Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal   We arrived in Portugal at 11:30 in the morning, and immediately jumped on the metro from the airport to Baixa-chiado station, in central Lisbon.  It was a quick 5 minute walk to our hostel on Calle De Flores.  We were greeted by Rueben, an uber charismatic Portuguese, with great English and a quippy personality. He gave us a load of great information about the hostel (rated #3 in the world, and for great reason), some area info, and a walk-through of our digs.  We were given 2 flowers in celebration of International Women's Day, which was very cute.    We decided to nap for a bit, before venturing out, considering the red eye from NYC was tiring, and we wanted to be able to walk around and take everything in without the sleep deprivation haze.  After the needed snooze, we took off towards a Baxia-Chiado station to catch the metro to the train station to pre-book our overnight train to Madrid for the following day. (Because it sells out, we wanted to be sure to get a sleeper cabin)   After grabbing our tickets, we came back to the metro station and began walking through the now lively streets in the city square. The streets were full of performers, panhandlers, couples out on dates, business people getting off work sipping on Sangria, and nicely dressed gentlemen asking if we wanted "mary-wanna".  The streets themselves were cobblestone paved with native travertine, and the up and down hills were lined with sometimes colorful 6 story buildings, with wrought iron balconies displaying freshly washed linens and garments, pots of ivy and ferns, and the occasional Portuguese puffing on a cigarette.   Shops and cafes scatter the main floors, with welcoming patio tables, beckoning you to sit and people watch while imbibing in a cerveja or sangria.   We wandered down to the bay to see the sunset over the water watch a band perform for the crowds, and then headed back up to the main strip and grabbed some dinner at one of the cafes.  We had the Cataplana. A delicious assortment of seafood and potatoes with broth and a couple of Super Bock beers.   We made our way back to the hostel by 8:15 to take advantage of the free sangria night, and the flambéd chorizo, done in a ceramic dish. (I'm going to get one of those!) We had a fun chat with some of the other guests hanging out in the "living room" of the hostel (an Israeli from Nazareth, a French girl, and a woman from New York who had been there for a month and was now planning to move to Portugal full time after falling in love with it)  Looking forward to a good nights rest and taking a train to Sintra tomorrow for a day trip.