Day 62

Considering that it was partly sunny and in the mid-60s when we woke up, we decided that we would go to the beach!

First, we popped into a cafe (thank God something was open on a Sunday) to have some breakfast. That pastry very well might have given the Spanish ones a run for their money. It was sooooo good. Then, we picked a nice spot on the sand that was close, but not too close, to the water.

At first, it was just us there, so that was nice. I made a little beach playlist on my iPod, and we just jammed. It was shaping up to be a pretty warm day.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Suddenly, it was very cloudy, and pretty windy, and a ton of families with loud little kids decided to sit near us. Now, it l takes quite a bit to make me not enjoy the beach; all of these things were tolerable, and really, I was still pretty content in our spot. But THEN, these two women (who were with children) who were middle-aged and in super great shape decided to take their tops off. IT WAS NOT A NUDE BEACH. It wasn't too long before we got up to walk around the beach and another family near us got up as well. Definitely not okay.

We only walked for a little while before I decided I was way too cold (we were facing the wind), so then we went to walk around town. The little souvenir shops were so cute! I even found and bought a bracelet with my name on it. We also popped into a restaurant for a quick, 4€ wine tasting. Portuguese wine, especially Portuguese green wine, is the best!

Thought this place was cute!

We had lunch at another ocean-side restaurant which was very nice. I had bacon-wrapped sea bass! So good.

After shopping and walking around a little more, we went back to the hostel to gather our belongings (we traveled with one suitcase that we shared) to head to the bus stop.

Look at these cute creations!! There were live turtles in there!

Portuguese cow!

Thought this place looked cute, too.

The bus to Lisbon was really nice! The conductor/attendant lady only announced things in Portuguese, but I'm pretty sure it was just basic "We're heading to Lisbon" and "We're arriving in Lisbon" type things. They played a movie version of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" that was set in 19th Century Japan, and I just LOVED it. It starred Bryce Dallas Howard (who does a very convincing English accent) and David Oyelowo.

We arrived in Lisbon around 7:30 or so, but it was super dark out and felt like it was 10:30. We took the metro to our hostel, which was fine, but finding the hostel was...a struggle. It turned out that the hostel was actually, like, a part of the metro station. It's hard to explain. Maybe the pictures will help me out some...

But in any event, the hostel was AMAZING. It was super cool! It had a terrace with a bar, garden, and pool, a kitchen, a dining room, and all kinds of stuff. We had four roommates, but they were super chill.

We asked the lady working the front desk where we could get dinner close by, and she told us to go to this food court-type place across the street. It turned out to be the best place ever. There were so many options, and all the food looked good, and everything was a good price. I had pumpkin rice with goat cheese and arugula. So seasonal! So yummy! I also had a glass of green wine (obviously).

Back at the hostel, we showered and went to bed with hopes of going on a free walking tour put on by the hostel in the morning.