Two Weeks in Portugal - Lisbon (Part 2)
Lisboa, the city of seven hills. So very hilly. It smells slightly in the city, perhaps due to the various abandoned buildings, it's reminiscent of being in a vintage store, but all the time. We arrived in Lisbon via Santa Apolonia station and took the metro to our guest house. In Lisbon, you can use a single reloadable card for the regional train and the metro, unlike in Porto where it was two separate cards. However, be careful to load your journey on the proper machine. There are machines for train rides and machines for metro rides. They are not the same machine, even though they look similar and have a similar interface. The metro machines are blue. I was so very confused.
Speaking of confusion, the floor numbering in Europe is different from North America. For some reason I never realized this. The ground floor is floor zero, not floor one. We were ringing the bell at the guest house entrance on the fourth floor but it turns out we were actually on the third floor. Duly noted.
We stayed in a locally owned and operated guest house called Dukostel. They have small but clean rooms with nice decor, a shared kitchen, common area and bathroom. The location is quite central and this is definitely the only place I would recommend that anyone stay at, of all the places we stayed. The staff are super friendly and helpful and the place did not smell bad.
It was pretty late when we got in so we just headed out for dinner at a place called Sinal Vermelho in Bairro Alto, recommended by one of the staff members at our guest house. It was pretty good, we had octopus rice, sea bream and cod. This neighbourhood gets lit at night - there are a ton of great restaurants and (cheap) bars in the area. It's very hilly and there's all these ascensors (trams) that just run up the hill.
June is the month of Festas de Lisboa, a month full of festivities celebrating Saints, and like in Porto, but on a larger scale, there are street food vendors, live music, dancing and overall a convivial atmosphere that begins in the evening (like the one pictured above). We are so lucky we got to be there when it was happening!
Lisbon is huge, as metropolitan cities are, so I would suggest checking out a couple of neighbourhoods each day. This is how we explored the city:
- Alfama, Mouraria, Cais do Sodre
- Belém, Alcantara
- Principe Real, Campo de Ourique, Baixa-Chiado
Our first day in Lisbon, we took a "free" walking tour around Alfama and Mouraria. Alfama is the oldest neighbourhood in Lisbon. We walked in some alleyways and by some churches, learn about the history of Lisbon and did some excellent people watching. Our tour guide took us to a bunch of beautiful miradouros (viewpoints), such as the one below that gave nice rooftop views of Lisbon. I believe it was called Miradouro Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.
After the tour we walked around more, into the Sé (Lisbon Cathedral) and to some other miradouros - the notable ones were: Miradouro da Senhora do Monte and Miradouro de Santa Catarina. We ventured south to the Praça do Comércio, right by the Tagus River. There were people walking around trying to sell fake drugs to tourists, which I found very interesting. It's apparently a very common occurrence in Lisbon, and I also noticed some graffiti that said "don't buy fake drugs". Say word.
We sauntered south towards the river and walked around Cais do Sodre, where there is the Time Out Market, where there are overpriced food stalls, some owned by famous Portuguese chefs like José Avillez, in a very lively environment. Mostly tourists. Though there is a Manteigaria there. So at least there's that. On the other side of it is the Municipal market, where local vendors sell produce and meats. Also in the area is "Pink Street," literally a street painted pink. It was historically the red light district but now is a street full of bars (with cheap drinks) and night clubs.
We then walked to the National Pantheon and noticed there was some sort of flea market happening outside, the Feira da Ladra. There were tons of vendors were selling bric-a-brac, antiques, and souvenirs. We walked through and yes...it was mostly junk.
Hungry, we went in search of food. There was a small piri piri frango (chicken) place that was featured in this Eater vlog, so we headed there. It is called Frangasqueira Nacional, and is super tiny. We went a little after they opened and there was already a line, comprised of tourists (because locals get their frango at the grocery store or cook it themselves). We waited in line for thirty minutes before we got a whole chicken and some couscous, the chicken was about 9€ and quite flavourful. The service is not particularly friendly and they are super slow but alas, we wanted a cheap meal. The chicken place is in a neighbourhood called Principe Real which is hip and expensive. There's a park nearby where sometimes they have a farmer's market, and there are a lot of cool restaurants and cafes in the area.
