Fun in Lisbon - Part 1

This past weekend, I had the great pleasure of going to Lisbon with my dear friend Keri. She is living in Germany this year and we managed to sneak away together for the weekend. The majority of this post (and the ones to follow - I am planning to do my trip in installments) is going to be about how much fun we had, but before I continue, I must give my kudos to Charles. He was such a servant looking after the kids and allowing me to go. I am very grateful for his willingness to do this. Thanks husband!

So before I digress again, did I mention that we had a blast?? Well, we did.

It has been a really long time since I have gone on a trip with just a girl friend. I had forgotten how much fun two girls can have, as well as mischief.

Well to begin with Keri and I picked Lisbon because we both thought that sunny and warm would be good in February. We met on Friday afternoon in the airport. I had flown in from London and had gotten in one hour before her flight from Frankfurt was scheduled. All went well hooking up at the airport and it wasn't long before we were on the bus to the city centre. Keri had picked the hostel/hotel and was a bit nervous about whether it would be satisfactory. Well she didn't need to be nervous because it was brilliant. The decoration was good, the people friendly, the breakfast nice (and free!), and the room clean - less I forget that we had a great view out of our window of the castle and main square in Lisbon which was a great bonus.

We then ventured out for dinner. I had done minimal preparing for this trip, but I was able to secure two Lisbon tour books from a library in London before leaving. While waiting for Keri in the airport I read about 'fado' music. From this book, I learned that fado is is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. However, in reality fado is simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain structure. Fado musicians perform while people eat dinner throughout Lisbon which, mind you, is almost always after nine at night. Well, the guide book talked about how much fun and 'truly' Portuguese fado music and these dinners were so we decided that we should give it a try. So we started out with map in hand walking in the direction of the fado district...