Dia 99, 15 April: The Last Destination and Travel Weariness

Yes! Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal, Dia 99. The Last Destination and Travel Weariness

      After their breakfast at mackers/McDonald’s (in which I went next door for a ham sandwich), Joe and Vito parted ways from Vinnie and me in the metro. They were off to Malaga in southern Spain for a week, while Vinnie and I were off to Portugal. After two days there, my intended route is back to Norwich while Vinnie goes on to Madeira, a Portuguese island. Our large group of seven from Amsterdam lost one (Liam) and added one (Devon) in Milan, lost Mo after Milan, lost Caitlin and Devon after Palermo, and now the four of us parted ways after Madrid. For me, I will part with Vinnie after Lisbon and finally be back in Norwich.

      Yes, I say ‘finally’ because of the overall sentiment that weighs over me at this point in the Europe tour: weariness. Yes, it may sound glamorous to travel to all these places, but the first-sight thrill of seeing a new city, its architecture, its historical monuments, its language in action, its people, all dulls more quickly the longer the ‘itinerant’ identity materializes. For me, I have been an itinerant for  23 days, and add on the next two days here in Portugal and that’s 25 days of traveling. I want to be in the same bed for more than 3 nights. I want to cook. I want to walk across a campus for a few minutes instead of a large route through a city all day. I want peanut butter (store upon store I have searched for this precious jem…to no avail). I want to relax without the pressuring thought (‘you’re only in Madrid for 2 days, etc.’) that I need to see more of the place I’m in right now. I want to have a lazy, lazy day. I want to run (yes, the lazy day can include running). I want to see my flat again.

      These were the thoughts running through my mind as Vinnie and I made the metro trip to the aeropuerto. Once at the airport, we quickly made our way through check-in, security, and stores. Vinnie bought a light blue pair of swim trunks. I bought chocolate (for a special someone back home) and three pairs of much-needed socks. (I will skip over how disgusting it is to go two and a half weeks without washing my clothes. Simply, I need to do laundry. ASAP.) The whole process through the airport has become so engrained in me at this point—I once dreaded it, seeing my dad stress over the boarding passes so many years ago, but now the process is boring. Weary. [Vinnie did provide subtle entertainment by whistling songs like ‘Rolling In The Deep’.]

      I started another Stephen King novella, the second one in his collection Different Seasons, entitled ‘Apt Pupil’. This one, unlike Shawshank’s ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ classification before the first page, has this: ‘Summer of Corruption’. The child protagonist is evil, goading an ex-Nazi octogenarian (eighty-year-old) to tell him everything about the killing camps that he wants to know—blackmailing him since he knows the old man’s history more than the American government (or the cult who wants to kill him) does.

It’s good writing, but I find the subject matter hard to digest.

      ‘Look out the window, Spence.’

According to Vinnie's directions: 'Through the Arch.'
Where's the arch? We turned the corner and saw this.

      Vinnie brought me out of the story and toward a beautiful glimpse of Lisbon and the glimmering ocean beside it. In the next ten minutes we landed in Portugal, got our bags, and headed out. I bought Lonely Planet’s phrasebook on Portuguese since I tend to have a better time trying the language instead of trying to remember. I didn’t enjoy my attempts at speaking Spanish in Madrid—it’s been 4 years too long. Italian I started to pick up because of a phrasebook and so I picked up the Portuguese version.

      After a bus, we found the Yes! Hostel quickly and were amazed at how party- and youth-oriented the place is. Free enchantments every night at 11:30, there’s a bar next to reception, and the place has gorgeous rooms and bathrooms. We agreed this is by far our favourite hostel we’ve stayed in.

The statue in the Terreiro de Paco

      We traveled around for 2 hours, seeing the entrance to Castelo de Săo Jorge, the castle of Lisbon, and we walked our way down to the shoreline. There is a great arch between the ocean and Rua Augusta (a central pedestrian street), for those entering or leaving the Praҫa Do Comércio (Commerce Square, but more commonly known as ‘Terreiro de Paҫo’). [Apparently the entire square was remodelled after a great earthquake in 1755. Now that I think about it, the statue and the arch have a polished white glow to them].

Unmentioned #1: Vinnie and I stumbled upon a recently
excavated Roman theatre, that was built in 70 A.D.

Unfortunately for our visit, construction dampened the landscape and our view of the arch from the square. Still, the city is gorgeous, up there with Florence. Lunch and dinner were cheap and delicious—the Portuguese style of steak was..medium cooked. I didn’t see the exoticism, but then again Vinnie and I compromised on finding a cheap but not fast food place.

      Our dinner took place almost around 10. Before this, Vinnie slept through a chunk of the early evening while I blogged and caught up on emails and skyping Katya. Wifi is in the rooms at this hostel. In general, all the initial concerns when entering a new place were dealt with ease here, but I was exhausted by the time we called it a night. 

Unmentioned #2: Vinnie and I had a Portuguese dessert:
Pasteis de Nata.