First we had to sleep in after a night out. We went to bed at 6 am, so there was no way we could have gotten up again before 1 pm. We had some coffee in the hostel and tried to decide what to do that day. Paul, our only guy, said he would like to go to the football game and if we want to do something different that’s ok with him and we will meet again later. I sat there with Luisa and we thought that would actually be a nice idea, I have never been to a football game, so why not go to one in Portugal.
The game was in the afternoon, so we decided to walk around the city a little more and kill some time. First stop was a place that sold “bifana”, a specialty and great hangover food.
As we were walking towards the water we stumbled upon the “pink street”. My friend we met with on our first day had told us about it. In this street bars are open longer than in any other places, so people usually end their night out there with a last drink. I thought it was called this way, because it is a fun name, I did not expect that the street is literally pink. When we stumbled upon it I was like “damn, it’s actually pink”. We had to do a little photo session of course before continuing our walk and arrived at the sea at last.
There we enjoyed a drink by the water and when time came we started walking to the metro to get to the stadium. The great thing is that you can’t ever get lost when going to a football game, because when in doubt you just need to follow the other fans.
At the stadium Paul and Luisa decided to buy some scarves, so they wouldn’t be recognized as tourists and we had a beer to get closer to the alcohol level of the other, mainly male, football fans singing songs and preparing themselves for the game. Entering the stadium you could take pictures in different places, for example on a bench where the players would sit. We took advantage of that and documented every part of our first visit to a football stadium and game.
Finally, the game was about to begin. At the beginning an eagle flew over the stadium and circled around it until it landed right in the middle of the field. Later that day a Portuguese told us that one time the eagle escaped and while fans where holding their breath in amazement of this beautiful animal circling above them, he just flew away and was never seen again, so they had to train a new eagle. This time all went well, the eagle landed and everyone was excited that now the players would enter the field.
The game started, the fans went wild and I tried to follow the game. The lack of sleep started showing and I was trying to stay awake. The game was really fun, especially all the stuff going on next to the game itself. The chanting after every goal, the waves going through the stadium and the rhythmic clapping of hands. After the game we were all happy about the gain of a new experience, but also tired. Back at the hostel we decided to take a short nap.
We had one more thing planned for the day: a visit to a bar we were told about. After an hour we got up and ready and went to a bar called “Park”. The special thing about this bar is that it is on top of a parking lot in the middle of the city where you have an amazing view. This is insider knowledge here people! From the outside you cannot see anything, you have to know it’s there to find it. If you wanna go there, find the elevator and go all the way to the top. It’s a really nice place, both during day and night time. We cheered to the first part of our trip and enjoyed a last drink with a view over Lisbon. Then we went back to the hostel to catch some sleep before our morning plane to Oporto.
weltenbummlerinjoanna 