Day 1—Journey to Portugal

Following the disappointing news that we were not going to be able to get tickets to see the Alhambra in Granada this weekend, Marissa, Masha, and I changed our plans at the last minute and decided to head to Lisbon, Portugal! Can I just say what a fabulous decision it was! Despite the fact that it was off and on raining while we there, we had a wonderful time, and it was great to get to do some exploring in a new country.

Marissa, Masha & I sans Masha's passport

We had Thursday and Friday off of school for Día de los Santos, so we headed to Merida on Thursday morning to catch the bus to Lisboa from there.  We were getting close when suddenly Masha looked over at us and told us she had a strange question for us.  Did we have our passports?  Thankfully, we did, but unfortunately she did not.  Thus when we got to Merida we began trying to find a way for Masha to get back to Zafra and then also to Lisboa that day, while we were going to continue on to Lisboa and check in to the hostel (there were fewer buses than normal because of the holiday).  In the end, Francisco (information booth guy and Masha’s future husband) helped Masha find a bus to Sevilla that would stop and pick up passengers in Zafra (though not drop them off because another bus company has a monopoly to the stop in Zafra).  So we head off to Lisboa, and Masha headed off to Zafra on the bus to Sevilla, with the plan that she would head to Lisboa on the 1AM bus and meet us at the hostel around 5AM.

El Tejo-bridge to Portugal

We got to Lisboa without anyone problems, though the bus ride was long, and we were definitely tired of sitting by the time we got there.  We then had to figure out the Metro system to get to our hostel. Keep in mind that everything is now in Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish but also more different than you would think.  Eventually we made our way there without too much hassle and checked into the hostel, but we were now starving. 

Portugal's best chicken

We started walking the streets nearby and eventually came upon this smell that was probably the best thing I have smelled since coming to Spain. We glance at a menu outside the restaurant, which strategically has their grill in the window, and in the process learn some Portuguese because they had the English translations.  We decided to eat there and both want the ½ Frango c/ Batatas e Arroz (otherwise known as half of a chicken with potatoes and rice), but we don’t know how to pronounce words and have no clue what half might be in Portuguese.  We are “this” close to pulling the framed menu off the wall to point at what we want, when Marissa has this brilliant idea to type it into a note on her Ipod (gotta love technology <3).  So we order and wait for it to be ready.  It is only when one of the cooks asks another customer if he wants chili spices (in English) that we realize all of our efforts and worries were for nothing.  Finally, we took the food back to our room and dig in to what was one of the best meals I have ever had in my entire life for €5.  It was probably enough food for two or three people, but I ate every last bite.  Dinner was followed by some Criminal Minds and early to bed. 

Masha, happy to finally be in bed!

I woke up in the middle of the night to a knock on our door.  We opened the door to an exhausted Masha.  The bus to Sevilla that was supposed to stop in Zafra to drop off passengers had not stopped after all because the attendant in Merida had sold Masha at ticket to the express bus instead.  So Masha rode the bus three hours to Sevilla then had to ride the two hours back to Zafra to pick up her passport only to catch the bus back to Merida to leave for Lisboa.  Luckily she had a good sense of humor about it, but she was definitely happy to crawl into bed (as were we all)!