{"id":2426,"date":"2023-04-04T04:38:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T07:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/?p=2426"},"modified":"2023-04-04T04:38:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T07:38:58","slug":"monday-april-3rd2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/monday-april-3rd2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday, April 3rd,2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting in Lisbon at a bus station waiting for the yellow hop on hop off bus to come along. Apparently they stop at 5 PM so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to buy a ticket for 24 hours and hopefully I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be allowed on tomorrow. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll check that out first. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good way to see the city just with an overview. The first time I was here I spent a lot of time in Lisbon waiting for buses. I remember my first arrival day February 1, I had waited and waited and found out later the bus had been cancelled.
OMG! The seat is vibrating. I realize there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a subway right beneath me!
It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a bad drive in this morning, but when I got here, even with Google map directions, I circled around and around until I got the right turn off, to take the car back. Oh, was it frustrating? I got a cab to my hotel. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m staying in the old part of town; it reminds me a lot of Porto. The Avenue da Liberdade, a boulevard in central Lisbon that I’m sitting on at the moment, is similar to Barcelona\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Las Ramblas, all tree lined, maybe all inspired by Paris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Champs-\u00c3\u2030lys\u00c3\u00a9es. Avenida da Liberdade is apparently, according to my taxi driver, the most expensive street to rent or buy property on in Portugal!
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird being in a big city again; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really not quite as comfortable as I was in Zambujeira. It’s as usual with cities , always under construction, noisy ,with traffic jams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh but it isnice not having to worry about the car. I could barely fit everything in my suitcase. I actually have my backpack stuffed and I having another bag, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have to sort that out. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy anything. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the funny part but I came with warm clothes on my body, because it was cold when I left Toronto and cold when I got here, and it all seemed appropriate but now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warm, so I either have to dump some stuff or look at my packing again.
I had my breakfast\/lunch, whatever you call it, mid afternoon because I was really hungry by then, at a restaurant just down the road from my hotel, called Lusitania. I had my usual omelette, which is a staple for me when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m travelling. The restaurant was nice enough, but it felt a little bit intimidating for some reason, not the warm feeling that I got in restaurants in the small town I was in.
Tonight, I am at an Indian Fusion Restaurant for dinner. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just around the corner from my hotel. I am late because I was on the hop on hop off bus cruising in the city. I will be back on that bus tomorrow, once I do some reading on where to get off and walk around.
It was a great meal tonight, chicken tikka . Lovely atmosphere here and I felt welcomed.
Back to my little room after and watched a movie for the first time on TV in a couple of months. I laughed. It was the Robin Hood movie with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett in English with Portuguese subtitles
Sleep certainly came quickly even though it is noisy , as a city is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Looking down from my tiny balcony.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My balcony!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My bed in this tiny room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The treacherous cobblestones are everywhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of many, many restaurants down the street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The street where I live for two days!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The main square(Praca Do Comercio)at the waterfront.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from my rooftop patio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting in Lisbon at a bus station waiting for the yellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-of-merit","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2436,"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426\/revisions\/2436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carmelbrennan.com\/carmel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}