Are we there yet? 7/31/08

Wallet: Day 24
Same outfit as yesterday…unfortunately

I was in an out of consciousness from about 10 PM when the bus left until around noon. That’s just how exhausted I was. I got a legitimate amount of sleep considering the comfort of the hardly-reclining seats. We stopped one last time at a café for 3 minutes. I took the opportunity to brush my teeth and wash my face.

About an hour later we rolled into Lisbon. We grabbed our bas and hopped on a #28 bus like the directions the Lazy Crow Hostel sent us. We arrived at what looked like a small apartment after climbing what felt like Mount Everest, completely with our full packs.

I pounded on the door of the building and ran the bell, to no avail. We looked through the mail slot and saw a kitchen with full of pots and pans. The lights were out so we were unsure what to do. To top it off, there was no sign outside indicating it was a Hostel – so we weren’t even sure if we were at the right place. Confused, we sat in the shade and tried to call the hostel, again to no avail. We both stayed calm and sat down to relax. I really needed a shower after overexerting myself on the climb up there.

After about 30 minutes a guy strolled up to the door and unlocked it, completely nonchalant. I jumped up and asked if we were at the Lazy Crow and he responded yes but looked bewildered. “We are not open for business yet” he said. WHAT? I said I had made a reservation online and he asked for my name. When I said Aviad he suddenly remembered. He told us that the hostel was not opening for another until the weekend but it was no problem, we could just stay here by ourselves. To top it off, the only reason he came back to the hostel was because he left something behind – he didn’t expect to come back for a few days otherwise. Yikes.

We dropped our things off, took turns showering and passed out for a good few hours. It was nice to sleep in something other than a bus chair. I woke up a few hours later with my mind racing. The website for this hostel made it seem as if it was spring break in Lisbon and now we were the only 2 guests in a hostel that was a grand total of two rooms. I looked through our hostel book from where I got the review and saw that the address listed in the book was different from that of where we were staying. But, honestly, how many hostels can have the name Lazy Crow?! I was determined to either get us another place in Lisbon or stay for a little time as possible.

Once Loyd awoke we talked to Paulo, the guy who made our reservation and seemed a little too excited to have us, where we could find an internet café. The second we found the café I started looking for flights to Madrid. Lisbon seemed so incredibly dead, with very few people walking around. Also, Lisbon is somewhat of a dead end for traveling by train, if we wanted to go south for a few days we would have to backtrack all the way to Lisbon to go into Spain. So we decided to just ditch Portugal after 1 day and get our butts to Spain. Flights on EasyJet were only 88 Euros so we bought them. The advantage of flying also allowed us to get another night in Madrid, since the only train from Lisbon to Madrid is an overnighter.

Happy with my work I suggested we head back to the hostel to eat some of our food we still had from our bus odyssey and drink another bottle of wine from Château La Riviere. We met up with our friend we made at the Internet Café, Griffith. We spotted what looks like a Golden Gate Bridge along the river and walked down to relax as the sun was setting. We walked around a few squares in the area and killed a few hours. Around 11 we headed back to the hostel and crashed. We had every intention of going out but had no idea where to go. I woke up at 3 AM and realized both Loyd and I were sleeping on top of our beds fully clothed. So it’s off to Madrid tomorrow – SWEET!