Lisbon - bicycles, running and garbage bags

Lisbon, behind Wikipedia: "the capital and the largest city of Portugal, located in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Tagus River at its mouth to the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the political, economic and cultural center of the country. "

Portugal, for Nonsensopedia: "Because of having one larger neighbor, he is often called the" Spanish asse ".

How to get, or "I have a very good connection, sir"

The connection is very interesting: on the central tram, train to Modlin, change in Brussels, which is a train for the bus and the second airport, and then it's straight to Lisbon, where we get on the metro. Returning similarly, only landing at Okecie, so that it would not be too easy. Cost: ~ 650 PLN return per person.

Remember: there are two airports in Brussels and a good chance that transfer will also require transport between airports. We are a bit surprised at the place, especially since the airports are some 80km away (at best about 2 hours) and there is no direct connection between them. Train 8E, then bus 18E (in case you think about it in advance, you can book a ticket online and save. It can be done by standing under the bus and grabbing free wifi from it). The alternative is a trip through Berlin, the total time is then a little more, because 16 hours. Observing the day before departure Ryanair's distribution turned out to be cheap, direct connections. With a bit of luck you can fly for 400-500 PLN on both sides straight from Modlin - it saves ~ 10 hours. On average, a brainy person should, fortunately, cope with changes and searching for connections, because the route between airports is quite popular and the drivers of private buses that run between them are aware of this. So before we can look around for the course we are interested in, a polite person will find us with a credit card reader and a ticket printer. Traveling through Brussels, however, is cool, because you can buy Belgian waffles. Best. Buying them is a good enough reason to make time and increase your expenses. In the bonus we get an hour or four to explore the city. Let's return to Lisbon:

 

Transport, i.e. buses and traaamwaaaaje

After Lisbon we move by metro and bus - we get them everywhere. One of the 4 lines of the underground queue will take us even straight from the airport. The ticket is 1.6E or 6E for one day and an additional 50 cents for a single card, for which we will buy tickets. We buy everything in a vending machine or any store. We can also take a train if we plan a further trip or a tram as part of the sightseeing. However, the trains have exceeded both us and hundreds of other runners. The lack of a clear distinction between suburban and long-distance ones meant that we regularly tried to enter such, for which the fees were many times too many. Controllers at the entrances, however, are quite helpful with not letting us in. With buses it is worth taking into account that, as in many civilized countries, the entrance takes place through the front door and you should always poke with the card at the reader. It eliminates the problem of stowaways.

Bicycles, from where to where and for how much

There are a lot of rental companies in the city, so there will be no problem finding a type that interests us: from the street, through MTB, to the city. We decide on such a bit better Veturilo at a dizzying price of 5E per night (+ 50 deposit and ID card, so I wonder how many credits I have unconsciously taken in Portugal). On the first day, we're doing them ~ 100km, shuffling around random places. During these 8 hours we encounter four hillmates exercising on one hill, probably the older Agrykol and maybe 2 people, who use two wheels as a means of transport. Lisbon has a minimal bicycle infrastructure and looking at the sight of the people we pass, it is definitely a rare vehicle. Not counting a fairly friendly bicycle path along the coast, alternately through industrial and tourist areas, there are very steep climbs or at least paving stones everywhere. Speaking of steep, I mean those reaching up to 30%, where the first look of the eye is enough to turn back and look for another street:

We end the tour at night, driving without lights to the unknown capital of a large country. Nobody has sounded once. We did not have a single unpleasant situation with drivers, not enough - locals often cheered us with shouts when we tried to reach positive speeds on their small streets.

You can forget about driving on pavements, they are so narrow that the problem is to avoid two people. As quite unusual tourists, of course, we get from time to time, in a place where we should not be. The ones that do not see tourists, and the Portuguese avoid them with a wide arch. It is, for example, a yard that probably plays the role of a large room of some equivalent of Slovak gypsies. Attentive gentleman in the tracksuit quickly informs us that we drive him around the salon.

If for somebody pseudo-gypsies is not enough, I definitely recommend a visit to the district called Angola (it seems that this is the name of the district - this is what the signs indicated). Containers that make blocks of flats and burning garbage instead of a lamp post. If someone in the film "Captain Phillips" cheered Somali pirates, he will feel at home.

