the waterfront. I stopped in to get some water, and continued my walk.
I finally stumbled upon the ruins and the archelogical museum that acompied them did not dissapoint. Many people on tripadvisor.com thought the museuum was underwhelming, but I disagree. The ruins themselves were of an old church (14Th C they believe) which was devistated during the amous Lisbon earthquake. People heard the rumblings and ran into the church to prey. It was a bad move as the church was at the epicenter of the quake. The roof fell in, and the church quickly caught fire. Everyone praying in the church was killed. As we see in novels like Candide, this earthquake had a major impact on people's faith, philosophy (a gret counter-example to Leibnitz's claim that this is the best of all possible worlds)...
There was an attempt to reconstruct the church in the 8th century. However, funds ran out and the 'picturesque' aesthetic was all the rage, so the people of Lisbon decided to keep the curch partially reconstructed. The gothic open arches you see upon arrival are part of the reconstruction attempt, while the footprint and stone walls are from the original construction. The church is separated into two sections: the first section is the open aired part of the church. The gothic arches are glorious - I couldn't have visited on a better day: blue skies. The second part of the church is a reconstructed vestibule. The open air section of the church houses remannents of the old church and other stone archeological finds from the Lisbon area. The vestibule holds more precious archaeological finds which requie more climate control. The church-ruin has been turned into an archaeolgoical museum. So, I guess it isn't a ruin any longer. It has been repurposed in such a lovely way.
The closed-room museum had such an odd assortment of items, including some Egyptian art, Peruvian mummies, and a large library of very old books. Apparently the musuem was the brainchild of some old essentric men who wanted a place to store antiquities that they thought would be looted otherwise. The odd assortment of artifacts is fascinating and it tells the story of the museums founders - it has such a personal touch. I thought the layout of the museum was one of the best I have ever seen. Quirky, informative, and intriguing.
I lingered at the museum, bought an exhibiition catalogue and read parts of it before returning to look once more at some of the stone works. I watched a cat nap in the crook of on of the walls and talked with some british tourists. All in all, a wonderful outing. I think I do like museums more than most, and wish this trip had been filled with more of them, but my travel partners are not as keen (which is cool!).
I returned to the apartmet and found a note from Jared - they had gone to lunch. So I walked to the store and bought bread, tomato and cheese for my lunch. They returned as I was prepairing my feast and then Justin and Tina went out to wait for Jay at the metro stop. Justin had waited for J previously until Jared told me J had e-mailed saying he was going to be 5 hours late.Yikes! There was a little bit of drama surrounding that, but it all worked out in the end.
We made J go out and look around the city. We walked all over the various squares and too tram 12 up to the castle on the hill. We looked at art nouveau shops and medieval looking walls. The c ity is really spectacualarly georgeous. The pale yellow walls, the tiled buildings, the castles and old churches - the city is both old and young, vibrant and historical.
We - and by we I mean Justin, Tina, Jared and myself because J was too tired - headed out to hear some FADO music around 11:20. Tina dressed u and looked very nice in her high heels. Unfortunatly high heels in Lisbon are a bitch as there are so many hills, and the roads are made from uneven cobblestone.
We found the Fado place Luis recommended but there was a long line out the door. I peaked my head in and listened to a few bars. Fado is melancholy and beautiful - I do like the music. I;ve had a chance to listen to some of it on the radio as well. The plae we tried to hear the Fado at had a sort of open mike on Mondays (which is when we tried to go). Oh well. We ended up eating dinner at an italian restaurant at 12 am. It was the fanciest meal we had, and it was quite good. Jared and I had a caprese salad made with buffalo mozarella which was to ie for - it was the best mozarella I've ever had. We also split a pizza.
One thing I do not like about eating out in Europe is the lack of free water. Paying for water seems stupid to me when the tap water is available and safe to drink. Oh well. (I guess restauranteurs know American travelers by the amount of water we drink while we eat. It is a simple luxuary to have enough water - but a luxuary nonetheless.
We got home late, and I went to bed. The next day we drove from Lisbon to Fuzet - More on that in the next entry. We got here alive, but it was very stressful for me.
