Lisboa

Here we are in Lisbon! This is Maggie standing in front of the entrance to the Plaza of Commerce.

Our first day here was overshadowed by a long bus ride from Porto with a driver who was reluctant to turn on the air conditioning. This means that I was sweating to death and needed a shower after we checked in to our pension, or pensão as they are called here. Ours is a little dive that I can´t imagine anyone we know staying in for long, although it seems pretty safe. (Hi mom!)

Today is actually our second day in Lisbon, we went out of the city a bit to the Parque das Nações. It is an enormous new park that was built for the 1998 World Exposition. We spent the afternoon at the oceanarium, one of the larger attractions, and rode the cablecar for a view of the bridge across the river Tejo.

We bought unlimited travel passes that are good for the next three days and so we should be seeing a lot of the city. There are roman ruins to visit, a hilltop castle that was built by the moors, and various palaces built by wealthy Portuguese monarchs who didn´t know what else to do with all the money they made from plundering Africa, America, and Asia. This history (the colonial one) is also evident in the foreign workers/residents here in Lisbon. Banks advertise that they send money back home to Senegal, Angola, and Brasil, just as occurs with Mexican workers at home. To the foreign observer this doesn´t seem to be a super wealthy country, but they must have many opportunities that these people don´t have at home.

Well, that´s all for now. We will try to give an update again soon, and we love and miss everyone. James and Maggie