A Failed Walking Tour

March 1:

After my second consecutive night staying out at the club until it closed I was unready for my early awakening. At dinner the previous night some American foreign exchange students who were calling it an early night had said they intended to go on the walking tour this morning and I had boldly decided to go with them. Due to the nature of Pat’s illness the previous day I was unsure if he would be able to do anything today and decided that I may as well be productive.

I arose after a scant few hours sleep at 9:30. To say I found the task I had set for myself today to be daunting would likely be to overstate my reluctance but I will say my reaction to my alarm wasn’t a pleasant one. Fortunately for me though, in a disturbingly usual fashion of late, my courage from the previous night had not yet worn off. When I stumbled to breakfast I saw Mitch had shown up to say his goodbyes with a pitcher of joy. Well on my way and with some trepidation as to what might befall me later that day I joined him as I prepared for the day.

With pancakes in pocket and refreshment on hand I left with the group and we made our way to the rendezvous point for the walking tour. I did see Pat before I left but he was rather predictably out of sorts through much better then the day prior. The group I left with was one of the larger that I had been with so far on my travels, consisting of the seven Americans who had went to bed early the previous night, the one who had joined us for our fun, two girls who had checked in that morning (Alice and Alejandra), and myself.

The walking tour started slowly. We first went to a church where they had slaughtered some Jews. It was here where I realized that through I managed to bring my camera I had not remembered that I removed my battery for charging the previous day and had yet to replace it. Fortunately Alejandra had her camera and was willing to share her pictures with camera-less Alice and me. We proceeded from the church to the first store in Lisbon that sold ginja. Ginja is a very sweet cherry liqueur that is traditional in the region and is the alcohol most associated with Lisbon. This would be the place if any to try this local drink and it was no longer as early in the day as it once had been so we gave it a go. For those interested it is offputtingly sweet and many of the now swelled walking tour delighted in taking pictures of their friend’s faces as they reacted to a sip of their spirit. As the tour proceeded we went to the Santa Justa Lift. We approached from the back as to not to have to buy a lift ticket but as it was half the tour group went up to the top of the lift anyways. It was a euro fifty to get what could only be ten feet higher so Alice, Alejandra, and I went to go find a washroom. At least ten minutes later we returned to the Lift to find the group still there. Perplexed as to how they could possibly be taking that much time and getting hungry as it was now the afternoon the three of us, now acting as a group, went to get some lunch.

After a sandwich and a beer apiece we wandered our way down to the waterfront. In the central square I remembered the free Portuguese wine tasting Nick, the hostel owner, had recommended. We arrived there at 2 but were soon informed that 2 was the one hour they did not run the wine tasting as it was their lunch hour. Unperturbed we crossed the square to the sea wall and hung out there in the sun for the hour. Oh, I have yet to mention the weather but it was amazing out, 17 degrees with zero wind and Portugal’s amazing ability to have not a cloud in the sky.

At the wine tasting we ran into the American foreign exchange students who had gone on the walking tour. They planned to do more stuff after the tasting but our trio was getting tired and would be going for a nap. The wine tasting was pretty interesting, Portugal has a terrific variety of grapes to suit its various climates that are largely unknown beyond its borders.  After the wine tasting we stopped into a kebob shop for a second lunch to hold us till dinner and went home to nap. After my nap I was afforded a few hours to hang out before dinner. After dinner we all tapped into the unlimited beer for 5 euros and played some beer pong after a big game of trivia. Our trivia team, the Canadian Beauty came third but afforded me an introduction with a guy named Benoit who watched Archer! For those of you who do not know:

Fortunately I was much better at beer pong and with teammates of Pat and Alejandra I remained undefeated. When we headed to the bars the first one was the same as always and there were a few of the one euro peanut shots to be had. The second bar was across form the first and was so packed that few of us dared to venture in. It was around this time that Alejandra and I were hungry and decided to get some food. Nick said we had ten minutes before they were leaving so we figured we had plenty of time. After a trip to the kebab shop we realized we were mistaken. We were alone but the night was still young so we headed back into the bar district and visited a few more places before deciding we were tired and it was time to head home to bed.