$$ One Dollar and Two Cents $$: Lisbon, Portugal

Seven hour bus ride from Madrid to Lisbon for around 50 Euro. Evidently we beat the train because we later learned from some people we met that the train took nearly 10 hours.

We stayed in an 8 bed room at the Equity Point hostel for only 12 euro a night with free breakfast included. The hostel had a very young feel to it with a conseguire that doubled as a bar tender.

Since we took the over night bus we ended arriving at our hostel in the morning, just in time to relax a little bit before going on a free walking tour.

The tour was led by intially led by a younger guy who said he was a little hungover from a pub crawl tour he led the night before. Later though we met up another guy who helped to fill in the gaps.

The first part of the tour was this plaza and corresponding church. During the Inquisition (after the reconquest of Spain from the Moors) Portugal under went a less dramatic purging of non Christian faiths. For Portugal persons brought to Lisbon under the Portuguese Empire were essential to keep the economy going. So according to our tour guide many non Christians were forced to be baptized and regiven Christian names at this plaza. The Church that is seen to the left is a symbol of this time period but has since become recognized as a site for religious freedom.

The church like a lot of things in Lisbon still bares the scares of the 1775 earthquake destroyed much of the city.

In the presense of this grim memory our tour guide suggested we test the liquor of the area, a cherry flavor liqueur.

The tour then took us up a hill to a great view around the city.

At one point we found this gentleman guarding a government building. Not as disciplined as the Buckingham palace guards, I did see him smile a couple time when some girls came to take photos with him.

The tour led us down the hill where we found some interesting statues.

The man on the left was evidently a priest and also little crazy. He was known for going around saying this whole part of town belonged to him. Eventually the king brought him in as a jester of sorts and even named the nieghborhood after him so that his claim would be true.