I *HEART* Lisboa

When I was telling people about the cruise and the destinations we'd be visiting, a comment that came up time and time again was 'Ah you're going to Lisbon?! It's supposed to be amazing!'. Seeing as very few people had actually been there, I was a little worried that it's brilliant reputation would be all talk and in fact it would just be another pretty, but relatively no-descript city. Luckily, I needn't have been concerned and Lisbon is now easily one of my favourite European cities, if not the best I've visited.

The city managed to be both simultaneously quaint and vast, with almost very street paved with intricate mosaics and the architecture similar to Madeira's, though somehow with less modernity. It seemed as though every detail of this great city had been carefully considered, giving it the cosy feel despite it's size. Everything seemed to shine as the sun bounced off the numerous white washed walls, reminiscent of the Peruvian city, Arequipa.

I'm such a tourist. But just look at the funky floor!

Incredible.

More mosaics on the main high street.

During our aimless traipsing around, we eventually found directions to the Cathedral, because let's face it, it's not really a holiday without a visit to one of God's houses, is it? The outside was pretty, more resembling a castle than a church. But to be honest, I have seen more spectacular constructions. The inside however, was pretty incredible, with an extremely ornate sacristy and beautiful stain glass windows. I'm not one for supporting the excesses of the church, but even I can't deny it was breathtaking.

Being arty with a candle. We got some rather disapproving looks from the church police for this, but I'd like to think that Jesus had a creative side too.

As usual the picture doesn't really do it justice.

I also loved the tram system in Lisbon. They all looked like the picture below, proper old school with none of the horrible modern updates. It really added to the feel and appeal of the city. There were also tuk-tuks like the ones in South-East Asia that I've heard so much about!

Of course we had to stop for a drinks break in such high temperatures and I was over-joyed to discover that they stocked Somersby Cider, which is the drink I practically lived off in Croatia. So I got all excited and ordered it for everyone to try, only to have Josh burst my bubble and tell me that they APPARENTLY sell it in England to. A special reward to the person who can tell me where.

Whilst sipping away we were also lucky enough to have a free show provided for us, in the form of a gypsy asking other customers for money and the HUUUUUGE waiter trying to get rid of him. It was all quite Carry On, with the little man attempting to fight back against the body builder, scrambling against the massive bulk of muscle, whilst the owner came outside with a baseball bat! Luckily he didn't need to get involved though. It was all rather bizarre.

It's safe to say that I'll be returning to Lisbon in the future, but for a few days next time so I can really explore and soak up the culture. Back to the ship for two more days now before arriving home!

We made it to CHILAYYYYY

It's been a little while since I last posted (sorry about that!!) but I'll try and get back on track. I don't really have any excuses for not posting, I've just had a few very lazy days.

After one night at The Point in Arequipa we decided to move hostels to the Wild Rover because unfortunately it was no where near as good as the one in Cusco. It had just been moved (it must have been VERY recently) and the hostel was empty with zero vibe. I mean it has the potential to get better in time, but it really wasn't what we were looking for.

During the day on Thursday Evie and I went exploring and wandered up to the viewing platform for a view of the volcano 'El Misti' which was really incredible. I'd love to have been able to do a trek up it but my asthma has been so bad at altitude it would not have been the brightest idea (boooooo).

In the evening there was a UV party at our hostel and a swedish guy called Jonathon invited us to join his table. We had such a good night since drinks were at criminally low prices - s/6 for two vodka oranges, that's less than 2 quid!! - and ended being covered in UV paint. Apparently I'm awesome at pool when I've had a drink and managed to thrash an irish and american guy along with the kiwi guy called Simon who's now travelling with us. They even played some epic music like Rage Against the Machine and Ramstein which makes a lovely change from some of the crazy club music over here. So all in all we had a very good night!!

Friday was spent recovering from the lack of sleep from the night before, though we did venture out for a short while to look at some of the local architecture and the massive food market.

I was so tired I couldn't stay up for very long on Friday to socialise. However the early night was very much appreciated since we had to get up at 6am on Saturday in order to make our 7am bus to ARICA, CHILAYYYYYYY. That's right, we've successfully crossed the bordered and have spent the last few days lounging on the beach and exploring the new town.

The currency here is a bit crazy, for example we got some epic ice creams that cost $1650 each. Which is about 2 quid. How good is that??? It's difficult to get used to the fact that you aren't actually spending a small fortune on every meal. So we were devestated when we ordered Pizza for $3200 and THIS is what turned up.

Four layers of plastic cheese with no tomato puree, just slices of tomato and horrible crumbley bread. YUCK.


However Simon and I later ventured out and discovered a place called telepizza, which is a fraction of the price of the minging pizza place AND incredibley tasty. Just look at the difference.

So no contest, we're eating at telepizza for the rest of our time here :P

Drugs Raid

One tip for anyone travelling on peruvian buses: all the sales people, attendants, drivers and well ANYONE involved are a complete liars. If they tell you it's a direct bus, it's not. If they tell you it'll take 10 hours, it won't. And if they tell you it's safe, it's definitely not.

We stopped off at every single one of the most dangerous cities along the way, which of course meant the bus took a lot longer than we were originally told AND when the bus got raided for drugs and stolen goods by the police, some little old peruvian lady tried to trick us into hiding a bag for her. Luckily Evie figured out what she said just in time and the police weren't stupid enough to believe what the lady was trying to say.

On top of that when we finally arrived at our hostel, it wasn't there. Unfortunately the cards with all the addresses of 'The Point' hostels in Peru haven't been updated, so we had to walk for around 45 minutes to find the new location, because apparently peruvians aren't the best at giving directions.

However I can't complain about the price of the bus s/25 or the hostel s/19 per night and I have to say I didn't sleep too badly either. Plus we've arrived safely in Arequipa with all our belongings and now I've showered and had a drink I feel a million times better.

Hopefully when we have a little more energy we're going to head out and explore. The city so far looks beautiful and from the roof top terrace at the hostel you can see the two huge volcanoes at either side of the city, it's incredible.