Lisbon: Underrated

So we spent a few days in Lisbon (capital of Portugal)...what a beautiful city! People listing Prague as their favorite probably haven't seen Lisbon yet; the architecture and the colors are simply incredible. So much to see and do, that 3 full days are not enough if you include the surrounding villages as part of your visit. We pretty much saw most of the capital in the first 2 days, and then spent a day in Sintra which is one of the many villages about 45 minutes away from central Lisbon by train and mainly known for its numerous castles. You'll literally feel like in a Robin Hood movie. Lisbon also has 1 main castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge), a nice cathedral (La Cattedrale Sé Patriarcal) and a popular monastery (Mosteiro dos Jeronimos), among other touristic sites (i.e.Torre de Belem, etc.). The night life requires some use to, as it starts in a neighborhood called Bairro Alto filled with very small bars requiring most people to drink outside, on the narrow streets. So that was weird. And then they go to the various night clubs...

Transportation to the main touristic attractions is quite easy. I would recommend staying in a hotel not to far from the downtown area (neighborhood: Baixa). From there you can pretty much see all the surrounding sites in one day (castle, the Santa Justa elevator, the cathedral, etc.), and the next day you can go to Belem (neigborhood about 20 minutes away by tramway) to visit the monastery, museums, another castle, and the river side, etc. As for the restaurant selection, I did not experience bad food; they were all good. Just don't visit the ones in the touristic areas; if you go to Bairro Alto you'll find some very good ones for instance. Compared to the rest of Europe, Lisbon is cheap.

Portuguese are not necessarily the most social, somewhat similar to Catalans, when it comes to the service industry (tourism, restaurants, public transportation, etc.). However we did meet some very friendly people and unlike the Spanish, most Portuguese speak English. One interesting note is that for some awkward reason all the drug dealers were chasing me to sell some of their "stuff". I don't know if it's because of the long hair, or the fact that I hadn't shaved that day, or the puffy eyes (lack of sleep...I told you there was too much to see) but I have never been so harassed in my life...they'd actually cross the street with me and continue whispering in my ears. One even offered to educate me about the BENEFITS of drugs, for free!! Awkwardly these guys are quite knowledgeable when it comes to speaking languages; no matter what language I would switch to (to make it clear that I don't speak their language), they'd follow. I guess being a translator doesn't pay as much.

Basically, Lisbon is a great city to visit, and this trip really made me want to explore Portugal further. If you are wondering between Lisbon and Prague, this might be shocking, but I'd recommend Lisbon. I truly believe the city is underrated; but then again, I don't want to boost your expectations. However, I can say you will not be disappointed. In winter might be better as there are less tourists and the weather is very acceptable (around 15 celcius), however in the summer you'd be able to also enjoy the beach...

Here are some pictures.

JP

Elevator story

Here's yet another example of Spanish engineering nonsense...

I'm in a land where inaccuracies and inefficiencies are part of everyday life, with 10 minutes being 30, 2 miles being 4, lenience towards speeding limits, difficulties in forming a straight line at a bus stop, and the list goes on (trust me). BUT, do not try to exceed the suggested maximum number of people permitted in an elevator, as a max of 4 is really a max of 4 (not 6)!!! You see where I am going with this...Yes, I got stuck in an elevator between 2 floors...but looking on the bright side of things, I was with 5 girls...(apparently it's some people's death wish). However, nobody outside the elevator gave me a high survival rate as they expected me to be the first one to be eaten, if it came to that and anyways according to my friend men cannot last as long as women without food...so there you go. Happy it only lasted 15 minutes!

Typical elevator sizes are 1x1 meter, so fitting more than 3 people is nearly impossible. So I was very surprised when I saw this very big (by Spanish standards) box that could easily and unnoticeably fit 8 people. Granted there was a small sticker indicating a max of 4 people, and granted my friend advised us not to be more than 4 people...I thought you could multiply every rule by at least 1.5 in Spain (just like the Euro to Canadian currency)!! So we were 6. But there was no buzzer indicating the maximum weight capacity was exceeded. So in a land where everything is negotiable, I recommend you do not mess with the maximum elevator weight capacity! Which is a weird contrast with North America, where they allow a max of 12 people, but really you'll never be able to get more than 10 people in (I tried it once).

Alright, enough elevator talk. Last night was the Barcelona FC vs Liverpool game. Needless to say it was pretty crazy here...unfortunately we lost the game. Also, Tuesday night was THE carnival day in Sitges, so of course we had to go...it was pretty insane. American students compared it to the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans...and Brazilians said it was 10 times smaller than their carnival. Does that give you an idea on the size? I'll try to post the latest pictures soon...

That's it for now, going to Lisbon (or Lisboa) for the week-end.

Ciao ciao,

JP

OK, so I lied...

I promised I would spend the week-end in Barcelona and I didn't. Let me explain...

