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Written by Brendon Green
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Thursday, 04 March 2010 07:02 |
Despite not knowing the Portuguese for - “Hey, probably don’t grab this handrail because we just painted in bright red.” - I’m going to go ahead and say that Lisbon is the best place ever invented. It is the champion of the world.
It could have gone the other way, as I had a rocky start on arrival. My bus from Madrid had to pull over for a huge drugs sting on the border, which was all well and good (watching the sniffer dogs and guys with guns I felt like I was in Miami Vice, or at least Border Patrol) until the dog sniffed something on a fellow passenger. A small amount of marijuana and one and a half hours of waiting later, the guy was allowed back on the bus and we finally got to go to Lisbon, late and in the rain. Oh, and I was also stranded at the bus station for awhile, but that was my own fault.
Finally I get to my hosts house (another CouchSurfing experience, in a huge and beautiful flat with 2 girls and their boyfriends) and after apologising for my lateness, they take me out for dinner. BAM, my first taste of the food in Lisbon and I am head over heels in LOVE. The traditional soup and dessert (a rice pudding infused with lemon and other seasonings) were delicious, but I also got a chunk of a white bread roll stuffed and cooked with Chorizo sausage throughout. Guys, that’s my #1 favourite food stuffed and cooked with my #5 favourite food. Since then I have been on a non-stop café hop, drinking coffee and wine and eating the finest foods I have ever tasted. And it’s all so cheap! I have eaten more and paid less for it than anywhere else I’ve been.
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Written by Brendon Green
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Thursday, 25 February 2010 22:14 |
Amazing coffee. I don’t know if it’s a ‘thing’, but Spanish coffee is the delicious. I even went to a gourmet coffee house and has something called a Brasilleño, which involved chocolate somehow, and it was officially the best coffee I have ever had. Proper official too, I drew a certificate on my serviette stating the fact.
Madrid is great, it’s a shame it’s my only stop in Spain. It is a huge city, and as such it doesn’t really have a defined character like small towns and super touristy places have. Sure there are monuments and things to take photos of, but you’re not going to get the Über-Spanish spirit feeling if that’s what you’re after. (I just used German to describe the quintessential Spanish persona, creative!). It’s a major metropolitan city, and that’s what it feels like, except that the people are super nice and friendly.
This was also my first ever official CouchSurfing destination. The asking random strangers on the internet for a place to stay instead of hostelling-it, turned out to be a great idea. My host, a real, authentic Spanish girl, lived in Carabanchel, just out from the city centre. The first night, freshly arrived and with my suitcase in tow, she took me to a Blues jam session in an authentically smokey Blues Bar. Oh yeah, you can still smoke in bars in Spain, and my eyes have not been accustomed to that for a long time, so I came away with a pronounced squint (which totally fit in at the Blues jam session).
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Written by Brendon Green
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Thursday, 18 February 2010 10:11 |
You can’t make cities compete against each other, it just isn’t fair. But I can’t help framing my last stops in France as a win/lose competition to be judged purely by my opinion. And in that sense, one city was a clear winner, although certain circumstances did act as possibly underhanded influencing of the judge…
I arrived in Bordeaux (South-West of France) on a train travelling 1st class (3 Euro upgrade? Heck Yeah!) - and it quickly established itself as an early favourite. This is an ideal place to go if you’re doing the tourist thing, which is the gear I have changed into. Stunningly beautiful in it’s own right, I also had some very good luck with my timing. What’s that? There’s a circus in town and I can go look at their exotic animals when they’re not performing? Cheers bro, but I’ll only go in if there’s Camels. BAM! CAMELS! And Donkeys, Elephants, Tigers and Zebras! Yes, looking at caged wild animals is depressing (the Elephants were the most heartbreaking), but I wasn’t going to be the one to let a couple of White Tigers free to meet the Ostrich for dinner.
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