Belém & Alcantara
Belém is in the west of Lisbon and is known as the discovery district. All the tourist attractions are in a super close proximity in Belem and thus, there were a ton of tourists up in here. We took a Kapten ride to the area and walked to this huge monument by the river, Dos Descobrimentos. Then we went to the Belém Tower (above), which is actually pretty short and there was a huge line to go inside so we just sat outside for a while. There are a ton of scooters for rent in the area, Norcal vibes for sure. I still think scooting around is hilarious.
After that we went to the Jerónimos Monastery (pictured above). It was beautiful and calm, I sat in the sun for quite a while, admiring the architecture. Cloisters are definitely my favourite part of any religious structure. We also had a Pasteis de Belem, of course. Apparently they are the original recipe for custard tarts, and the recipe is from monks. I had high expectations, especially since there was a long line to get a tart. You know what? It wasn't my favourite. The shell was kind of hard, but the custard was really good. Spent some time by the MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, unfortunately didn't have time to go in), but it is a very cool building, pictured below.
We walked back east to Alcantara and visited LX Factory (pictured below), a hip art hub with restaurants and shops - very Distillery District meets Kensington Market. It's hip, but touristy. There's a ton of street art, outdoor art installations and cool cafes, restaurants, bars. We had chocolate cake at Landeau Chocolate and it really was the best chocolate cake I've ever had. It had a layer of dark chocolate mousse, dense cake underneath, topped with a dusting of cocoa powder. Not too sweet, it was perfection.
In the evening we went back downtown and had dinner at this place called Royal Spice and it was really, really great Nepalese food. Solid food, reasonably priced. We had biryani and a curry. Probably one of the best meals I had the entire trip.
Principe Real, Campo de Ourique, Baixa-Chiado
We had a full city day in Lisbon, and then some afternoons after various day trips. I will write about all of these here. Principe Real, as mentioned previously, is a very hip and bougie neighbourhood. There was a mall full of local, high-end retailers and a restaurant and bar that was located inside of a former palace, called Embaixada, pictured below. Very cool.
In Baixa-Chiado, there were a couple of notable places: two 2-Michelin starred restaurants, Bel Canto and Alma (both in very close proximity to each other) - I walked by and admired their menus from the entrance, fantasized about eating there one day. There was also a book store called Bertrand, that is the world's oldest operating book store. It was opened in 1732. So many world events happened, but the book store kept chugging along. We then walked to Campo de Ourique and walked around the Mercado. Lots of food vendors and locals having lunch and a drink. These places aren't really in the same vicinity, we just walked a lot that day.
After one of our day trips, we got back to Lisbon a bit earlier in the afternoon. My mom wanted to go to a shopping mall, so we went to Colombo Centre, the largest indoor shopping mall in the city. It is located a bit north west of the city centre, and it was reminiscent of the Eaton Centre, but larger. My favourite store was Continente - the grocery store. It was huge!!! We went to the prepared foods section and there were people who were eating full out meals at the grocery store. There was an older Portuguese lady buying a roast chicken and we asked her if it was good, she nodded. It was about 6€ for a whole chicken. So worth. We bought a chicken, then went to the food court and got some pizza, had dinner in the food court. Living like the locals for real...
After the mall, we took our time walking back to the city centre, and saw a lot of different neighbourhoods. I really enjoyed this walk, outside of what one would usually see as a tourist. There is tons of green space in the city, small parks with cafes in them, people sitting outside enjoying life. So great. So European. I love it.
Lisbon is a beautiful albeit slightly musty city. I really enjoyed my time there. We took some day trips/short trips to nearby cities, which I will be writing about in Part Three - two days in Sintra, and day trips to Óbidos, Cascais, and Setúbal.
We sauntered south towards the river and walked around Cais do Sodre, where there is the Time Out Market, where there are overpriced food stalls, some owned by famous Portuguese chefs like José Avillez, in a very lively environment. Mostly tourists. Though there is a Manteigaria there. So at least there's that. On the other side of it is the Municipal market, where local vendors sell produce and meats. Also in the area is "Pink Street," literally a street painted pink. It was historically the red light district but now is a street full of bars (with cheap drinks) and night clubs.
We then walked to the National Pantheon and noticed there was some sort of flea market happening outside, the Feira da Ladra. There were tons of vendors were selling bric-a-brac, antiques, and souvenirs. We walked through and yes...it was mostly junk.
