Pastries and Painful Palaces

I'm back from another little trip...this time to Lisbon! In theory, it's not very far from Cáceres, but since Extremadurans don't seem very interested in having buses that run on a somewhat frequent basis, I spent all day Saturday traveling there. (OK, I'll stop being snobby--I know Spain is in a crisis, and Extremadura is the poorest place in Spain on top of that, so I'll stop complaining that I had to spend slightly longer traveling than I'd want to). I had a four-hour bus layover in Badajoz, which, as I said, isn't ideal, but at least it gave me some time to work on a story I'm writing.

Anyhow, when I finally made it it Lisbon, I met up with Jacob and his friend, Nick (who is now my friend, too, I suppose!) at Goodnight Hostel, which has been rated as 3rd best, 5th best, and 10th best hostel in the world! It's beautifully decorated, always has cheerful music playing, everyone there is super friendly (I made tons of lifetime friends in an instant...well, I probably won't keep in touch with them, but they were nice!) and they make lots of free/cheap food and drinks. I sound like an advertisement right now, but seriously, if you go to Lisbon (which you should--it was rated #1 city to visit in 2013 on tripadvisor, and tripadvisor always knows best!) you should definitely stay there. Jacob and Nick had gotten a lengthy tour earlier that day, so they gave me the abbreviated version ("A lot of history happened here" -Nick) while we roamed around the beautiful but not-so-ancient city (I say "not-so-ancient" because in 1755, as Jacob informed me, an earthquake almost completely destroyed Lisbon and surrounding areas). But at this point, you'd never know the city underwent such trauma or that it's in the midst of a horrible financial crisis. When walking around, all you feel is the energy from swarms of passersby and the swooping, artfully-sculpted Christmas lights that dangle from buildings and make streets glow in every color. The energy continues well into the night. We went on a "pub crawl," accompanied mainly by fellow Goodnight Hostelers. I won't go into it much, but I'll just say that Lisbon is quite a party-city.

No one in America ever seems to talk about Portuguese food, and I'd never been to or even seen a Portuguese restaurant before, but I don't know why that is because the food is superb. The seafood is obviously very fresh, so that's what I always ordered. I think my favorite dish might have been rice with seafood (a slightly soupier version of paella) that I had for lunch on Sunday, but that's followed closely by cod mixed with potato chips and olives made at the hostel Sunday night! Besides eating, Sunday's highlights included visiting the San Jorge Palacio; peering out over the city from various miradores; and going to Belém, where we saw a monastery with magnificent stone carvings, a 16th century formidable tower on the water, and, best of all, ate famous Portuguese Pastéis, which are cream pastries (I know that brings me back to food again, but these were so phenomenal I had to mention them...I can't even begin to describe them, though. Best to just go and see for yourself).

Two Delicious Cream Pastries Lie in Wait!

On Monday, we went to Sintra with two of Jacob's roommates. We drove endlessly up a very steep hill until we made it to the top, where we explored a very colorful, 19th century Candyland/Guadí-esque palace called Palacio de la Pena, which means "Palace of Pain." Luckily, none of the pain rubbed off on me...it was quite a pleasant experience roaming around the many little towers and passageways, in fact. The four of them departed shortly after, leaving me to kill time in a wonderful aquarium until my bus arrived. There I had the joy of being surrounded by swirling invertebrates, hermaphroditic sharks, sharks who eat their siblings in the womb, lounging sea otters, fish that disguise themselves to look like sand, and swarms of pimply Portuguese boys who enjoy pestering girls who are eight years their elder.

Palacio de la Pena

Now I'm back to Cáceres life, hanging out with my lovely, British Caroline and her swell roommates (who I talk to much more than my own roommates); desperately trying to find food that doesn't contain preservatives at the grocery stores (Spaniards don't seem to be very health-conscious); trying (probably unsuccessfully) to explain the difference between "a" and "an" to unruly first graders; and in my private classes acting out skits about going to the beach and eating tiger meat.