It's still a bit better and it's nice - laundry and carpets hang everywhere, and colorful graffiti appears on the blocks. Such ambitious ones, where normally a person stops and takes a picture. In this case, without the bike that you can escape with the speed of light and GoPro on the helmet, I decided not to take any chances. In return, an example of a street in a country that did not have an electrical president:

Bicycle rentals in Lisbon:

We take our bikes hencebecause it is not too low, it's gentlemen who have a lot of classics: from Colnago oldschool frames to old Campa equipment. After a few kilometers, the crank falls off - no new thing - a day like every day. In an accidental car service, in the garage of one of the blocks passed by, it is tightened with the strength of a Brazilian wrestler, but still falls off again in the driveway at Monsanto. This is probably the most popular road road in the area, a few 4-5 kilometers of roads leading through the forest to the summit with an average of 4-5%. We return to Rcicla, where the bike is exchanged without any questions and we still have no adventures. In gratisie, we also get two security links. We attach the equipment in several places and it does not disappear. 

you can also rent a bike (more expensive, but better) in:
Bike Iberia   Cenas a Pedal   Cycling Rentals   Fun Bike   Portugal Rent Bike
if we do not plan a visit somewhere outside the city, it does not make sense. Moving up the road after Lisbon probably will not be a special pleasure, unless we practice for the spring classics.

 

Food ... apparently

I do not trust food that can not be eaten whole, and even more so where I do not know which part is edible. I do not trust animals that I know what to eat, but I can not do it. As tourists, we decide to eat local classics first at the fish market, and then at the most familiar eatery we manage to find. The famous market has a lot in common with how I imagined it. These are dozens of decent looking stalls located in a large hall. A bit like in Mirowska only nicer, more expensive, neat and in principle, however, the opposite is the opposite. And of course more Germans and Britons.

The idea of ​​cheaply checking the local kitchen was in ruins quickly. Standard hamburger 10E, a small sandwich with 3,5E ham, a plate with 17E hams, definitely tasting portions. For this a lot of strange connections, such as a roll with meatballs and a chip.

Generally tasty, but there is no craze. The next day we find the place of the second freshness, in which the locals sit. We order something that has the word "sea" for 25 euros (in tab 17, but there are hidden additional charges: for bread, butter, cutlery, waiter, chair, etc.) and we get rice with bugs. As always, I do not know which legs to eat and how to get rid of the shells. I reach the peak of ignorance when, watching a crab, a waiter brings two hammers, a stand and bibs. Crab pieces are everywhere, but these few-gram portions of meat, which I managed to dig out and did not fly out on the surrounding tables taste quite good. Just like a chicken. It probably works on the principle of expensive restaurants: the more expensive and nicely served, the better it should taste. To me, a simple man, whose food serves to eat him, it does not go to taste.

 

In the city, due to its uniquely multicultural character, we can also find a multitude of Arabic, Indian, Nepalese, Bengali, Angolan cuisine, etc. Most dishes are reminiscent of those of our "Chinese" - look, because the cost from 9E up. We switch to more classic dishes: the kebab is always good (3E), and Pizza unique, one of the best I've had. If a sudden hunger strikes us, we can find roasted chestnuts at intersections. To locate them, just follow the bright smoke visible from a distance. They taste like a cross between sweet potato and broad bean. In the case of a little bit of hunger, we should not have any problems either. In the city center, on average, every 15 minutes drugs will find us ourselves, asking if we want to buy them. I suspect that you can also buy everything else from these resourceful youngsters. EVERYTHING.

There are a lot of shops, mostly there is nothing. They resemble our smallest grocery in a village at the eastern end of Poland, only worse equipped. Even among breakfast cereals, which are fully enough for happiness, the choice is usually limited to two types, both chocolate ones - drama. Life is saved by buried Lidle.

 

Bridges, or "what, I will not go?"

The moment passed before I realized that what we see outside the window is not the ocean. Lisbon is at the mouth of a river, a really big river. Wide enough that the second shore is not visible in slightly worse weather. It is so problematic for the inhabitants that the city and civilization are also behind the river. Uglier and boring, but still. Our plans to cross the bridges by bike or at least walk around them were ruined after hours of unsuccessful attempts to reach them. As it turns out, in both cases it is a highway without a pavement. So we are forced to use the city bus or ferry. Carriage is also performed by private lines (which run more often), but they require a separate ticket. For a simple tourist on the other side there is nothing interesting ... except for the great Jesus with an antenna on his head and a great view of the places we visited earlier. Entrance to Jesus, and in fact it is 5E and it is the only payment for the river. On the bus back we wait for an hour's stop.

The second bridge is less refined architecturally, but it is definitely longer. It starts in the city and ends somewhere on the horizon. It has exactly the same segment from Łomianki to Kazuń (17.2 km). On the occasion of the half marathon, which took off from him, I had the opportunity to get to know him well. Even too good, a little later. In both cases, however, it is worth to drive, even if you do not plan to leave the vehicle - the panorama is impressive.

 The bridge is so long that his pictures could calmly do the separator in the text:

or even separators. Do not approach without a very wide lens or panorama option:

 

Attractions.

