Hello Big Jesus

Last weekend, José, a few friends and I took advantage of another holiday (Spaniards never work) in order to drive to Lisbon. We left in the early afternoon, worried about the forecasted rain and though it poured the entire drive there, we were fairly lucky the rest of the time. After nearly five hours in the car, we were finally crossing into Lisbon when we spotted Big Jesus, a giant statue that overlooks the city with arms spread wide. Needless to say, I spent the entire weekend orientating myself to where on the skyline I could see Big Jesus. He was always watching. Creeper. We arrived and checked into our hostel which did not make the best first impression. After getting off the scary elevator that had no door and went flying up five flights of stairs fast enough to make us all a bit dizzy, we were greeted by walls with fur. I am not sure who made that design choice but it was disgusting. It looked like someone had gone to JoAnn Fabrics and picked up the cheapest fabric from the discount bin and staple gunned it to the wall. Gross. The actual inside of the hostel was quite nice. We crashed the first night and got up early the next day to sightsee. We went to your standard places, the cathedral, a castle, a monastary and a watchtower. In other words, we could have been sightseeing in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France etc. What sets Portugal apart is how dilapidated yet charming everything is. Who would have thought crumbling and in need of a paint job could be so pretty. Sunday night was Halloween and it was the first time in my life I didn´t dress up as anything. We went out and found a bar where a Portugese cover band was playing American music. All I wanted to hear was some Journey but alas it was not to be. We left on Monday morning, said bye to Big Jesus and headed to Faro which is a city on the coast of Portugal where we had lunch. All in all, a good trip but a word to the wise, do not plan on being in Lisbon for more than 2 days. That´s really all the time you need.

Big Jesus

Inside the Monastery

Explorer´s sculpture

Torre de Belem

Comments

  1. ChrissieNovember 2, 2010 at 6:30 PM

    With the big Jesus, was it kind of like driving through Ohio and seeing Touchdown Jesus, may he rest in peace?

    ReplyDelete

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