Lisbon, Portugal
August 21-24, 1998

Hello from Lisbon, Portugal. Yes, that's right,. Portugal. I had previously been in Prague, however, my Eurail Pass expires September 5, 1998, so I had to use it or it would go to waste. So, I decided to traverse Europe.

On August 19, 1998, I took a 11 hour train from Prague to Zurich. It was a good ride, as I took one of the air conditioned Eurocity (limited stop) trains throught Germany. Then, I spent 1 1/2 hours in the Zurich train station and hopped on a night train to Barcelona (it was suppose to be a 13 hour train ride, but we were 1 1/2 hours late). I arrived in Barcelona and had a 4 hour layoever, so i went out and saw some of the city, then got on a Talgo Train to Madrid (6 hours), had a layover of 1/2 hour in Madrid, then caught a 10 hour night train to Lisbon. That was in one of the Renfe (Spanish train system) "Hotel Trains", which is a fancy way of saying a "sleeper train that we charge you a large suppliment for." That part of the trip was enjoyable, as there were 3 others in the cabin. One was a guy from Lisbon going home, one was Paulo, from Milan, Italy, and the other was Mehrad, from Northern California. I ended up hanging out with the last two for a lot of the time I was in Lisbon.

The main reason I came to Lisbon was for Expo98. It's a worldwide showcase that happens every 2 years (I was to the one in 1986 in Vancouver, BC). The major attraction, to me, was the fact that the theme was The Oceans.

There are a few major pavillions and then most countries have a small pavillion of their own for whatever they want (usually showcasing what their country is like). To me, at this Expo, some of the best pavillions were the Oceans Pavillion (a huge aquarium), Sri Lanka, Canada, Brazil, Namibia, and Russia (the American one forced you to exit through the gift shop!!) Many others, such as Pakistan and Iran were there just to sell merchandise. I wasn't able to go to a lot of the EU country's pavillions due to long lines, but I did get to the Holland and Luxemburg ones. The pavillions close at 8pm. After that, the music begins. Granted, ther are performances all day long, but the best begin around 9pm.

When we arrived in Lisbon, the first thing we did was find a guesthouse to stay at, then we left for the Expo. We spent a lot of the day going from pavillion to pavillion, had dinner than set out to find music.
The first night, we heard a fantastic group from Mozambique then went to the Sony Arena, where we heard all different kinds of music (everything from Hip Hop to Salsa) and danced until dawn (got back to the gueshouse at 6:15am).

The next day, August 22, we didnt get up until 3pm. We decided to just explore Lisbon a bit, as Mehrad was leaving for Madrid that night. Lisbon is a decent sized city witn quite a bit of history. There are the remains of the walls of a castle, but not an actual castle itself. There is a waterfont,but nothing really has been done with it. It's just a place to get off of boats/ships/ferries. Lisbon is an okay place, but didn't do much for me.

Now, for the bad part.....After exploring the castle, I went back to the central part of the city for dinner. After that, I walked down Rue Augusta (a pedestrian tourist area) to catch a tram (back to the guesthouse), just past the Arch. As I was waiting, a man approached me and said "I have a revolver, if you want to live, give me your money." I crossed the road with him at my side repeating the phrase, but he hadn't shown me any signs of a gun yet. I continued to walk, at a more rapid pace back into the pedestrian area. I got in to where there were quite a few people, and yelled (in Spanish) "Help me..help me..he says he has a gun!" That caused about 20 people to look at us, and he ran. I then went (the other way) to a bus stop and went back to the guesthouse. Was it dumb of me to do that? I don't think so. He had not shown me signs of a gun and appeard to be a Portuguese street person trying out a new phrase. Did it influence my view towards Lisbon, Probably.

The third day, I went back to the Expo to see even more (it was impossible to see all of it in one day) and hear more music. Among the preformers was an excellent group from Namabia.

On August 24, I left at lisbon 6pm (the first train I could get out on) for Madrid.