EmD

Portugal & Spain, part 1.

I arrived in Lisbon, Portugal at 10:30 am on Friday morning. I made my way from the airport to the Four Seasons/ Ritz Hotel in downtown Lisbon and up to Vicky and Diana's room just as they were getting dressed and ready for the day. Realizing that they were just getting ready at 11:00, I thought to myself, "This is my kind of vacation." And my kind of vacation it was! We woke at a decent hour everyday, Diana and I usually went for a jog (I thought that I was running so fast and so far on the treadmill until Diana pointed out that the distances were in kilometers, not miles... a huge ego deflation), and then hit up the Ritz breakfast buffet. One day we got so many plates of food that the waiter asked us, very seriously, if we were really going back for more or if we were going to finally sit down. Apparently they don't see the likes of us very often in the swank Ritz breakfast crowd. We did some serious damage to that breakfast buffet, and laughed the whole way through. I think that we burned as many calories laughing as we took in at every delicious meal - not a bad way to spend the day.

Portugal is a remarkably beautiful country. It has the look of the Mediterranean coast and the temperature of San Francisco. We toured much of Lisbon, including the Sao Jorge castle, many busy streets, and a few gorgeous churches. One of the churches that we saw was just the remains of a convent that was destroyed in The Earthquake of 1755. Poor Lisbon was struck by a horrific earthquake, and what wasn't quaked suffered devastating fire, and what wasn't burned by the fire then had to withstand the horrendous flood that followed. Not much survived the quake/fire/flood of 1755, but the city remains strong and striking. Many of the buildings are decorated by the colorful tiles that Portugal is known for, giving the city a year-round festivity that I've yet to see anywhere else.

Portugal was beautiful and entertaining in itself, but without a doubt the highlight of the trip was spending time with my cousins and Bill, who proves to be a fantastic host and traveling companion. The Kost gals are fun, kind, energetic, better at the crossword puzzle than me, generous, and pretty (let's not forget pretty). It was great to get to know them better, especially because now I won't be so shy about inviting myself over for home-cooked meals during exams...

Ok, enough of the summary and family-love. Here are some highlight pictures of Portugal, but the full set is available on my pbase site.

Flying into Lisbon - the amazing Portuguese coast:

Lisbon from the air - note the giant statue that looks remarkably like the Christ the Reedemer cross that overlooks Rio de Janiero in Brazil. It is, in fact, a replica of the same statue.

A view of Lisbon from the Sao Jorge castle - can you believe this view? Are you booking plane tickets right now to go visit? Cause if you're not, you should. Right now. Come back and read this later, it'll still be here. Seriously, go now.

An example of the festive Lisbon streets.

It looks like you could just walk right across the rooftops!

The fountain in the Restauradoras Square in downtown Lisbon. I don't have any photos of the main square in Lisbon that's right on the water (Commerce Square) because despite its reputation as the most beautiful/ memorable square, Diana determined its reputation is undeserved because, "it's just a slab of concrete with a bunch of tents on it. How is that pretty?" She's right though - we drove by it in a taxi and that was enough for me. Back to my pictures: fountain in Restauradoras Square...

Aw, it's true, we are pretty! From left to right: Vicky, Emily, Theresa, and Diana. Notice that Diana doesn't really have a seat in this car and is in no way facing forward. She injured herself on this cab ride, and Vicky's and my hilarious earth-shaking jokes kept her busted gut from healing for quite some time.