Day Three – Lisboa, and The Cold

Day Three – Lisboa, and The Cold (December 29, 2010)
We had a relatively bad night’s sleep last night – we were both awakened at about 3am with the sound of the most torrential rain storm that I’ve heard for quite some time. It sounded like a bucket of water had been upended over the roof of the house – that with wind and the occasional thunder, it was quite the inundation.

Despite this, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 9am as usual and got ready, somewhat more lethargically than normal. Breakfast completed, we paid up, grabbed our cases and started the death march back up the bloody hill into Sintra, on our way to the train station. Not sure why we always pick hotels/B&Bs at the bottom of hills, it’s become a minor talent of ours. The hill seemed steeper and much longer than on the walk down the previous night, the several bottles of wine may have helped wit that though.

We found the train station, but couldn’t figure out how to get it to give us two tickets to Lisbon. We eventually admitted defeat and went inside to talk to the guy at the ticket office, who sold us two one way passes. The train ride was relatively uneventful, as train rides tend to be. It was interesting going back into Lisbon after just a few days – it reminded us of the outskirts of Paris on the Eurostar as we rode through seemingly endless rows of apartment blocks and graffiti.

Several changes on the train to the metro later, we ended up at our stop and found the nearest exit, which of course was the wrong one. We stood for a while looking at a map, until a nice gentleman took pity on us and directed us to the Sheraton, which happed to be the GIANT building just up the road which said Sheraton on it...typical.

We checked into what has turned out to be the most amazingly modern and stylish hotel I think I’ve ever been in. The hallway leading to our room is a combination of frosted glass wall panels lit from below and dark leather doors and walls. It looks like the entrance to a chic members-only club. Our room is just as amazing – fancy shimmering curtains cover the closet, the bathroom is all glass, the privacy doors being frosted again. Even the blackout blind on the window is electronic. To be fair, it would be quite expensive if we weren’t travelling on Starwoods points, but nevertheless very cool.

We unpacked and headed back to the metro, looking for Bairro Alto and a restaurant for lunch. We found the one we were looking for and had our first (and probably only) experience with the local Portuguese speciality, salt cod. Jamie had hers in fish cake format, whereas mine was plain with chickpeas and potatoes. Not my favourite meal of all time, but it was cheap and the wine was tasty.

After lunch, we walked back toward the big outlook at Bairro Alto for some pictures. On the way, we happened to come across the restaurant we’d booked for dinner –we were quite excited as it had had fairly good reviews and featured a very tasty looking tasting menu. We’d tried to call a few times earlier to confirm our reservation but hadn’t been able to get through. We figured that as long as were standing outside, we’d give it another go.

I finally got to talk to someone, who claimed not to have a reservation listed for us, despite our having received a confirmation email from them a few days previous. She said she wasn’t the person responsible, and would have someone call back in a few minutes. Unlikely, I thought.

We went back to the overlook and took our pictures, before heading down the hill, stopping to tour a church on the way (Igreja de Sao Roque) – ornate and over the top, as expected of churches in Europe.

We ended up in Baixa-Chiado on what turned out to be a very cool pedestrian street, where we found an outdoor cafe for some wine and people-watching. While we were there, I called the restaurant back again, having given them more than an hour. I managed to talk to another guy who confirmed that we weren’t confirmed and that he had no space for us that night. He couldn’t explain why we’re received a confirmation, or what happened to our reservation. He offered us space in his other restaurant, but we weren’t interested. We suggested he book us in the following night and he jumped on that like a drowning man on a life boat.

We stayed at the cafe until the wind got a bit too cold for us (we’d decided to just wear our jumpers) and headed back to the hotel to get changed and find somewhere else for dinner. We ended up choosing a traditional Brazilian place just a few metro stops up from us called Comida de Santo just near the Rato station. Jamie had a traditional grilled meat dish which was excellent, I had a very traditional Rio dish called Feijoada Brasil, which featured black beans in a sauce, with bits of (as far as I could discern) pigs ears, fatty pork bit, and little bits of sausage. The beans and sauce were really tasty...

Throughout the day my cold, which hasn’t been too bad, struck with full force. My nose has been running faster than a cheap alarm clock (fast), I’m coughing and congested. After dinner I declared defeat and we came back to the hotel, stopping briefly in the business centre to check email before heading upstairs for a dose of Lemsip Max, photo editing, and reading. A good first day in Lisbon, all in all.