Hungry, we went in search of food. There was a small piri piri frango (chicken) place that was featured in this Eater vlog, so we headed there. It is called Frangasqueira Nacional, and is super tiny. We went a little after they opened and there was already a line, comprised of tourists (because locals get their frango at the grocery store or cook it themselves). We waited in line for thirty minutes before we got a whole chicken and some couscous, the chicken was about 9€ and quite flavourful. The service is not particularly friendly and they are super slow but alas, we wanted a cheap meal. The chicken place is in a neighbourhood called Principe Real which is hip and expensive. There's a park nearby where sometimes they have a farmer's market, and there are a lot of cool restaurants and cafes in the area.
Belém & Alcantara
Belém is in the west of Lisbon and is known as the discovery district. All the tourist attractions are in a super close proximity in Belem and thus, there were a ton of tourists up in here. We took a Kapten ride to the area and walked to this huge monument by the river, Dos Descobrimentos. Then we went to the Belém Tower (above), which is actually pretty short and there was a huge line to go inside so we just sat outside for a while. There are a ton of scooters for rent in the area, Norcal vibes for sure. I still think scooting around is hilarious.
After that we went to the Jerónimos Monastery (pictured above). It was beautiful and calm, I sat in the sun for quite a while, admiring the architecture. Cloisters are definitely my favourite part of any religious structure. We also had a Pasteis de Belem, of course. Apparently they are the original recipe for custard tarts, and the recipe is from monks. I had high expectations, especially since there was a long line to get a tart. You know what? It wasn't my favourite. The shell was kind of hard, but the custard was really good. Spent some time by the MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, unfortunately didn't have time to go in), but it is a very cool building, pictured below.
We walked back east to Alcantara and visited LX Factory (pictured below), a hip art hub with restaurants and shops - very Distillery District meets Kensington Market. It's hip, but touristy. There's a ton of street art, outdoor art installations and cool cafes, restaurants, bars. We had chocolate cake at Landeau Chocolate and it really was the best chocolate cake I've ever had. It had a layer of dark chocolate mousse, dense cake underneath, topped with a dusting of cocoa powder. Not too sweet, it was perfection.In the evening we went back downtown and had dinner at this place called Royal Spice and it was really, really great Nepalese food. Solid food, reasonably priced. We had biryani and a curry. Probably one of the best meals I had the entire trip.
Principe Real, Campo de Ourique, Baixa-Chiado
We had a full city day in Lisbon, and then some afternoons after various day trips. I will write about all of these here. Principe Real, as mentioned previously, is a very hip and bougie neighbourhood. There was a mall full of local, high-end retailers and a restaurant and bar that was located inside of a former palace, called Embaixada, pictured below. Very cool.
In Baixa-Chiado, there were a couple of notable places: two 2-Michelin starred restaurants, Bel Canto and Alma (both in very close proximity to each other) - I walked by and admired their menus from the entrance, fantasized about eating there one day. There was also a book store called Bertrand, that is the world's oldest operating book store. It was opened in 1732. So many world events happened, but the book store kept chugging along. We then walked to Campo de Ourique and walked around the Mercado. Lots of food vendors and locals having lunch and a drink. These places aren't really in the same vicinity, we just walked a lot that day.
After one of our day trips, we got back to Lisbon a bit earlier in the afternoon. My mom wanted to go to a shopping mall, so we went to Colombo Centre, the largest indoor shopping mall in the city. It is located a bit north west of the city centre, and it was reminiscent of the Eaton Centre, but larger. My favourite store was Continente - the grocery store. It was huge!!! We went to the prepared foods section and there were people who were eating full out meals at the grocery store. There was an older Portuguese lady buying a roast chicken and we asked her if it was good, she nodded. It was about 6€ for a whole chicken. So worth. We bought a chicken, then went to the food court and got some pizza, had dinner in the food court. Living like the locals for real...
After the mall, we took our time walking back to the city centre, and saw a lot of different neighbourhoods. I really enjoyed this walk, outside of what one would usually see as a tourist. There is tons of green space in the city, small parks with cafes in them, people sitting outside enjoying life. So great. So European. I love it.
Lisbon is a beautiful albeit slightly musty city. I really enjoyed my time there. We took some day trips/short trips to nearby cities, which I will be writing about in Part Three - two days in Sintra, and day trips to Óbidos, Cascais, and Setúbal.
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