Trip around Portugal - Lisbon part 2. (English version)

It is evening and I just arrived in Lisbon. I fucking died in a bus, I was planning to sleep, but in the end, I didn't manage to, I have no idea why. While we were driving at the highway I was looking around, I mean I am on the trip, and I want to see as much as possible. Impressed by nature, already from Porto, tropical one in my opinion, well now while driving on the highway I just got the bigger impression of it but with additional huge vineyards across the country. 

Gui was waiting for me at the bus station, I am exiting the bus and already got an impressive first impression. Huge and modern bus station, with additional train and metro stations at the same place. The location is perfect, a bit outside of the city with a direct entrance and exit to the highway. I really liked it, because it is a simple, but also very good-looking building. Gui was dressed as he just came from a business meeting, well he kinda did, he came straight from his job, didn't even have time to change at home. 

We took walk next to the Tajo river and decided to eat some dinner. I was tired, hungry and I needed refreshments such as beer. We sat down in the restaurant, ordered tapas with different tastes, beers, and the conversation just started. 

 

After diner we have ordered few more beers, I mean it was more than a month or so since we saw each other last time, plus I really liked Super Bock beer. It is very easygoing, so you can have a lot of them very fast, hehe. Gui went inside to pay for dinner, the restaurant was full and there were a lot of groups of people. A little further from us there was a group that just started to sing something in the Portuguese language, and the whole restaurant started clapping and singing together. I realized that it is someone's birthday and that they are singing to that person. I was fascinated that absolutely everyone started singing and that everyone joined because there were a lot of different types of people: some were on a date, some were cheap, some were in suits, like all mixed, all together, sharing happiness. I was already in love with Lisbon. 

We left the restaurant and he ordered the taxi, coz it is faster and both of us were dead. In order to get to his place, we would change 2 metro lines, Lisbon is having 4 of them. I like their metro system, it was very simple and practical, also very cheap, like 1.5 euros per way. 

We spent the rest of the night at his place, chilling. I met his sister, Madalena, at first I thought her name is Magdalena because that is a name that we use in Croatia. I was talking about my adventures in Croatia, then about Denmark for 3 days, and at the end I also mentioned Porto. They were impressed with the number of things that I saw in such a short time. I was really tired after all of this, so went to get ready for bed, and I just fell asleep immediately, when touched bed.  

Well, it is a new day, and in the morning I did something internship-related, as I kinda need to do it. Wow, such an interesting part of a blog, right, me doing some shit for an internship in the apartment. But knowing me, you know I finished that pretty much fast, so my plan was to go to Belem. Madalena showed me where the metro is and how to get to Belem. It is located on the west coast, close to the Atlantic ocean, it is well-known coz of... well I will write about it later, for now, just enjoy.

I have changed 2 metro lines and one train to get there. I thought that I will be there immediately, I mean the name of the stop is Belem, well there were plenty of things to see before seeing the actual Belem fort. Firstly I saw some modern art that I didn't really understand, but still, I took a photo of it. And bet, they had tiles, who would expect that, right?

 

I really liked this part, not coz of the art, but because it was full of nature and it was really green all around it, also it was close to the sea. Then I just walked to the sea, there was a huge monument, I really liked it. It is there for all sailors who explored the world, and they were originally from Portugal. Here, I asked some guy to take a photo of me, he took literally the most shit photo ever in history. The guy was from England. Then he asked me back for a photo, I took it, and I bet it was 1000 times better than his photo of me, but fucking idiot asked me to repeat it, coz there was some sun in sight, fuck u, my man! You don't even have sun over there, enjoy at the moment, you piece of shit... (Tom if u read this, I consider you like Irish, so don't get offended)

And now... I'm walking away from that monument, I admire it, it's linden, it's big, the details are great, it has Portuguese symbols on the top, just linden and clean, which is perhaps even more important. I am walking further on the road to Belem and some girl is driving an electric scooter, and it is not looking good that she is driving fast af. I thought that she might fell into the sea with it. She literally stopped in front of me, like a meter away. I'm standing in surprise, what the actual fuck is going on? guess what, she needed a picture with that fucking scooter, so she asked if I could. Well, queen, it's not a problem to take a picture of you, but use that fucking gas a little bit easier, it's a pedestrian zone. I took picture of her, we spoke for a while, she was traveling alone, and she came from Spain. Fuck it, I just move on, she looked a little crazy in my opinion, coz her driving style. During the walk, I was at a sailing club, and the scene was great, 100 small children, lined up in a group, with boats waiting to fly into the sea. The scene is kind of top, like, I'm glad to see little kids when they're doing sports. And those boats are miniature compared to me. but 3 times bigger than them.

