Travel: 16 Hours in Lisbon

When looking for a round-trip ticket from Mali to Michigan, we unabashedly took the cheapest option available, even if it had us scheduled on our return flight for a 16 hour layover is Lisbon, Portugal. Never a pair to miss an opportunity, we decided to leave the airport and tour the city, despite being exhausted, jet-lagged, and burdened by our luggage. It was worth it.

Before leaving the US, we looked into one thing: how to get from the airport to the city. And it turns out that Lisbon has a great deal for long-layover tourists. For about $5 you can get access on public transport for 24 hours, which includes airport shuttles, buses, and trolley cars. Once we got downtown, it was just a matter of studying the various free tourist maps we had collected at the airport to know where to go next. As you can see, we consulted our maps quite a bit.

 

Lisbon has a few popular districts. From the Rossio plaza (where Joye is reading a map above), one can walk down a tiled shopping street (left) exit out near a cluster of government buildings (right), and enjoy a view of the river (where James is reading a map above). Being close to the Atlantic Ocean, Lisbon has a nautical feel to it, and was pleasantly smaller than other European capitals like Paris or Rome.

 

From here, we took a trolley car up one of the Lisbon’s seven hills to get a overview of its historic districts, complete with its winding roads and red-roofed houses. Believe it or not, this was Jim’s first time in a trolley car, so this was almost more exciting for him than anything else.

 

Then we took a half hour bus ride to the Belem district to catch some more tourist sites. But on the way, we both fell asleep, so that we arrived, our first task was to find a park, eat a PB&J lunch from the US, and take a nap. Afterward, we went to Lisbon’s famous monastery, famed to be the most beautiful building in the city. Inside the high-vaulted church was the tomb of the most famous Portuguese explorer. Can you guess who?

 

The monastery is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from two other destinations. First, the Monument to the Discoveries (left), a large monolith commemorating how awesome Portugal was at discovering new locations and losing most of them to other European countries. And finally, the Tower of Belem (right), which protected Lisbon at the mouth of its river, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Feet and backs aching, we then made our way back to the airport.

Overall, we liked Lisbon and felt that we were able to see the exterior of nearly all of its tourist destinations in one day. Our regrets are that we had a very limited amount of Euros and time and so did not indulge in Portuguese cuisine or go into any museums. Also, due the times of our layover, we did not experience any nightlife, which is supposed to be pretty fun in that region. Alas, you can’t do everything, or maybe on the next lay-over. :)

ANSWER: The explorer was Vasco da Gama. Some might say Christopher Columbus, but he was not actually Portuguese. He was financed by the Portuguese monarch but originated from the city-state of Genoa, now located in north-western Italy. Remember that for Jeopardy. :)

Thanks for reading,

-James (& Joye) Allen

Reflection: America the Beautiful

As we sat in the Newark airport surrounded by sandwich stands and corner stores filled with 50 types of potato chips, it was difficult to believe we were going back to Mali. Sure, we experienced some culture shock while visiting the States (i.e. Meijer has more food than my entire village), but generally we were surprised at how easy it was to dive back in and enjoy the culture we grew up in. Nevertheless, there is still a small part of us that struggles to reconcile how two such different worlds could exist simultaneously. It almost feels as if we are living double lives, except that in neither of them are we super-heroes.

After only 24 hours in the US,  we started in on our busy homestay schedule consisting of Joye’s PCAT exam, trips to Kentucky and Massachusetts, time with immediate and extended family, and American experiences ranging from hiking around the Great Lakes to a wedding to a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. Though exhausting, we loved every minute of it and soaked up time with our family and friends. We realized again how much we love America, the people, the colors of the trees in the fall, the opportunities, and the cuisine :)

But at the same time it helped rejuvenate us and made us appreciate how unique our opportunity is here in Mali. Very often Peace Corps volunteers can become frustrated and discouraged when villagers don’t mirror their enthusiasm for development work. Yet through our time home, we re-realized how much we are learning from every part of our service (including failures and successes). The insight we have gained here will certainly affect the choices we make and the way we go about ‘helping people help themselves’. So we are excited to make the most of the rest of our time here.

Thanks to everyone who took time to see us, call us, etc. while we were in the US! We really appreciated it and miss you all very much :)

Thanks for reading!

-Joye (& James)