On our first full morning in Lisbon, we decided to check out Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle). One of the first things I spotted on our way to the castle was a rather discreet public urinal tucked into the corner of a building. It was on a main walking street, and had a knee to shoulder height black screen, about a meter deep, for men to step behind. No door, it was open-air, with a bit of water trickling from somewhere (I didn't investigate that closely). Just one of those things that you'd probably never see in Canada...
St. George's Castle is a Moorish castle that sits on a hilltop in the historic area of Lisbon near the Tagus River. Excavations have suggested that the first fortifications on the hill were built during the 2nd century BC. The castle itself is considerably younger.
St. George's Castle
Castles are so cool. They take you back to a time that you will never experience yourself, and will probably never truly understand. As we squeezed past other tourists on steep, narrow staircases, you couldn't help but wonder-- what was life like back then?
We also found ourselves wondering, "What is making that god-awful shrieking noise?" It sounded a bit like a toddler shrieking for help. But we later realized, no. It is a group of peacocks shrieking at each other.
Peacock #1
After listening to four of these birds shriek mindlessly at each other for an hour, I'm now convinced the peacocks may be the stupidest birds on the planet.
Peacock #2
While I was sitting on a bench, waiting for Tom, I also had a close encounter with some sort of interpretative dance troupe. I have no idea what was happening, or what play (dance?) they were interpreting (it was being read in Portuguese), but a group of teenagers came dancing/crawling/dramatically sweeping past me. Anyone who knows me can probably picture my awkward frozen horror as several teenagers crawled/danced over the bench I was sitting on. IN MY PERSONAL SPACE! Stranger danger! Later we saw them dancing in other areas of the castle, and I avoided them like the plague.
View from St. George's Castle.
From the castle's vantage point on the hill, we had some nice views of the city. AND we actually asked a couple to take a picture of us!
And, as you can see, we did a lot of stairs in Lisbon as well. The set of stairs below took us down to a castle turret protruding out from the main structure.
More stairs!
After a lunch consisting of chick peas and sardines, Tom and I made our way to the Lisbon Aquarium-- a highlight on the trip for us.
My favourite exhibit was the sea otters. There were two sea otters at the aquarium, and they seemed to be great friends. They were swimming around collecting chunks of white fish. When they had a good piece of fish, they would swim on their backs, resting the fish on their chest as they swam. They would share and hand fish back and forth between them! The photo below may be the greatest photo I took in Lisbon!
There was an information plaque beside the otter exhibit that said it is not uncommon to see the two otters sleeping while floating in the water, holding paws. They hold on to each other so they don't get separated while they sleep!
A puffin.
There was also an exhibit with Arctic birds. It seemed like the birds had just been fed, so there were chunks of fish all over the enclosure. This meant that there were birds flying around near our heads. Not my favourite experience... But we emerged unscathed (without being pooped on). The aquarium also had a huge central tank full of sharks, barracuda, sting rays, sunfish and eels, and smaller exhibits with jellyfish and tropical fish. There was also a temporary exhibit on underwater forests by a Japanese aquarist. The exhibit was set to a soothing composition of music-- it was really lovely!
On our second full day in Lisbon-- and last day of our trip, we went to see the last few major tourist attractions. First stop was Jeronimos Monastery. The monastery began construction in 1501, and was completed a hundred years later in 1601. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an example of Portuguese Late Gothic Manueline-style architecture.
Jeronimos Monastery
Not much of the monastery was open to the public, so there was less to see than we would have hoped. But I was impressed by the webbing-like arches inside the church
The last major sight on our list was the Belem Tower-- which turned out to be the most poorly run attraction that we saw on our entire trip!
It seemed like there was only one narrow stairwell up to the tower. You had to take the same stairway to go up and down. When you add in a couple hundred tourists who all want to go in different directions... You have a problem. There was also a complicated green and red stop light timing system that was supposed to allow certain people at certain levels to travel up and down without major traffic jams... But there was only one man who appeared to be trying to direct people, and it was chaos. At one point we were stuck in the same place in the stairwell for a couple minutes, and a teenager ahead of us appeared to be hyperventilating her way into an anxiety attack.
Belem Tower.
The Belem Tower is a fortified tower that was built in the early 16th century. The tower was built as part of a defense system at the mouth of the Tagus River, and has evolved over the years. It is four stories tall, and also contains some low-ceiling dungeons that served as a political prison
Me standing on Alberta.
By this point in the trip, we were ready to go home. We conveniently stumbled upon a map of the world, and you can see me above, indicating our trip home to Canada.
I like travelling, but there's nothing like coming home.
The next morning, we caught a cab to the airport bright and early, and were on our way.
Not sure where our next big trip will be, but you can be sure to catch it here.
Until next time!
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