Museums, galleries, theaters ... for the average cultural hall that I present is the average fun. The entertainment of simple people is much better, i.e. views, zoo, aquarium, views, narrow and atmospheric streets and once again views. In the city there are several points that are worth visiting and look around at any time of the day or night. Traveling around Lisbon, I am very often reminded of GTA. I can not indicate the main attraction of the city, because it is itself.

Completely different from what we see every day. At times an industrial city, sometimes narrow and empty, steep streets, office buildings, expensive housing estates and districts of dirt and shit. The Portuguese are probably fans of hydraulics, there are small and strange shops everywhere, but there is no such range of taps anywhere else.

 

People and language, meaning a city without borders

Lisbon is multicultural in the most possible way. The Internet can be sensitive to clarifying who lives in what district, which is why I will leave here only a picture of what a classic southerncomer settlement looks like:

Depending on where you get it, you can feel like in a Chinese market district, like in India, like in Brazil, like in the middle of Africa or even Bangladesh. Maybe my lack of familiarity with other cultures, but walking around the city at night, on average every 5th intersection, I had the impression that we would not survive. Nothing bad of course happened, and everyone we met was nice, helpful and exceptionally chatty. Everyone could communicate in English, even an elderly lady selling fat cakes in a street booth. The owner of the flat we rented (about PLN 750 for 3 rooms, kitchen and bathroom for 2 people for 5 days, close to the center) wrote to us every day to check that everything was fine and left us wine and local delicacies for good morning.

Marathon, people's day in trash bags

The Lisbon marathon starts over 20km outside the city (40 minutes by train). At the start you must report at 7.30 at the latest. Metro runs from around 6.30, so it's easy to count, living in the city center, just get up after 5 am and start a fairly long journey in the pouring rain, a few hours later run along the 42 km coastline. On the cobblestones, after the ascents, with the wind, on puddles, in the rain, in the warming sun. According to Wikipedia, Lisbon has 117 rainy days a year (also including drizzle). Bad luck.

Halfmarathon is an even better story, especially considering the Sunday weather - I have not seen such a heavy rain in a long time. Thanks to the wind, which made it possible to use only one gear in the bike, it rained from every side, even up. A short trip to the railway station, train hunting and transport to the vicinity of the aquarium. There, thousands of people in trash bags get in succession to special buses, which go to the course behind the bridge and then turn back blowing up people in its half. Then a 20-minute walk on the bridge and ... almost two hours of waiting for the start. Waiting in a crowd of people in the middle of the highway, because there is no other way to set yourself up than by bus. The last of them, and as it is easy to guess in the last hard for a place, starts the hour before the shot. Do you know how legs feel after almost an hour walk and two hours standing still? I will tell you that this is not a so-called fresh leg ready to run. If it were not for rain clouds that gave way to the sun probably most people would give up ... although no, it was impossible to give up because there was no way to get out of the crowd on the bridge.

At the start, my pulse from the heart meter dies, even though the battery has several hours. So it will be either surprisingly good or surprisingly bad. Fortunately, the run went well - a quick start, shoes sliding at every step and Núno Lopez - a guest with a Portuguese T-shirt and name on the back. No one can be more Portuguese than Núno, nor faster than Lopez, so I decide to run after him. I reach the tenth mile in about 41.5 minutes - I suspect that it's a bit too fast, but I'm not sure, because in my life I only ran more than 17km. A year ago in the Royal Halfmarathon in Krakow, wrapped in 17 layers due to drizzle and 2 degrees, while the headlamp ran in shorts and tank tops. About 14 kilometers, the half-marathon connects with full distance and gets crowded. Earlier, I still pass the winner of the marathon, half marathon, wheelchair race, the first woman, etc. - they are running in the opposite direction. I fight, I calculate, I calculate how to make it fit my dreamed 90 minutes. Along the way, I forget that I have autopause turned on and it will definitely break all my calculations. At the finish line I come in from 1:28 on the hand, in the official results it turns out as usual that I ran out of seconds. Place 242. Over 6000 people take part in the half-marathon, over 4000 in full, and a little in the race for ten.

Organizatively on average. I do not run often, maybe our Polish runs are cool, but the marathon lacked everything (there was water in crazy bottles, oranges, sometimes Iso in a cup, at the end of bananas and gel). Plus, for the cloaks that saved their lives at the start, most people came in their trash bags anyway. The bags were then freed at the start, thanks to which the people running finally got stuck in them. 

 

To be or not to be?

Is Lisbon worth a visit? If we can hunt down cheap air tickets, that's for sure. Two very intense days will allow us to get to know the city roughly, and if we are also interested in history and museums, we can calmly plan a whole week or even more. Comparing to other European locations, this is not a cheap adventure, but fans of older architecture and exotic atmosphere will certainly not be disappointed. Especially if they like unusual buildings. Is it worth taking part in the marathon there? I'm not sure, next year I will definitely choose another one.