I came to Belem, great view, big and beautiful building, full of details. A wooden bridge leads to it, but it is closed from the inside, I don't know whether it is due to reconstruction or something else. In 1515 it was built as a military fortress for the entrance to the Tagus River. While the Spaniards ruled Portugal, the castle served as a prison and in 1983 and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Realistically, it deserves a place here.

After the tower and spending time around it, I headed further into the ravine around the park. Without a plan, I'll just hang around until I see something. There was a cafe somewhere on the left, so I decided to go behind it and I didn't see the mud. I flew right foot into the mud like Šimunić fouled Sulejmaniji in 2013, recommendation for video and reference is here, just press it. Part 2, it would be said, yesterday in Porto, today in Lisbon. I saved myself, didn't fell down, but I screwed up my whole sneaker. Well, when I got out of it, I had some dried and fallen leaves, so I managed to clean my sneakers as much as I could using those leaves. Walking so on, a little offended and annoyed at me and how I could do it, I just noticed the military museum is on the left side. I was considering whether I want to go in or not and the result was skipping. I would rather use this nice day to be outside than inside. On the outside of the museum are a very stunning swimming pool and a monument to all the Portuguese soldiers who died. Right there under the walls is the entrance to the small Chapel. I went in, prayed for souls, and continued my journey.

 

I came to the most western point I had in my head to visit that day. So I just crossed the road over some overpass, and they had a lot of them. I was on the northern side of the road and railways. 

I passed by the new and large cultural center of Lisbon, an interesting building, I did not take a photo of it, nor did I walk inside it, there are cafes and some other galleries inside. It’s okay, but it’s not my main interest. Behind it is Mosteiro dos Jerónimos which is also included in the UNESCO list. I don't even know what's wrong with me today, but I have mentioned UNESCO twice already. On the front there is a museum, I don't know which one honestly, on the left there is also a museum, a shipbuilding museum I think. To the right is another museum and ultimately at the very end is the entrance to the Church. Whichever way you look at it, this part of history is really beautiful, and there is a lot to see.

       

Front side, on the left there is a ship museum.

This is the right part of it, and then also another museum entrance on the right side, all really clean and green, big like for that. 

                    

This down there is the entrance to the church, really impressive with so many tiny details, liked it a lot!

And on the opposite of all this is a huge park and a large fountain, the bottom of the fountain is decorated with motifs of the coat of arms of Portugal. I hope so that they are pumping the sea, not on the water, because the amount of water consumed is very large, and the sea is really close. Anyhow, it was already very hot there and I just liked that huge jet of water from the fountain, because the drops were flying all around and it really chilled me. Oh thank God, Portugal had 28 degrees in the air, zero amount of wind, I was sweating like pig.

I don't have a picture of the fountain, just a video, and for all of you who read regularly, videos don't work for me and you know it yourself. In any case, I need to go to the toilet, which is 4 euros in front of these sights, I ain't paying that, especially because they are itchy, spongy, stinking prefabricated toilets. Well, I was fucking hungry and I figured out that I can go nearby to eat something, drink beer and go to the toilet for free. That's how it was, I ate lunch and drank beer for euros and did the toilet along the way, for free. Let's hit the road!

After that, I saw a really nice place to take photos of the bridge, so here it is, I am just flexing with it. :)

It is a modern building with a restaurant there, behind me, literally. All tables were reserved, but because of location, view, and building, I expect it was a bit over my budget. I was taking time to find the perfect shot of bridge there and I honestly didn't give a single fuck about people eating or waiting to enter a restaurant.

In the photo, it is visible, the expensive building and museum, and this is down a little below, you can see the sailors, the popularity of the sport is probably at a high level in Portugal. The weather was already starting to change, the clouds were coming and the wind was blowing, especially along the river.

I walked towards the train station, the central one, from which I took the train for Belem. Basically, the worst part of Lisbon to walk around, a shipyard, nothing to see, unpleasant smells, sparks, it reminded me a lot of Marseille and that western part of the city there. Anyway, I don't have a single picture from there, what do I want, but in any case, if anyone is planning to go to Lisbon, approach the north side of the road and get lost in the streets, it's not worth going along the river, except for just passing under the bridge, wow!

The port part of the city is all painted with graffiti, and I even like this one, the rest were some silly scribbles, for the most part, nothing even close to impressive, at least for me. I went on the subway and returned to the apartment, along the way I saw the Sporting stadium. Not bad, I live one station from there, it is rather colorful, I will go there tomorrow. I got home, it's time for dinner, so the idea was to prepare the carbonara, I didn't know what else to do, and Gui certainly loves it. We bought a buck of Super Bock,  chill drinking on the couch and the story began. We stayed until late into the night, and then we broke our lenses, tomorrow morning we will have an internship again, both of us, him physically at the Benfica stadium, me in front of a laptop in Lisbon.