Love Letter to Lisbon, Part 1: Tuesday

I blinked and already five days passed by in beautiful Lisbon. Honestly, Lisbon has surprised me. I’m not sure it is just the city or the fact I did a lot of hostel adventures with really amazing people. Probably both. Lisbon was definitely a country where I didn’t have any specific plans for but wanted to check out one day. For the first time since Rome, I don’t feel so ready to leave. Here I am, so utterly in love with Portugal. 

From the Moorish building tiles down to the smooth cobble stones neatly decorated, and from the blue skies down to the sparkling blue Atlantic shore.

Since I landed, I’ve been constantly on the go. I was either out late and didn’t have the time to write for my blog or I had to get some decent sleep since I had to get up early and therefore didn’t have time to write. Every day was a perfect sunshine, barely any clouds and was in the solid 80s. Which... if you know me, would be too much for me since I prefer colder air, but it suited Lisbon. And I got tan.

I posted a picture of my hostel last post at the end for a sneak peek. The hostel has been so incredibly accommodating and acts as an easy central hub, since it’s close to the shore and literally in a train station. It is so clean and has a lot of environmental initiatives, in part because the station is a national monument. There are dorms, women-only or mixed as well as private rooms which seems to be popular with families with kids. I will return to Lisbon one day and I will likely come back to the same hostel. I love it here.

So, when I landed early afternoon on Tuesday and dropped my stuff at the hostel - the first thing I did was explore the square around the station and explored the majority of the central area of the city called Baixa-Chiado. Went up a shopping street, got iced tea from Starbucks and walked the streets until I reached the shore.

From there, I walked back to my hostel to drop off my camera and figure out my next steps. My hostel offers a bunch of tours for really decent prices. Day trip tours to short (free!) walking tours. I debated for a while on the spot - I am not usually comfortable in group tours or events since it’s so hard for me to follow along, especially so when there’s countless accents involved. But I took a leap and booked a Fado tour that same night.

Fado - said to be derived from Lisbon’s streets. It’s a soulful music sung by amateurs and professionals to a strumming lyre or guitars in bars and restaurants hidden away pockets of the city. When I got to the meeting area, we almost had to cancel it because I was the only one who signed up ... until one more person signed up, then two, four, ... five people! My tour guide gathered us in the hostel reception area around 8pm and we started of with drinks from the hostel bar. Here I met Paulo from California and Harrison from Tennessee, a woman from Brazil and and a cute young couple from Ireland whose names I’ll never be able to pronounce, but I can spell, Gráinne and Peadar. We chatted for about 30 minutes and all got along great. Our tour guide gave us the run down of the night: we were to walk through the Rossio Square and to Alfama, which is the old town area. We’re to go to a small restaurant called Fora de Mado.

We headed out to the square and took us along the streets through Alfama up winding hills and over bridges. He pointed out some buildings and squares and gave us history background. We went to a palapa overlooking the ocean and got a nice skyline view at night. We eventually got to the restaurant and sat down. 

As part of the tour, we were to get a drink and some tapas. We ended up getting many drinks, tapas AND. a full meal. Ooh, so full! Every 20 mins, the lights shut off and three singers sang three songs per round. I had no idea what they were singing but it was soulful. Food was good, though I panicked and ordered a simple chicken salad since I didn’t understand the menu recommendation. Next time I will try the Bacalhau com Natas, or codfish with cream. My tour guide offered me some of his and it tasted SO good. Portoguese green wine was so good, I had about three glasses. 

Wednesday I would return to Alfama and spend the entire day walking. And later, I would experience my first hostel bar crawl.

Last Day in Pari— no wait, this isn’t a city! Day Trip to Provins

Yo! Catching up on this. I was at the airport Orly in France typing this up and finished it as soon as I got to my Lisbon hostel. I spent last night packing and trying to calm my pre-flight jitters. After the end of this post is a sneak peek of Lisbon.

