Portugal Portuguese

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

We read the Lonely Planet section on the history of Portugal. Turns out, they had the biggest and most powerful empire in the world for centuries. I guess we didn't know that because, in the US, they mostly teach us about the Spanish and British empires. The Portuguese empire lasted, officially, until the 1970s. We wondered if they were sad about not being a world power anymore.

We found a hostel in downtown Lisbon, checked in, unpacked, and headed out to get lunch. We ran into the owner of the hostel on the way out. Jacob had learned Portuguese in Brazil and was fluent; he talked with the owner for an eternity while Mike and I almost slit our wrists out of boredom and hunger.

"What'd he say?" we asked Jacob as we walked out of the building.

"No idea."

"You talked with that guy for half an hour and you have no idea what he said?!"

"Portuguese is completely different here. He may as well have been speaking French. I didn't understand a word he said. Maybe the words for 'left' and 'right.'"

Super.

That night, the city seemed dead, except for one street that was lined with bars. The bars were not nice. They had bright fluorescent lighting and cheap plastic patio furniture inside. The clientele was mostly young men. Many of the men were just sitting outside on the sidewalk, bored, and when they finished a beer, they would throw the empty bottle at the other side of the street. There was broken glass everywhere.

The following night we were determined to have a better experience. According to Lonely Planet, we were in the center of a European capital city, but we couldn't find any nightlife. We walked around for an hour, gave up, and went to one of the only restaurants we could find that was even open: a Hard Rock Cafe. It was almost empty.

I'm sure we could have done better with modern smartphones and Internet access, but we did the best we could at the time.