The Travel Bug Strikes Again and Here We Go!

I have always heard about how exciting the Chinese celebrate their lunar New Year - which they call Chinese New Year. in China. Every year in Canada, the media always report the world's biggest migration on earth - when Chinese people travel back to their home villages or towns to see their families during this time of the year. I have never personally experienced the lunar New Year in China therfore, I asked my husband if we could travel to China to experience Chinese New Year first hand. He agreed!

We did all our preparations, bought our tickets, packed our bags and off we went. This time instead of going to Asia via the Vancouver, Japan route, we went the other way. We chose to go through the European way and our first stop was Portugal, a country we thought of visiting recently. We left Toronto around 9p.m. and arrived Lisbon at 9 a.m. the next day. Not knowing the language or anybody in Lisbon, Portugal, we thought we would just wait for our next connecting flight at 10p.m.at the airport. But the nice man at the airport cafe told us that downtown Lisbon was only 20 minute bus ride away and that we should go there for lunch, look around and come back. With this nice man's encouragement, we listened. We locked up our lugguage at one of the lockers and off we went waiting for the bus taking us downtown.

The ride was easy and the bus fare was cheap. We were downtown in less than thirty minutes, no time at all. What a nice day it was. With the sun shinning, and soft breezes blowing on our faces, it felt wonderful, not cold at all. We walked around the downtown area, taking in the sights and sounds of this beautiful, unhurried city. Lisbon gave me the impression that it is not a very big city but is steep in history and with lots to see. The first impression we have of Lisbon was how much of the city's roads have been paved with cobbles stones and mosiac tiles. We needed to be very careful walking on these streets as they could get slippery easily.

We strolled on the huge square on the waterfront, up the winding narrow streets in the CHIADO neighborhood. The streets were alive with pedestrains and tourists but not overly crowded. There were many sidewalk cafes and restaurants, souvenior shops catering to visitors to the area. We found a not so busy street and parked ourselves at one of the sidewalk restaurants to enjoy a codfish lunch, and people watched while sipping on the coffee and watched the world go by for a little while. What a nice and relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Soon, it was time getting back to the airport. We could hardly wait to visit Portugal again for a longer time on our way back to Canada RT, Lisbon, Portugal 24012024 24012024