Last weekend we headed west to meet up with some friends and
check a new country off our ‘to see’ list. We definitely made the most of
our 72 hours in Lisbon – so this blog is going to be packed full of
awesomeness!
Noah and I arrived in Lisbon Thursday afternoon and cabbed
it over to the rental apartment (taxi driver after I told him he turned the
wrong way down the street: ‘you know it is easier when you stay at a hotel, I
can find it easier.’ me: ‘but it is cheaper when I stay at an apartment’) and
settled in to wait for the lady to bring us our keys.
After about 20 minutes, the lady arrives and gives us a tour
of our third floor walkup. And yes, we needed a tour because this place
was massive (spoiler for later: Noah gets lost in it). There were two
connected bedrooms that shared a bathroom, a master suite with its own
bathroom, a massive terrace, living room, and modern kitchen. We would
come to find that while everything was very fancy and modern, they didn’t
necessarily spend the money on the installation for the bathrooms. In the
master suite (which we claimed – sorry Stacy and Adam!), the shower floor
didn’t slope to the drain. But apart from showering in a small pool of
standing water, this apartment was perfect for us.
As Stacy and Adam still had one more night in their hotel
(she was there for a conference and he joined for the weekend like us), we met
up for the first of many mealtime adventures. The key lady gave us a
recommendation of a tapas restaurant in the area, so we figured we would check
it out. When we arrive, an employee tells us that they don’t serve food
until 8pm (not surprised after our San Sebastian experience). No big deal
– we would go get a drink and pass the hour down the street. We found a
wine and cheese bar (Porto Wine Bar) and each had 2 rounds and lots of
delicious cheese. Once 8pm hit, we made our way back to the restaurant,
only for that same employee to tell us that they are fully booked for
dinner. Wait – why couldn’t he have told us that an hour and a half
earlier when we first asked for a table? Grrrr…..
Ok – time for plan b. We hop on the metro and head to
the Baixa area – supposedly the ‘happening’ part of Lisbon. I found a
place on Trip Advisor to check out, and figured worst case scenario we could
find something in this area. Thank you Trip Advisor! We
easily got a table at Fábulas. Three of us ordered shrimp risotto and
Noah ordered a steak (though Noah and I had plans to go 50/50). We can
definitely recommend both dishes –they were Fábulas (sorry for the bad joke)!
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| Not our table - but the small ones in the front of the restaurant were old sewing tables. I thought it was cute |
Since it was our first night in Lisbon and we were trying to
help Adam get on the European time zone, we were not ready to end the night
after dinner. Instead we moved to Café A Brasileira’s outdoor seating and
ordered a round of caipirinhas based on Noah and my recommendations.
However when we took our first sip, it was like getting slapped in the face –
it was STRONG. I doubt Stacy and Adam will ever order another one after
this place, but it was a nice ‘welcome to Europe’ for Adam.
After dinner we split up, and Noah and I headed back to the
apartment. After I got out of the shower, I found Noah passed out on the
bed mid-typing on his phone. My movement woke him up, and he left the
bedroom. I followed him into the living room, where he asked where the
kitchen was. I pointed to the kitchen where he went to get a glass of
water. After handing me the water (to take back to bed for him?), he
heads back into the living room. I asked him if he needed anything, and
he told me he was looking for the bathroom. I told him that it was back
in the bedroom, which leads him to tell me that the apartment is just ‘too damn
big’. Poor sleepy Noah.
Friday morning Noah grabbed breakfast pastries from a nearby
bakery while we waited for Stacy and Adam to make their move from their hotel
to the apartment.
Once everyone was settled in and ready to start moving for
the day, we all hopped on a bus towards the Jardim Botânico d'Ajuda – the
oldest botanical garden in Portugal (dates back to the 18th
century). We essentially had the entire place to ourselves, though there
was a gang of peacocks roaming the grounds. I can only imagine how
beautiful this place must be in the spring!
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| Yes, the peacocks were hanging out in the trees, silently judging us |
After we had our fill of nature, we walked down towards the
water to see the monastery ‘Mosteiro dos Jeronimos’. Along the way Noah
captured this AMAZING photo (at least I think so) of a cat and bird.
The beauty of the building was a bit hard to appreciate with
the loud noise coming from the construction going on inside.
