Twenty-Four Hours in Lisbon (phlog)

I haven't phlogged in awhile, but my recent trip to Portugal, especially my 24 hours in Lisbon, definitely deserves it. This is more a warning to those most entitled of travelers: Americans. Hopefully others find it insightful or useful in some way.

First of all, straight lines. The Portuguese don't seem to believe in them... the exits of the highways are incredibly curvy, almost needlessly so. Lisbon airport is the epitome of the war on German efficiency, as you will be required to walk the longest distance from point A to B. There might be something in the Portuguese psyche that desires to always take the scenic route, since there is no other explanation that comes to mind.

Next, credit cards. I was staying in a suburban area 20 minutes on the train from city center. I was surprised by the kind of places that wouldn't take credit cards, like a bar at the bottom of an apartment complex off a main road, and a small take away sit down restaurant in a shopping mall. Also, a lot of the machines would reject my Irish Bank card, and I realized later because they were swipe readers instead of chip and pin (my swipe strip is a bit worn). At least, that's the only explanation I can think of for my credit card getting rejected only half the time... basically, if you're going outside the city center, bring cash.

Lastly, public transport*. They have a train system to the suburbs of the city and then a metro inside the city. They have green travel cards that you can top up and spend everywhere, but if you buy a day pass, it only works on either the metro or the train system. That means if you're using a combo of train and metro for the day, it's better not to buy the day pass, as its cheaper to just use the card top up. Of course, there is no way for a tourist to know this, so as I was buying a separate metro card to replace my now useless day travel card, I felt again a feeling I had felt quite often in my 24 hour Lisbon stint: mildly annoyed. 

I won't even mention the reflective floor material in one of the bathroom stalls, which meant that the people next to me could clearly see if I was standing, sitting, or wiping my ass.... 

*Note: this is where the phlogging ended and I wrote the rest at home on my laptop