Well we caught the train all good this morning and arrived at our hostel at about 10am. Our room was ready so we could put our things straight into our room!! We joined a walking tour at 10.30am from the hostel which took us around the Alfama district. We saw different squares, the castle and cute little streets filled with orange trees, people yelling at each other from their balconies (apparently that's how they communicate there haha!!) and kids playing soccer in the alleyways. We learnt that on November 1 1755 there was a very bad earthquake here that measured 9 on the richter scale. It destroyed pretty much the entire town and killed 43% of Lisbon's population. There was a huge fire after the earthquake because November 1 is all saints day so all the churches were filled with candles! Then also a tsunami. So really it was just a complete nightmare! You can still see ruins from the earthquake that have been left as memorials.
After the tour we had a look in Praca da Commercio, a main square near the hostel. Usually it has a beautiful statue and arch but they are covered with scaffolding at the moment! Guess I can't complain though because hardly anything has been the whole trip!! We enjoyed lunch in a main street. I tried the local specialty of codfish which was nice! Billy had pasta.
Then we had a look at Rossio Station. The architecture looked a bit Gaudi-esque! From here we queued up at the Santa Justa lift and went up to enjoy a sunny view. Then we went to the Carmo Church, a church without a roof that was devastated by the earthquake. Half of it survived because of its arches and it paved the way for anti-earthquake architecture.
Then we just had a walk around, ended at the beach and now back in the room!! This hostel was voted the best in the world last year. It's very clean and our room is fairly big. The staff seem friendly and it only cost us $20 a night - hooray!!
We think we liked Porto better. Lisbon seems a bit like a mini Madrid. Dodgy people around, I've been asked 5 times already if I want marijuana. Oh dear! But we know the types of people to steer clear of and we don't let anyone anywhere near us.
Tonight we are going to a fado concert so I'll write again then if it isn't too late.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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