At this point my stomach was rumbling. We found some
delicious pita sandwiches at Pão Pão Queijo Queijo (awesome name - bread bread cheese cheese). I know we made a few pigeons very happy with all the
accidental food droppings of ours – it is hard to eat neatly while sitting on a
bench. Or at least it is for me.
Across from the monastery is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos
(Monument to the Discoveries) – a monument on the river built to commemorate a
romanticized notion of Portuguese exploration typical of the regime of Antonio
de Oliveira. To be honest, my sense of history is pretty bad, and I
didn’t recognize a single name of the 33 figures listed on Wikipedia.
At this monument is where we saw this adorable little
chihuahua helping his owner panhandle. My first reaction (as it is with
all dogs) is ‘OMG A DOG I WANT TO PET IT AND LOVE IT AND SQUEEZE IT’ and of
course I had Noah put money into his little bucket. However when we
passed him again on the way back (with more money because DOG), the poor little
guy dropped his bucket and tried to crawl into Noah’s lap. As I watched his
owner move him back on his little pedestal and put the string back in his
mouth, I suddenly saw the whole thing for what it is – a sad depressed little
dog forced to sit in one spot with a bucket hanging from his mouth, and I
became very sad myself.
A bit down the river is the Belém Tower – a fortified tower
built in the 16th century to defend the mouth of the Targus
River. We skipped paying the fee to go inside, and instead I watched
another chihuahua sadly sit there with a bucket dangling from his mouth.
Now seemed like a great time to scare myself shitless and
take a taxi across the famous Ponte 25 de Abril bridge (I am terrified of bridges)
so that we could go check out the Jesus statue on the other side of the
river.
The Christ the King (Cristo Rei) statue is based on the Rio
de Janeiro Christ the Redeemer statue (I wonder how many people see both in one
year like Noah). We rode the elevator to the top for some nice views of
the city, and we only had to share the space with a handful of other
tourists.
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| Nope - not the Golden Gate Bridge! |
Now we were ready to make our dinner plan. To avoid
wandering aimlessly like the night before, we decided that we wanted either
sushi or a churrascaria (a Brazilian all you can eat meat place that seem to be
all over Lisbon). We had 2 sushi places and 2 churrascarias ready to
check out. Our first choice - Restaurante 1a Sinfonia – we even tried to
call for a reservation, but we kept getting a recording in Portuguese. No
worries – let’s just go there and check it out. We hop on the metro for 2
stops and walk to the address to find the place… closed! Noah and I had
seen a sign for a Japanese restaurant just a block down, so we decide to just
check it out. Also… closed! What is going on?? Ok – next on
our list – Aron Sushi. This is just a 4 block back the way we just came
(uphill of course) and… open! But fully booked for the night! 0-3
for our sushi places. However Stacy and I had decided we definitely
wanted sushi in Lisbon, so I thought to ask if they have a table for the
following night. Our first success! Dinner reservations for
Saturday night when they open at 7:30pm! But what about dinner for Friday
night??? Time to regroup.
Next on the list for dinner were two churrascarias I had
found on Trip Advisor. However they are not within walking distance, so
we head back to the metro towards Sabor Mineiro Churrascaria. What is the
old saying – fourth time’s a charm?? In any case, we finally were able to
get a table for the four of us, only an hour after we first started our
search. And it was totally worth it. The non-meat buffet was just
ok, but we were there for the meat. And it was delicious! It was
the traditional Brazilian style where you turned your color to green to signal
the waiters to bring on the meat. Everything was cooked perfectly,
seasoned great, and I think we all ate more meat than necessary. The
surprise of the evening was how delicious the grilled pineapple was. It
was so yummy, we flagged down the pineapple man and had him cut more slices for
us. Sadly I have no photos of this, because it didn’t stay on my plate
long. Instead I will share a photo that Noah took of a 'bobcat'..... riiiiight.
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| The National Geographic quality photo of the 'bobcat' roaming around our apartment |
We woke up Saturday to wonderful weather, so we decided to
make a beeline to the Castelo de São Jorge – the castle on a hilltop
overlooking the city. After walking the various stairs and hills to the
top, we were all a little overheated and tired (all the meat the night before
didn’t help). And poor Noah was wearing a wool sweater! Side
note: Noah and I both packed expecting Lisbon to be cooler than it was…
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| So many steps and hills! |
Everyone but Noah was quickly discouraged by the long line for tickets
and the drizzle that had started, but he came to the rescue (even though he had
to be the hottest) and left us to get in line. Thank goodness he did –
this place has the best views of the city! And that drizzle soon
disappeared once we entered the castle grounds. Since we finally had
clear views of the city, I went a little overboard with photos. So enjoy!
