This morning was a pretty easy start of 8am – we grabbed breakfast and headed downstairs to meet most of the others. Jaime was going to show us where to catch a bus to some roman ruins 14km out of the city, a little day trip as such. We all clambered on the bus which wound it’s way through local street for a rather long time before rocking up at ruins.
The ruins – well, not too much to write about here. They were rather small and unimpressive, although there was some very pretty mosaic floors still in tact. It took us less than an hour to wander around and see them all. The most memorable moment was when we found a little wild bunny rabbit and spent a while chasing it with a camera. After stopping for a quick drink and a quick stroll through the museum we ordered a taxi back to town.
The first thing we did once back was to buy tickets for a big Fado concert tonight – there is a celebration on here at the moment because one of the old Queens of Portugal has recently been declared a Saint. While we were there we bought tickets to wander through the university – the most interesting thing about this was their old library, it was very grand and elegant with huge walls of old books. After spending about an hour there we wandered back down the hill to grab lunch at a buffet restaurant (a mix of Italian and Portuguese food) before heading back to the hotel to spend a whole four hours sleeping, blogging and reading (hence this is a really exciting blog today).
At 7pm six of us headed out for dinner at the top restaurant advertised on TripAdvisor – we had tried this place last night but it is tiny and there was a very long line outside. As it was, in the forty minutes we stood there before the restaurant opened another line snaked along the alleyway (luckily this time we were at the front of it) – clearly this place was going to be good. At around 7.45pm we were herded in to the small space – the walls were covered in pieces of paper from their clients, plus boars’ heads and other animals skins. On the chefs recommendation we ordered a plate of mushrooms and pork as a starter (yum), then pork ribs with rice and beans (yum) and slow cooked goat (also yum). We all enjoyed it there very much indeed.
Then it was time to head off to our Fado concert – because we were lazy we caught a taxi up to the top of the hill…only to find a huge line that went all the way down the street. It took us a while to find the end it was that long. Luckily, once they opened the doors it moved very quickly and we were soon settled into our plastic seats with our smuggled in bottles of wine. The concert itself went for around two hours and, well, it was a bit boring. There was a lot of speeches in Portuguese, lots of choral songs and two apparently famous men singing lots of ballads. The other three gave up at 11.30pm but Andy and I stuck it out. The last half hour was actually significantly better, with everyone singing together and then fireworks!!
Then all the way down the hill again to our hotel. It’s been nice relaxing here for a day and a bit but we are happy to move on to Lisbon tomorrow, there will be plenty to see there!
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