Lisbon (Lisboa)

The GPS isn’t always accurate. When we were trying to make it to our destination campsite the GPS brought us to a residential area that was so poor and so sketchy that we made sure our doors were locked when we stopped to figure out where we were. The street had many strays and we watched them fight over some food. Most of the houses had caved in roofs and to our surprise people were still living in them. We tried our luck with the GPS coordinates instead of the campsite address which brought us to a more reasonable area but still the wrong location. Our GPS had us turn down what seemed to be a road that was behind the campsite (we could see sites on the other side of a fence that ran along side the road). We got concerned when the pavement ended and the road kept going on through a forest. The dirt road looked traveled on, but not necessarily with a car or van, maybe a four wheeler? But the GPS was suggesting that it met up with another road that would lead us to the campsite, and since we could actually see the campsite through the fence next to the road, we figured we would give it a shot. Did I mention that there were parts of the road covered with mud and other parts water? We really should have turned the van around or backed it up since it was a narrow road. I drove the van along the dirt road until it ended. The area we stopped in was in fact just part of the forest and the road did indeed end here. With our suspicions being verified we argued briefly and decided to turn the van around. On the way in, it was clear that I needed to keep the gas pedal down and the van on us much dry area as possible to make it through to the area where we stopped. It was a bumpy ride on the way in. That being said, I was really worried about turning the van around and getting it stuck on a log or a stump or even hitting a tree. Most importantly, I wasn’t sure if I could successfully take her back the way we came since we didn’t have the momentum we had on the way in. The van and I made it and Julie was very proud of both the van and my driving. I have to admit, I was glad we made such a stupid mistake because it was fun to drive the van the way I did. As I mentioned to Julie before, the van is truly a truck at heart which is why she can take such abuse (Thank God). We found the entrance to the campsite after that and decided to stay for one night once we learnt that check out was at 7pm. It was so early in the day that we contemplated venturing into the city. However, since we needed to do laundry and aren’t visiting another campsite until Spain, we needed to stick around the campsite to do our chores. We tried out our new washing machine, which works gloriously. Julie thinks it works better than the last campsite washing machine we used. It has also been much warmer which allowed us to hang our clothes to dry as well. So the next morning we went to our first sight of the day, which really turned out to be our only sight. The Lisbon Oceanarium is located in the former Expo site and is the second largest in the world; the larger one is in Japan. It set us back 21 euros and also took up much of our day. We did however love it. The facility is set up in four staging areas, where they simulate the four different ocean systems. In the center is a massive 550 million liter aquarium which can be viewed throughout the entire visit. Watching the different fish swim around was amazing. We saw sting rays, manta rays, sharks, tuna (which swim in large schools, at times looks like a larger fish), a very large ugly looking fish and many others. It was truly remarkable. Julie tells me that the one in Orlando is much nicer but she enjoyed this one a lot too. On our way back to the bus stop we wandered through a mall and stopped in the food court for some KFC – the menu is different and strange. Despite us having a late check out, we thought we only had 30 minutes to pack up the van and leave and we hadn’t even got on the return bus back to the campsite. Worrying about having to stay another night we did our best to rush. Julie and I stopped by the reception to see about checking out and we decided to ask what time it was even though Julie had a watch. It turns out that Portugal is an hour behind Spain, which explained a lot. We took an hour to get ready and be off to our next town, Evora.