This was a place I never expected to make it abroad, nonetheless even travel here in my lifetime, but I was so happy that I went. It has been one of my favorite cities that we have traveled to so far.
Friday. We left very early in the morning (7 am flight). We were in Lisbon by about 9am and had a full day planned. We dropped our bags off at the hostel because we could not check in until 2pm. This was my first true hostel experience. There were communal bathrooms, bunk beds, and mixed roomates (we had a man stay with us in our room). After dropping out stuff off, we were on our way for a long day.
Our first stop was the Santa Maria Cathedral. It was built in 1147 and is a Roman Catholic parish church. We did a quick 360 of the church, but our real intention was to find El Castillo de San Jorge (The Castle of St. George). This castle had incredible panaramic views of the city and we got to climb different towers of the castle with breathtaking looks of the city.
After we walked around St. George´s castle, we walked to the Alama neighborhood (the old city). We walked past an incredible viewpoint of us looking over the water and took some pictures. We were starting to get hungry, so we took a trolley ride back to the Lisbon center and walked around to find a restaurant. We were all in the mood for a big meal, so we went to a restaurant and got seafood rice with tomato sauce. It was delicious. We also got green wine, a tradition of Portugal. It was very similar to white wine, but with a slightly green tint.
Following our big meal, we visited the Santa Justa Lift. The views were also incredible from up here.
After the Lift, we went to the church of Sao Roque. It did not look so spectacular from the outside, but it was incredible on the inside. It is the 2nd most expesive church in the world. The amount of gold inside the church was mind boggling.
After a long day of walking around, it was time to go back to the hostel to take a nap and to get ready for dinner. We were told by many people that we had to go see fado show while in Lisbon. Everyone just said that they sing to you while you ate. I did not really know what to expect with this. We got a recommendation from our hostel of a place called Senor Vinho. This was a very elegant restaurant and was a very long meal. They timed it so that between each course, there was a fado act. We saw five different fado acts and all of them had incredible voices.Each act was a combination of a voice and three guitar players. All of the songs were in Portugese, so I did not undestand what each singer was saying, but I still really enjoyed it. Weate fresh bread, cheese, olives, chopped liver, vegetable soup, veal, french fries, and creme brulee. This dinner lasted almost five hours. We wre pretty exhausted after this and went home becuase we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.
Saturday. We booked a tour of Portgual by a company called We Hate Tourism Tours. The tour we booked with them was called the Xday tour, which lasted from 9am-5:30pm, 8 and 1/2 hours!. Besides just staying in Lisbon, we got to see 3 other cities, so we saw 4 cities in 3 days. Our first stop was Sintra, a town in Northern Lisbon, on the way to the mountains. It is considered tge most romantic village in Europe, a Moorish word meaning people of the mountains. We stoppedat a famous cafe/baker called Fabrica das verdadeiras queijadas da sapa for breakfast. We ate traditional Portugese pastries called queijada and travesseiro. Queijadas are and travesseiro in Portguese means pillow. These were sugar, cinnamon, crushed almonds, and dough, unreal. After the stop for breakfast, we walked up part of the mountain and went to the small town and looked at some shops. We have ginjinha, a cherry liquour shot in a chocolate cup. We walked around the town for a about 15 minutes and then got back in the van to explore the next place. We then drove to quinta de regaleria, the free mason palace. This was a huge estate, full of different towers, paths, a waterfall, and caves. We had about an hour and a half to explore. Everything on this property was increible.
After all this exploring, we went a little market that sold fresh fruit and vegetables and we ate lunch at a famos food truck in Lisbon. We ate hot bread filled with cheese and chorizo. It was delicious. I don´t eat chorizo, mine just had che, but it was incredible. Back in the car we went to go to the westernmnet point of the world, Cabo de Rocas. When people thought the world was flat, they thought this was the endpoint. The views were breathtaking and just pure ocean views. We walked down to the beach and tons of people were surfing. It was so peaceful and relaxing. After this, we got back in the van and drove to caiscais, a very wealthy town filled with bg houses, ferraris, bentleys, etc. We walkd around and went to the best ice cream shop in Portugal called Santini´s. I had dark chocolate, chocolate mint, and coffee gelato. It was amazing. Our final trip was to the Belem, where we sae the Belem Tower, the Jerinimos monastery, and had the famous pasteis de Belem (a cream pastry). I am normally not the biggest cream pastry fan, but this was one of the best things I have ever eaten and did not taste like cream at all. After a really long day, we walked back to our hotel and took a cat nap before dinner. We went to a place recommended by our tour guide for grilled meats, one of the things Portugal is known for. I had delicious grilled chicken. After dinner, we walked around. In Lisbon, there is no law that forbids open containers on the street, so tons of young people were drinking on many of the streets beofre going to bars and clubs. This was a site to see. We went to a club called Lux, a three’story club. The music there was mainly progressive house music. It was fun.
Sunday. Leaving Lisbon. We ate an early breakfast at a place two doors down from our hostel, having coffee and croissants. We continued to walk around and got some shot glasses to have as souveneirs. We took a cab to the 2nd largest aquarium in the world, the Oceanario. We saw the permanent exhibit and tons of different sharks, sea otters, fish, coral, seahorses, you name it. We had a quick bite to eat outisde and then we were off to the airport to fly home. Lisbon was such a surprise for me to travel to, but I absolutely loved it and hope I can go back someday.
Carly´s European Adventures 