Portugal

My USD roommates and I took a short trip to Lisboa, Portugal over Halloween weekend.

The first day, Friday, October 30th, was a success. Everything worked out fine with transportation and our hotel room at the Holiday Inn was great! After relaxing in the hotel for a little bit and enjoying watching American TV, we went to the Belem area to see the famous Monastery (Monasteiro Dos Jeronimos) and the cross (Padrao Dos Descobrimentos). We ate pitas at this really good restaurant nearby called Pao Pao Queijo, and got delicious custard-filled pastries at the famous Pasteis de Belem (both food suggestions came from the book "Let's Go Spain & Portugal" and advice from friends who travelled there before us). We had a very friendly waiter named Robert at Pasteis de Belem, who spoke English among many other languages. We sat in there for a while just talking to him and it was really interesting to hear his story.

On Saturday, October 31st, we took a day trip to the beach town called Caiscais. It was so pretty, and the weather was nice and warm. We only paid a few Euro for the 45-minute train ride into the town. We stayed there for a few hours, walking around, eating lunch, and taking pictures at the beach.

Then we took a bus to the town called Sintra in attempt to see the Palacio de Pena, but it didn't exactly work out. When we got to Sintra at about 5:30ish after a long and windy bus ride, we paid for a cab up to the top of the mountain where the palace is. The cab ride was really intense because the roads were narrow and windy. When we finally got up to the palace, the guard told us that it just closed and we couldn't come in so we might as well take the cab back down! So that whole attempt to see the palace costed us a little money, but more importantly, time. We were all a little bummed, but still positive and glad that we got to spend time at Caiscais that day.

Later that night, Lexi, Rachel, and I went to Bairro Alto to walk around and get something to eat for dinner. The following story is what we retell most about the trip because it is so interesting and somewhat funny: We check out the menus at many of the different restaurants in the area and most of them seem a little more pricey than we are willing to pay. We see a more reasonable one that isn't packed inside, so we go in. The waitress, a middle-aged woman who speaks perfect English, greets us and brings us bread. We check out the menu and Rachel and I decide to split two appetizers. We are not super hungry and don't want to spend a lot of money, and Lexi's not feeling well, so she's just going to munch on the bread. We place our order to the waitress and she looks shocked & insulted. She says "only appetizers? No! You can't just order appetizers; the cook won't let you. You can get an entree and a few appetizers, like a steak, but not just appetizers." She says she will go ask the cooks what they think. Rachel and I talk about what to do. We don't want to pay that much for a steak, but we feel like we can't just leave now. The waitress comes back and says that we can't only order appetizers. I try to use the argument that it doesn't state that on the menu anywhere, and that we are not that hungry. Very rudely, she responds with (and I quote): "This is a restaurant, it isn't snacks!" So basically we lose the argument and say that we will just leave. Then she says "it's 1.40 for the bread." We leave 2 on the table and get the hell out.

What a humiliating, enlightening, and funny experience! Compare this to eating at many restaurants in the United States. Usually you can order whatever you want and expect to receive good, if at least decent, customer service. I already knew that customer service in Europe isn't a top priority, but I thought it was odd that they wouldn't at least take what business we were willing to give them. If you go to a restaurant, say Applebee's for example, you can go in and order 2 cokes and sit there for a while, you can go in and just get appetizers or dessert, or all of the above, and they will most likely appreciate your business. I guess maybe you just can't do that there (or in Europe in general?), or that they want to make more money. I thought it was strange that they would rather refuse to serve us appetizers and lose out on around 15 Euro that they would have earned. We felt kind of embarrassed because we were basically kicked out of a restaurant! We didn't know if it was like that in all the restaurants there, but we didn't want that to happen again so we went back to the hotel shortly afterwards.

Sunday, November 1st was more successful. We spent a lot of time exploring the Castella de Jorge- this really cool castle! It was only 2.50 E with our student discount, so that made us happy! We saw beautiful views of Lisboa from there and had a great time. After a quick lunch at McDonald's (in which a little boy came up to our table and ate one of Rachel's fries...?), we went back to the hotel to get our stuff and go to the airport.

This weekend was really relaxing and it was fun to experience a new country with my roommates. Here are the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/NicoleDeFelice.usdtv/PortugalTrip#