Lisbon, Portugal - DAY ONE

Lisbon.... BIG CITY.... the noise, the traffic, the heaps and heaps of people... incredible! We arrived here and were shocked to find it so... well, big city like. We've been in paradise for the last while and our ears and brains and bodies grew accustomed to quiet, slow and peaceful. What a shock when we stepped off the bus. We checked into our room, a double with a T.V. and ensuite bathroom (Not too shabby) and then pretty much just headed out. We planned to stay only one night so we wanted to see as much as we could in the short time we had (We arrived at about 3pm). We walked the 30 minutes from the hostel to the city centre where we enjoyed a drink on a pedestrian street in the heart of downtown. From there we walked around, taking everything in. Very crazy but rather beautiful. The buildings were lovely. Many of them are tiled... this reflects the sunlight away from the building cause it gets so hot there. That's also why the houses are traditionally painted white. There was a castle up on a hill which was very pretty. There was also a LARGE group of kids, maybe 500 of these 16-17 years old that were doing something which we couldn't figure out. Some had boxes on their heads, some were in tuxedos with tails, some had writing all over them. The only thing they all had in common was that they were inebriated. (The legal drinking and smoking age in Portugal is 16... absolutely appalling!). These kids were chanting and yelling and doing shots of booze and drinking beers on the streets and in bars and outside of bars... everywhere. It really was a sight. It was 6pm and they were tripping over themselves. Crazy.
We had dinner and then took the metro back to the hostel (We were told not to walk unless we were in a group of 20 because apparently the streets are not safe at night) to have a few beers before hitting the sack pretty early to catch the 8am bus to Salamanca, Spain.