Lisbon highlights

I have been taking lots of pictures while I'm in Lisbon, but unfortunately the internet speed here is too slow to upload them.  However, I thought before I forget I should write down all the fun things I've gotten to do in Lisbon while I've been at a conference.  The conference has been going pretty late into the evenings, 8:30pm.  I've had some pretty late nights since we start heading out for a bite to eat after that in the downtown area, for example tonight we started eating dinner at 10:30.  When I got in on Wedensday I toured by myself and since then I have been having fun with a great group of people..mostly from MIT!  There's an entire lab of people here that I have never met before and they are a bunch of fun.  We expanded tonight and gathered a large number of other students from various places, but by the time we got to the narrow streets and small restaurant tables we wittled down to groups of 4 to 6 people again in order to accomodate. Here are just a few highlights:

Wednesday

• Picked a random subway stop to get off of and wandered around a very pretty botanical garden (and got lost).
• Wandered around and ate dinner in the Baix-Chiado district.
• Looked for an hour for a local tavern to try Ginjinha. I never found the place from the guide book, but I did eventually find a restaurant that served it.
• Wandered around the ocean front.
• Drank amazing sangria.

Thursday

• Ate dinner in a very traditional Portuguese restaurant in the Barrio Alto district.
• Wandered the area and was drawn into a very large line for gelato.  It was pretty awesome gelato.
• Felt really good that I had figured out how to buy subway tickets, all in Portuguese.  I felt a lot less proud of myself when I finally realized there was a button for an option to have an English menu.
• Drank amazing sangria.

Friday

• Took a telecabine ride along the waterfront.
• Went to the Alfama district for dinner.
• Drank amazing sangria.
• Walked the Alfama district and around the castle in the area (11th century) then by a roman theater excavation site (around 50BC).  We were walking around the area between 12:30am and 1:30am.  It was amazing to have the streets to ourselves and a cool night breeze.