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| Noah's replacement shirt |
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| This peacock was half white / half colorful... very beautiful. |
Right as we were making our way to the exit, it started to
sprinkle again. As the last small shower moved over quickly and lightly,
we figured we didn’t need to take shelter and continued making our way down
from the castle. That was a big mistake. It steadily began to rain
harder and harder, until we found ourselves stuck in the streets with huge
gusts of wind and a giant downpour. Crap! We run to try to find
some restaurant that is open that can give us shelter (and food), but it takes
a few blocks before we find something. We cram into a small fish
restaurant (Restaurante Adega Triunfo) where we grab a table and examine the
damage. Our mafia-looking waiter takes our orders after saying no to Stacy
and my first choices, and we dry off while we eat our fish and potato
lunches.
Even though the rain lightened up, the rest of the afternoon
was met with drizzles. We checked out a few stores where I found many
Christmas presents (and a purse made out of cork for myself), and went back to
the apartment to rest up before dinner.
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| A Vida Portuguesa |
I couldn’t wait for dinner that night, not only because it
was sushi, but because we had reservations!!! I was determined to keep
our table the entire night since it was so hard to get. We arrive at Aron
Sushi at 7:30pm, and proceed to spend the next 3-4 hours eating delicious tuna
and salmon sushi and drinking delicious sakerinhas (replace the alcohol in a
caipirinha with sake). Ok, it was only me drinking the sakerinhas…
everyone else had beer and sake.
We woke up on Sunday (our last day) to rain, but it quickly
cleared up. Stacy and Adam wanted to go grab breakfast at a restaurant,
so Noah and I wanted to take advantage of the blue skies (since we had to leave
later that day. I had read about the Elevador da Glória – a funicular
that takes you to Jardim de São Pedro de Alcântara (a park on a hilltop with
nice views). When I googled the funicular/park, I realized that it was a
simple walk to the park from our apartment. The funicular – less than a
minute ride up a hill. Why waste money to cram in with other tourists
when I can easily do that walk?? Noah and I were greeted with more
beautiful views of Lisbon, and Stacy and Adam met us at the park after their
breakfast.
We wanted to head back to the castle area to check out the
shops again, but this time we knew to watch the sky. As we crossed
through Rossio Square, we could see the ominously dark raincloud heading our
way. When the sprinkles started, we ducked into a bakery - Casa Chinesa
Pastelaria. I finally tried the amazing pastel de nata pastry thanks to
Noah looking out for me.
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| Sadly the pastry is not to scale (also I took the photo back in Munich with a pastry I brought home) |
When the rain stopped, we began our journey again.
About 20 minutes later, it was time to do it all over again. This time we
stumbled upon a small wine and cheese shop/café that had amazing cheese
sandwiches. I love it when places make something so simple so delicious
just by using fantastic ingredients. Noah and I even bought some of the
cow cheese that was on my sandwich so we could try to recreate the meal back at
home. Though when we did (last night) we figured out we did not get the cow cheese, but probably the goat. Still yummy.
We finally make it back up to the castle hilltop to do some
more souvenir and gift shopping. At one store, the girl recognized us
from the day before and insisted we do shots of Ginjinha (a Portuguese cherry
liqueur) with her.
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| View from the shops |
Noah and I were down to our last 2 hours before we had to
head back to the airport, and he had looked up a café that sold acai.
This was something he had in Brazil and had been dreaming of it ever
since. And since Brazil and Portugal are tied together, he was excited to
see how the Portuguese made acai. He ordered a large with granola and
bananas, Stacy and Adam went with a small, and I went with Pão de Queijo –
Brazilian cheese buns. We took our treats back down to the Praça do
Comércio (a square on the Tagus River) where I discovered I was right to order
the cheese buns. Acai is just not my thing. But Noah was happy –
even if it couldn’t hold a candle to the one he had in Brazil.
After a whirlwind of 3 days it was time for us to say
goodbye to Stacy and Adam and Lisbon. I am definitely grateful that I can
meet up with friends in Lisbon (man that sounds like I live a fascinating life…
I don’t). I also went into the trip with low expectations of the city
(not sure exactly why), and left with a great impression of Lisbon. I
would highly recommend visiting this beautiful city!
