After getting one last fill of chowder, clam cakes and bakes, and Dunkin Donuts, we’re
finally off to Europe. First stop is Lisbon, Portugal. After hours of painstaking packing,
weighing, repacking, reweighing, and finally sneaking into Long Island’s local airport
to get a final weight on the bags, everything is finally in order and here we are sitting
in Newark’s airport. It dawned on me today that I’m flying into Portugal and the only
word I know in Portuguese is “obrigado”. So, as we were running out the door I had to
frantically look up phrases like, “take us to the bus station please” and “we need 2 tickets
to Spain”. It’ll be fine, though, I think Elliot and I are professionals at winging it. The only bad thing so far is that I lost all of my music and brought the wrong charger for my brand new camera. At least I remembered my passport...
......
The flight from Newark to Lisbon was great. The challenge of locating and buying bus tickets in Portuguese was not so great, but luckily I have outgoing Elliot with me or I'd be done for. In a haze I almost forgot to get off the bus at Badajoz, but alas here I am. One of Elliot's coworkers is an angel sent straight from heaven. She's letting us stay at her apartment, and to top it off agreed to let us trek her around town being our translator while apartment searching. But it paid off... in one day we found an absolutely AMAZING piso in one of the nicest areas in town. It has an extra bedroom for whoever comes to stay (hint hint) as well as a huge patio on the 6th floor with one of the prettiest views I've ever seen in a city. It's perfect. I've officially been awake for 32 hours and counting. It's about 10 pm, so I figure it's time to rally and just adapt to the time change.. Update: We ended up at 100 Montaditos, which I'm sure my Sevilla friends fondly remember :)
Next day..
After 14 hours of sleep, we were ready to go. I spent 5 hours walking through the city. Despite having everything you could want in a city, it's pretty small. After getting completely lost we walked OUT of the city and nearly walked into Portugal (that's how close we are). My question is: Did Spain get Americanized while we were gone??? While packing I made sure to include conservative clothes and only 1 pair of sandals, and exclude flip flops and short shorts. But while walking around the city I see short shorts, dresses with butts hanging out, and.. flipflops?? What? I can remember being gawked at for wearing flip flops. So much so that I didn't even pack them, despite this temperature. Times have definitely changed, but I like it. Tonight is a city-wide event called "La Noche en Blanco", which I just learned basically means to not sleep all night. When we slept til 2:30 this afternood I feared we had missed it, but silly me I haven't quite adjusted to the Spanish lifestyle... it didn't start until 10pm. La Noche en Blanco is an event with different shows and exhibitions throughout the major sites of the city, along with free entrance to monuments and museums. Pictures to come..
I'm from Badajoz, and yes your definition (a small city, but with pretty much much what you want)is reallt accurate. But I was very surprised at your being afraid that you would have trouble if you wear flip-flops and non conservative clothes. Why? When was the last time you were in Spain that you are so surprised? Though it's true is a bit more Americanised than when I was a little girl.
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