In the spirit of self-development and quick decision making (a crucial element in management) we decided to be spontaneous, make a decision and go ahead with it. So we went to Sitges Saturday night! Sitges is a small village about 30 minutes away from Barcelona by train, and very popular in the summer as it is on the beach, but also in February because of its very famous carnival (15-21 February). The big day for the carnival parade is Tuesday (the 20th), but all week long it's like a big Halloween party (with alcohol and no candies, no kids at night, and no decorated houses...but aside of that, it's exactly like Halloween) in the whole village. At night the place becomes one giant nightclub...with some of the weirdest costumes you've seen, loud music everywhere, and animated by a somewhat large gay community, relatively speaking.

Sitges pictures: click here
Andorra pictures: click here (more to be added)

Andorra is...small!

Finally have some time to write!

Andorra
I got back from Andorra late Sunday night. There’s really not much to see there (sorry to all the Andorrans out there); it’s mainly for shopping (tax free) and/or skiing. The town itself is not so big and surrounded by mountains, so that’s nice. Andorra is a very small Principality (not a country!) between Spain and France with about 70,000 habitants. Skiing (or snowboarding in my case) conditions were great; not too cold and not too icy. As it was an activity organized by the MBA group, needless to say we had quite a party on Saturday night. It’s always easier to socialize and meet other students when everyone is drinking (water). The only problem is that you don’t necessarily remember all their names the next day and just refer to them as “yo” and “hey”. No but in all seriousness, we had a great time...and the snow and cold was a good way to remember what I was missing out on in Montreal (cough cough) :-)

Barcelona
Barcelona is the host of the COMVERSE telecommunication event for the whole week. So all the hotels are booked and unfortunately taking public transportation is somewhat a hassle now. The subway is always full, and the public transportation employees chose the best week to go on strike! By the way, when you don’t speak good Spanish and hence not really aware of what’s happening in the local news, it’s kinda hard to figure out there’s a strike; but after a while at the bus stop, alone, you get the hint…and understand why so many cabs drive by your bus stop and slow down stare and wave at you…!

Valentine’s Day
Guess what, Valentine’s Day is not such a big deal in Spain…isn’t that great!?! Instead they have another holiday that is somewhat similar in April where the girl gets the guy a book and the guy gets the girl a rose. Now although I strongly believe Spain is a land of inefficiencies, I must admit they pretty much nailed it down with this one. What a great, simple, clear and headache free concept.

This week-end I’ll take a vacation from vacation, and stay in Barcelona. The weather has been incredible and the days are getting longer. Alright, gotta go do some ironing, grocery shopping, and fix a button on my jacket. Yes yes, you heard right, I, JP will be doing those things!

Andorra pictures to be updated in the coming days...

Adios!

Prague: Not for the color blind!

Praha (in Czech)...beautiful and colorful city which for some reason looks better on a cloudy day. Luckily for us, it was cloudy most of the time; and this might be why most traveling books recommend to go to Prague during the fall or winter. It's as if the lack of light gives greater weight to the colors and architectures not to mention that feel of the communist era (not that I would remember). The city is filled with very nice sculptures and impressive churches, enough to fatigue any camera lens! So on that end, Prague is definitely the most architecturally beautiful city I've been to thus far. Food is generally very good and affordable, and can pretty much satisfy all tastes. I would definitely recommend staying somewhere near the old town square as it is walking distance to all the major attraction sites and nightlife.

We rented a flat instead of a hotel. What a great idea that was (thanks Jeremy). The location doesn't get better than that (5 steps from the Old Town Square), and the place was humongous with 165 square meters...all that for only 4 people. I'd get tired of walking to the bathroom (I had to plan my trips to the bathroom 5 minutes ahead of time, or else it'd be too late for you know what)! Nightlife was great once we figured out that Czechs hangout in pubs and lounges rather than nightclubs. I would like to give you more details, but what happens in Praha stays in Praha! We tried their specialty alcoholic drink: Absinthe. 80% alcohol served with a spoon of heated/melted sugar (for the acid punch)...quite nasty, but I had to do it to be able to tell you all about it! I did it for YOU!! This must be illegal in Canada...regardless, I'll try to sneak in a bottle; it does look like mouthwash liquid after all.

Almost halfway through this [busy/hectic] week...Leaving to Andorra for the week-end. The MBA association organized a ski trip...Andorra is tax-free by the way. Considering it's a 3-hour bus ride, I'm sure that in the MBA spirit we will be educated on how to place money in the country ;-)

Added a picture folder: Prague.

JP

This should make my Indian friends jealous!

Just in case you didn't recognize her, this is Soonu Kochar, ex-ambassador of India to The Netherlands, then Argentina, and later France. But I'm sure you already knew that. I hear the questions coming...She was my Geopolitics teacher. Great course, I would definitely recommend it...very insightful class, and it generated quite interesting debates allowing you to hear different perspectives from students all over the globe. And before you ask: the flowers were from all the classmates. Why did I take a picture with her? Come on, she's huge in India...what if one day I need to outsource over there! And...since other students took pictures with her, I didn't want to get penalized for not doing the same; ok fine, I was the first one in line... :-)

Predictions for the Super Bowl: Chicago Bears will win. Por que? They have a bigger franchise value (click here) than the Colts. Since 1999, the team with the highest franchise value won the Super Bowl. Except for Pittsburgh, but that doesn't really count because there was only an $8 million gap. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Alright, that's it for now...leaving to Prague in 3 hours.

JP