Monday was my last full day in France, and I was leaving for the town of Provins, an hour and 20 minutes away from Paris. I was excited but also super nervous because I would be taking the suburban train RER from an actual train station at Gare de l'Est (or just Paris Est), so the experience was a little different from just taking an RER train from a metro station.

I got to the station early to buy tickets, and after some miscommunication and realization that the RER train also leaves from the same platform as regular commuter train does, I missed the first train by like two minutes. Which is fine because I intended to take the 9:46, but the 8:46 would have been nice.

The station is huge and has a mini-mall in it. Got some coffee from Starbucks and waited for the train to announce the platform.

An hour later, I was on the train to Provins. As soon as we left the city and headed east, the buildings got smaller and smaller.

Seven stops later, I was in Provins. When at the station, it isn't immediately clear where the town was. The tourist office was closed so I used Google maps to find my way.

The first step into town was over a small creek and stone buildings just beyond it. There was, blissfully, very few tourists. So it was quiet and I could hear the birds and the wins. However since it was a Monday, most of the shops are closed - though the town isn't really known for shopping.

From there, I pretty much spent the morning wandering around since I had no city map. Kinda just went with it. There's some pretty amazing fortified monuments close to the center of town and medieval buildings still intact throughout. The first thing I saw was the Tour Notre-Dame-du-Val (first photo below).

I found a small museum that displayed art made in the Provins area since the 1200s up to 19th century. Shout out for the admissions guy for letting me in at a discounted 2€ instead of 4€ since I didn't have enough coins. The museum is also inside a converted medieval house; it had sections of the original wooden beams between the plasters. Displayed were interesting medieval keys, 17th-19th century paintings and many sculptures and religious artifacts. All the information was in French so I could only read the title and roman numeral years.

After that and wandering around some more I found a large fortified tower - Tour Cesar. I got in and finally got a map of the town while at the admissions. Its a cool tower full of history, intended to be a defensive monument, it was terrible as one and converted as a lookout and other means later throughout its operation. - Pinnacle of medieval aesthetics, gothic arches and stone stairs with wooden vaulted ceilings (which was apparently added later on). The stairs are very very narrow and, since no one was there and it was dimly lit, very creepy. 

There are three levels, the bottom, top and the bell-tower. The bottom floor had a Governor's room, the upper floor was the look out area, accessibly by really narrow spiral stairs. Then up one more through the outside are even smaller stairs to see the two bells. On all floors, I could look outside and have a great view of the town and the distant farm fields. 

Just before the exit, there played a infographic video projected on the walls in the atrium showing the history of Henri the Liberal who brought Provins up as a trade town.

I grabbed lunch at the north end of the town and unfortunately did not have enough euros on hand so I had to do the thing I wanted to avoid and pulled money from my debit card. But luckily there were even ATMs in the area! Funny thought for the day, I nearly bought a medieval costume in an actual medieval town! Nothing fit my preferences though.

I spent the rest of the day walking along the defensive walls and ramparts, crossing grassy "roads" and walking on the edge of town. 

Just before leaving, I checked out one last church called Église Saint Ayoul. It was a church that never really finished when it was first being built and was changed over time. As a result, its a pretty plain looking church with some few large paintings and simple colored decal windows. There was no one inside so I could hear my footsteps walking on broken/shattered tiles and making a very long echo. 

I spent 6 hours in Provins and came here with no plans. I think it worked very well for me since I wanted to get away from the crowds. I'm so lucky it was such a nice day - my trip to Provins will definitely leave a lasting memory.

I am now at my last destination: Lisbon! While I got away with speaking very broken French that I learned from TV and 100% bad pronunciation, the Portuguese language will be a whole different story! I already walked around the Baixa-Chiado (considered the centre) and I am already in love with Lisbon. Here’s the hostel I am staying at! It’s inside a train station!

And I’ll Walk 500 More... (In Paris)

Okay, so I wrote about Sunday yesterday (Sunday night) but unfortunately the blogger app ate that chunk of writing... two times. Avoiding the pain of writing it the third time, I decided to break it up and write it here and post Monday’s adventure separately.

