Day 1 in Lisbon: Arrival, Baixa, and Free Wine Tasting

We got into Lisbon today without any incident and luckily were able to
check into our room around 9 am even though official check in isn't
until 2. Pluses for the hotel so far: 5 channels in English, porter
brought our bags up for us, and great location. Minuses: It was around
95 today and our AC isn't great, our room is on the corner or the
hotel so our ceiling is pretty low and sloped, and when you turn the
shower on too high it sprays all over the bathroom (Alison found this
out the hard way).

We ate some breakfast at a place down the street then slept for a
little before heading out into Lisbon to wander around. We walked down
to the water, which is actually the Tejo River and not the Atlantic
which I expected. We met an american from
Arizona on the way who heard us talking and was excited to see other
ameicans in Lisbon since he hadn't before us. After that, we decided
to do a walk through the Baixa neighborhood which was destroyed in the
earthquake of 1755 and rebuilt, so it is the relatively new part of
the city. Rick steves pointed us to a place where you could taste
Portuguese wines for free on exchange for filling out a survey and
rating each wine on different categories. Definitely a great deal. We
had 4 different wines then headed along the walk back to our hotel.

This whole month apparenly has been declared a festival in Lisbon, but
tonight there is a parade down avenida da libertade (which our hotel
is on) and then parties raging into the night until around 5 am. The
festival tonight is for lisbon patron saint, Saint Anthony. Someone
told us the procession heads toward the castle after the parade. We
watched the parade for a while and got some beers at one of the many
makeshift bars set up along the avenue then headed to get some food.
The street and rest of the city was absolutely packed with seemingly
everyone who lives here out and about for the festivities. We stumbled
upon a place with outdoor seating in the middle of a crowded street
and decided to sit out there. We ordered some pizza which was the only
really apparizibg item on the menu, listened to some guy jam on his
electric guitar along the street, and watched the people go by.
Although we had great plans to join the party all night and go to the
castle with everyone, it became clear to both of us as we ate that we
were ready to pass out since we had such an early start on the day and
didn't nap that long. We finished up and did just that, walking home
and falling asleep almost immeditaley. At least we saw the festival
going on even though we couldn't completely participate in the nights
activities. Then again we didn't really know what was going on either
so maybe that was ok.