After 16 days of Spain and Portugal I'm back home all safe and sound and no worse for the wear. I did manage to get a very nice Andalusian tan as well - I'm looking golden for April.
Very happy to report my grandmother's strict warnings involving all Europeans wanting to take my money were, as I had hoped, completely unfounded.
My only experience with being overcharged as a tourist happened with me as a willing participant. I'm not really much of a haggler. My thoughts are, if I'm willing to pay what you're charging then I'll pay it, if not I won't. Most of the time I pay.
I stumbled upon some fantastic people and some even greater shops that sold amazing things. (One small shop in Lisboa, Portugal had 5 x 7 framed needlepoints with sayings like, "Shut up and kiss me" and "F@#$ You" with a precious little flowery design.) Wallets made out of milk cartons. Old photographs of people I don't know. I found these shops to be very Etsy, very hipster chic. I LOVED THEM. They were of course all in Lisbon.
Lisboa is what it's called locally, regardless of what you call it -- it was hands down my favorite city. It had its own feel and gave off less of a sense of shaped by big brand name culture.
Sadly, the food we found was not as awe-inspiring as I'd hoped. Lisbon does house a fantastic, tiny, Italian Restaurant called MOMA located on Rua de Sao Nicolau. It's right in the heart of a very tourist oriented pedestrian mall leading from Rossio Square down to the ocean. It was only two doors down from our Hostel but we didn't discover it until our last day. The food was reasonably priced and delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment