Portugal: Day 2

On to day 2! We woke up around 8 or so, got ready for the day, ate some free breakfast provided by the hostel, then got on our way! The people who run the hostel were really cool, and they gave us a ton of suggestions of what we should do around the city. We heard about a flea market that was going on in the morning, so we decided to go and check it out!

It took quite a bit to find it because we like to take pictures a lot, it was uphill the whole time and a bit slow-going, and we kind of got lost again, BUT finally we found it! Wow. I've never seen so many vendors in one place! Anyone could show up and set up a stand to sell, so people took advantage of that. There was everything from new leather coats to old used door knobs from 50 years ago. It was pretty interesting to see! I felt bad for some of the vendors, because you could tell they were a bit destitute. They were trying to sell old, worn shoes and other things that no one would want to buy. I don't blame them though. We saw a lot of homeless people, and I'm sure work was hard to come by sometimes. I just felt like it was a yard sale gone wrong! However, I did find some awesome skirts that I absolutely loved! I really wanted to barter for them, but since I don't speak Portuguese, this was a little difficult. I asked my friend Priscilla to help me because she does speak the language, but she only got them to go down to 26 Euro when it was supposed to be 30. Oh well. These people were sticklers! I loved the skirts though, so I didn't want to pass them up!

After some great shopping, we headed back down the hill to drop stuff off at the hostel, then ran to the train to catch a ride to Caiscais. Caiscais is a beach town about 40 minutes or so away from Lisbon, which we were extremely excited for! When we got off the train, we quickly realized that this was another form of paradise! Portugal was just getting better and better. It was finally warm, we were at the beach, we had an awesome group of people...

Perfection! Plan number one was to find the the office of tourism so we could find out where everything was that we wanted to do, but it was closed (that darn siesta!), so we all unanimously voted to walk down to the beach and wait/take a nap until they opened. I chose the latter because I still hadn't quite caught up on my sleep from the night before! Taking a nap on the beach in the sun has got to be one of the best things to do! Love it. After some time on the beach, Brad from our group went and talked to the office of tourism to figure out our plans. It was hard, but we all made it up off of the beach to keep doing everything else we wanted to do that day! Plan number one: world's 3rd best gelato, declared by the Prince of Portugal himself. That may just be a rumor, but hey, we tried it, and it was DANG good! This place is called Santini's. I wish I could bring it home with me! I ended up buying a one scoop, two flavor cone of Mango and Passion Fruit. Good choice, my friend. Yum yum yum!

On our way to get gelato, we passed this sporadic street carnival that was playing really fun music. It looked super great, so we decided to go back! Super glad we did. They had a carousal set up, vendor booths, a stand for performers, and some other cool things. I saw a guy set up a little shoe polishing shop, which just made my day. I'm not really sure what it is, but Portugal also has some random thing about crocheting! At the carnival, we saw a table set up with a ton of crocheted clothes. Yes, this included crocheted lingerie.

This day just kept getting better and better! We also would be walking around town and would see random street poles that were crocheted all the way up! Some old lady has way too much time on her hands, or something. It was hilarious to see! Ok, so after the fair, we wanted to find some bikes that tourists could rent for free, but like always, we asked directions from a million people, followed a map, and still got lost. After maybe... 45 minutes to an hour and almost giving up completely, we finally found the place we needed! Phew. That was a chore for sure. However, I'm so extremely glad that we didn't give up in the end, because it was one of the best things I've ever done. We got to see a completely different part of Caiscais that was so extremely beautiful it was unreal. I felt like I was dreaming! The bikes, of course, were complete with a basket in the front. It could not have gotten any better, I swear. We rode along the coast for about an hour or so, stopping here and there for picture moments and also to check out an outcropping of rock. Here, some of us, including me, stripped down to our swimming suits and went down by the water to try and get a cool picture of the waves spraying up around us. Luckily, we had some success. However, the ocean is extremely cold around this time of year. Brr! Still, it was totally worth it. Afterwards, we rode back the way we came, and stopped for one more picture moment that happened to be right by a portable hot dog cart. Convenient, right? We took some awesome pictures, but also decided that we needed to try one of these hot dogs. They were more like gourmet hot dogs, and you can't pass up a gourmet hot dog from a hot dog stand along the side of the beach in Portugal!!! That was my justification, at least. They were super yummy! It consisted of delicious bread, of course, then a cabbage and carrot slaw, some special sauce, a hot dog, some fried straws like chips, a ton of mozzarella cheese, then two more special sauces on top. Ohh baby. I love my life!

Continuing on our way back, we stopped at another cool look-out point called the Inferno. So beautiful!

Finally, we quit distracting ourselves and got our bikes back on time. By this time, everyone was pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to Lisbon for some dinner, but of course we had to stop at least three more times on the way for more pictures. It was inevitable. :) The theme for our trip was "YOLO" or "You Only Live Once," so we went back to the beach and spelled it out. Why not?

Finally, back to the train and on our way to Lisbon. As luck would have it, right when we got to the train station, it started to rain and also had an accompanying rainbow. A perfect end to a perfect day at the beach!

As was common and expected, when we got back to Lisbon, we took at least an hour to walk around and try to find somewhere to eat. It's pretty hard to decide because one we don't speak Portuguese, two, mostly all the places to eat are bars, three, everywhere is pretty pricey, and three, we were all very tired but had to continue to walk in order to find a decent place. Finally, we gave up and gave in to a guy who was trying to get us to come into his restaurant. These kinds of guys were all over the city. They stand outside with a menu and try to offer incentives that will get you to say yes. For this one, we should have said no. The menu inside wasn't really the one the guy showed us outside, we weren't waited on for an extremely long time, and it wasn't really appealing to anyone's senses. On top of it all, I ordered some chicken, and the waiter apparently forgot to put it in, so while all my friends had their food, I was left waiting with a grumbly stomach. Finally he brought it, but everyone was already done with their food, so I told him (or really had my friend tell him because she was the only one who spoke Portuguese) that I didn't want it anymore unless it would be free because it had taken so long. Well, food service isn't quite the same in Portugal as it is in the U.S., so he said no and took it back. His loss. Everyone else gave me bites of their food, so I was fine. It saved me a few euro! Plus, afterwards, I got another Crema da Nata at the Panaderia, so it was all good. Although dinner was a bit of a setback, it wasn't enough to ruin what was almost a completely perfect day!