Another long day of traveling, this time by bus. I like trains much better than busses I am finding out. I get into town and find a taxi, my limited map didn't even show where my hostel was, so there was no way I could walk there. I showed the name of the hostel and the address to the driver and he has no idea where it is. Great! He asks another cabbie, gets directions, and we are off. We had to stop 3 different times for more directions, but he finally got me there.
The hostel may have been hard to find, but it was well worth it. One of the best I have stayed in. The staff was so friendly, introducing themselves and remembering my name when they greeted me each time they saw me. The common room was filled with people coming and going and willing to talk with others. The hostel has 3 buildings in the area and that night they had all 3 chefs together creating various Italian dishes for dinner that night. It was a great night, and I had a 4-person room all to myself.
Lisbon is very similar to San Francisco. It's very hilly, the bridge looks like the Golden Gate (same builders I found out), and it even has trollies. The town is on the water, but doesn't have the wharfs and piers of San Fran; no sea lions either.
The main touristy area was leveld in the 1755 earthquake - another similarity to San Fran. When they rebuilt the area, they fit it to a nice grid making it very easy to get around. The other touristy area I visited was much harder to navigate. Streets that twist and turn and change names frequently, hills that seem to end, but don't, and a map that didn't list all the steets made this area a challenge.
I may have only gotten to see one city in Portugal, however my bus ride showed me a lot of the country itself.
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