Today we walked and walked, and then walked some more. It is not like we purposely planned it that way. It is just that sometimes things end up being farther than you think. I was very proud of the girls because they managed to hang in there. If I (as an adult) was exhausted, I can only imagine how their little legs felt. We also came back super filthy, from all the sweat and all the dust we collected throughout the day. So as soon as we came back, taking showers was the first order of business. After that there was no way the girls and I were going back out. So Lionel went to the nearest store to buy some pasta, and that's what we had. Plain pasta is boring, but it was better than taking another step.
In the morning we first took the subway to the place where we were supposed to take the famous Tram #28. We intended to take it but about 100 people were waiting for it ahead of us, and the line didn't seem to move fast at all. So we adjusted our plans and took Tram #12 instead. By the time it came we had been waiting for about 35 minutes, but it could have been worse - and the line for the other Tram had barely moved at all.
The tram took us to Castelo de Sao Jorge, our first stop for the day. The castle had great views of the city, including the bridge to Lisbon (which looks like the Golden Gate in San Francisco) and a giant Jesus statue (which looks like the one in Brazil). There we walked around for a little while, took a few pictures, and bought some cool pictures from a street vendor before we headed back down.
Walking down wasn't too bad - it was certainly better than walking up - but after that we still had a long walk to the market Lionel had chosen for us to have lunch. The girls were getting really tired and cranky by the time we finally got there. It's a good thing that the place was cool, the food was good, and we found a place to sit. Without the latter, it would have been a bit of a disaster. After lunch we did a quick Facetime call with Isabel (since the market had wifi), had some ice cream, and headed back out.
Looking back, after lunch (which was a late lunch) we should have gone back. But we did not. Instead we took public transportation to Belem (another neighborhood) so we could buy some Pasteis de Belem - the famous pastries - and check out the Sao Jeronimo Monastery. The wait for the bus wasn't bad, but it was crowded and the AC was not working! So the ride seemed long and dreadful. By the time we got to the monastery we were hot and tired, and not in much of a mood to check it out. We did go into the church and sat for a few minutes, but we didn't even attempt to check out the rest of the place. When we got out the girls and I went to sit down in the park across from it while Lionel went to wait in line to buy the Pasteis de Belem.
After eating our little pastries we forced ourselves to get up again and take the bus back to the center of town. This time around it did have AC - thank God! It was still crowded, but the girls found a little spot to sit down the entire ride. From the center of town we still had about a 15 minute walk back to the apartment, but we actually ended up walking longer because the girls wanted to check out a couple of stores they had seen the day before. Lionel wasn't too excited about the prospect of it, but after dragging them up and down doing stuff that we wanted to do I felt it was the least we could do for them.
We left the apartment at 10:00am and got back to it a little past 7:00pm. No wonder why plain pasta was a better option than taking another step.
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