Lisbon

=LISBOA (LISBON to you lot)=
 * Today we managed, all on our own, to :
 * 1) find the train station
 * 2) get the correct ticket and platform
 * 3) go into Lisbon’s “central” station
 * 4) but another ticket for the Metro
 * 5) change trains and finish up where we wanted to be!

**Yes, yes, we were amazed too!** || || The fun really started when we arrived at Setubal station with only minutes to spare, located the ticket office and then have the young bloke in front of us have some complicated form he was completing for a season ticket? concession pass? (who knows?) but the ticket seller was very helpful and took his time, completely oblivious to us and the growing ( and impatient) line awaiting service. Eventually we were provided with tickets and a warning the train was due to go on platform 3 (we were on 1 of course) so down the stairs, along the underground alleyway and back up the stairs to dive onto the train as the doors were about to close – the next train was a 60 minutes wait! After that pretty plain sailing – lovely clean trains here – no graffiti on trains or in stations (elsewhere seems to be acceptable?) Between us we had NO knowledge of Lisbon, NO maps, NO guidebooks (we weren’t expecting to come here OK?) so we did the “sensible thing” – we caught a tourist bus. One of those get on/get off double deckers you see in every major city in Europe. It was fine – we saw lots of the city and learnt a fair bit, got off once for lunch and a walk about and generally had a relaxing time – not having to walk and decipher maps for a change was quite good. Lisbon is a very modern city filled with monuments – lots of references to Vasco deGama and other explorers esp of the “new world”. Portugal’s connections to Brazil and Cape Verde are quite evident in the number of African descent people here. At no time have we felt threatened – same in Spain! Very relaxed country – probably more English speakers here and a bit friendlier than the Spanish.
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