I Am Here

Main Square, Lisbon, 5.17pm

I am not only here, in Lisbon, I have been out and about successfully! Now is probably the time to tell you all that my greatest concern on this trip, was literally getting out of my hotel and onto the street, onto public transport and into museums, etc. I have a tendency to freak out and worry OBSESSIVELY about doing this, but my sensible was right and it was a piece of cake!

And what exactly did I do today with my trusty day ticket for public transport? I made my way from my hotel down to the Praça do Comercio, a big plaza at the very bottom of the city, on the water. Unfortunately the middle of it was all being renovated (or something) so I ended up chucking laps around the whole thing (massive) about four times to finally sort myself out.

Then I hopped on a bus up to Castelo San Jorge which was TOTALLY COOL! I kept hoping I'd stumble on an archer in one of the little windows up around the top, or King Arthur and Guinevere in the turret, pashing in front of the beautiful view. Considering there are no buildings in Australia that are older than approx 200yrs, a real castle from about one thousand years ago is mindblowing. (Please everyone bear in mind this is just my first day and yes I'm sure the really really old shit will get, well, old, but for now - SO COOL!)

After the Castelo, I hopped on a tram to go to some church to see dead people's tombs (including the dude who discovered Brazil), except I was having such a great time going up these crazy streets that were extremely narrow and full of tiled buildings and balconies, that I didn't notice where I was meant to get off and ended up doing the return trip. Never mind!

After lunch I went east of the centre to Belem where there's a big garden with Jeronimo's Monastery along one side and the Tower of Belem down on the waterfront on the opposite side. All wonderful, especially with lots of sunshine and wintery freshness.

Actually the thing I'm having bucketloads of trouble with is leaving behind daylight savings. It got to 3pm and the sun was seriously headed for the off switch and I was thinking it should be about 8pm! But today was one of those gorgeous winter days that I love, blue blue sky and nice nippy air.

Tomorrow - the market and the Museum of Contemporary Art.