Sunday

Today was the big day! I booked a time stamped ticket for the Eiffel Tower but wanted to get there early so I could walk to the Trodecero Place and walk across Pont D’Ilena, to recreate the photo my father had of him nearly 30 years ago. 

At first it seemed like I chose the wrong day — there was a women’s road race which had just begun as I got to the edge of the plaza overlooking the the bridge and the Eiffel Tower. The race started under the tower, which seems pretty freaking cool if you are a runner. But as a tourist, the entire area was blocked off in complicated fences. I had to walk down the river and cross a different bridge.  Unfortunate, but luckily I left early enough so I had time and walked. I took a bunch of photos of the tower from a distance.

I grabbed a quick coffee and croissant at a cafe just a few streets away from the area and watched the road race for a bit to kill time. Some SOs and kids ran alongside their mom/partner for a bit in support, which I thought was cute. 

Soon, it was time. I got to the line and, thanks to my ticket, got in quick. Seems that everyone in Paris buys tickets on the spot rather than online. If you go to Paris, save yourself the headache! I bought my ticket up to two days before actually going, so doing it last minute is very possible.

And I’m in, and very much underneath the tower. The size kinda blew me away seeing it for the first time. I can only imagine seeing this when it first opened. 

I went to the north side lift and went up to the 2nd “floor”. I missed out by one day being able to get to the top, but I leave for Portugal on Tuesday! I figured that was okay and would save the trip to the top for the future with someone special.

Going up the lift was magical because you could see the insides of the tower and the mechanical lift engineering.  The view was beautiful. Even if it’s considered the second floor, I’m already high above the city, higher than I thought it would be! Definitely worth it.

Hey it’s me again.

I loitered around snapping photos for a good twenty minutes and enjoyed the view and the breeze, and of course the sun and blue skies. I saw the the race was ending and that they were collapsing the fences around the Pont d’Iena bridge which meant I could walk on the bridge.

Eventually I got back down and headed to the exit. I walked on the bridge and looked for the spot my dad stood nearly 30 years ago. Took a few practice shots to find the right angle and waited for a few minutes to see a friendly face that looks like they could speak English. It was awkward standing around and I wished in that moment I had a friend with me. But eventually I found a nice couple who were more than willing to take photos for the sake of recreating it. I didn’t want to bother them on their vacation so I didn’t ask for repeats, but what they got was pretty good! 

Awkward posing! Don’t know how my dad does it. 

I will probably return here one day and recreate it again, maybe even during the same season!

I headed back to the hotel for a quick chill out to rest my feet and soon went back out. I headed to the first arrondissement to a certain street I googled that was apparently known for shopping, but turned out to be more for food. Which was fine since I needed dinner eventually anyway. I ended up getting one of the best fresco panini ever.

In this area, I passed by the Fontaine des Innocents. It is a monument as a reminder from when the entire plaza was a mass graveyard. People buried their dead here and at one point, it just got so full people dumped their dead corpses and left them there for the gravediggers to deal with. It was so bad that when it rain, the corpses floated up from their shallow graves. Eventually they were exhumed and moved to the catacombs. A bit surreal standing there now watching people relaxing and eat or drink.

I spent the rest of the evening walking around, checking out the St. Germaine church, and getting that best panini ever while watching two guys next to me, also eating pizza and strumming on their ukulele and singing. They weren’t bad. And it wasn’t a bad last true evening in Paris.

Honestly, I was kind of hating people after the Eiffel Tower visit. I knew tourism would be busy in Paris, but was surprised how quickly tired of it I got. Luckily, I had a full day planned to leave the city, which was planned before I came to France. Pat on back for me for having hindsight. Hoping that the distance to a small town would do me some good and relax a bit before my next destination to Lisbon on Tuesday.

I left the city an hour and a half by trains (one metro, and one suburban) to the medieval town of Provins.