We took a trip to Lisbon, Portugal 6/26-6/29. After our visit Matt and I decided Lisbon has probably been our favorite destination we have visited so far, maybe even replacing Cinque Terre! The welcoming people, the beautiful city, the lively beach towns, the colorful tile buildings, the amazing music, the history, the graffiti art and the breathtaking views all made you absolutely fall in love with the city. Each area of Lisbon has it's own unique flavor and you could walk around forever finding new and exciting streets, shops and views. In relation to a lot of other places we have gone, Lisbon is also relatively inexpensive which was a nice surprise. Full disclosure: The only drawback is we sadly discovered we were not huge fans of Portugese food (I know what you're thinking but it was Matt too, not just me). Not to say we didnt have some good meals, but it just means we will have to do a little more research before we go back. Even with this in mind, Lisbon has still secured our #1 spot.
We went with our friends Kate and Jay who, if you missed my last post are now living in London in our building! We left on a Thursday and arrived Thursday evening and headed strait to the Bairro Alto area. This is a fun area with tons of small bars packed together on a grid of streets. They have cheap drinks and music blaring from all the bars. Usually the bars are too tight to sit inside so everybody just spills out into the streets. It reminds me a little of Bourbon St. in New Orleans. We had dinner, cheap drinks and a lot of fun.
We had dinner at an outdoor table and had about 20 "salesman" come up to us selling flowers, sunglasses etc. etc. We finally offered 1 euro to a very persistant flower salesman who gave us half a dozen roses (pretty cheap)! We ended up leaving them for our waiter to give to his gf. However, it was the 5 year anniversary of the day we got engaged, so technically I can say Matt gave me flowers. :)
Friday we headed to the beach town of Cascais. Cascais was a very cool beach town with lots of bars and restaurants right on the beach. We had a pretty epic beach day with lots of sangria for the girls and tequila shots for the guys. Although the weather only said 70 it was absolutely perfect- not a cloud in the sky, but the water was COLD.
We went to dinner in Alfama, the oldest district in Lisbon. Alfama is a place to wander and get lost in the maze of alleyways. With chipped tile buildings, lots of hole in the wall restaurants, locals sitting outside smoking and drinking in plastic chairs and clothes lines hanging from balconies everywhere you look. You know this is authentic Lisbon and you are getting a very local experience.
We had dinner at a restaurant called Tosca do Jamie. I had read about it being a restaurant with amazing tradional Portugese fado music. There are alot of fado music restaurants in Lisbon, especially in the Alfama area, but a lot of them are more of a show where you pay one (high) price, have a set dinner and they perform live fado music on a stage. This was not one of those places. As soon as we walked in we were a little worried we had made a mistake. The restaurant was so small with hardly any tables and we seemed to be the only "outsiders" there. The set up looked more like you were in someones kitchen with a small bar, not a restaurant. They put us in a table up front, there was no stage just two chairs and instruments. We soon figued out this was a family restaurant. The owner was one of the singers, Our waitress was the owners wife and one of the 2 guitar players was the owners son. When it was time for the music to start they close the doors to the restaurant (sort of "hot boxing" you in) and if you talked during the music you were immediately shushed. When two portugese men first closed the doors and stood at the back to guard them while they performed (third picture below) Kate leaned in and said, "they could kill us all and no one would know" haha! I'm writing all of this because this dinner was just one of the best most memorable experiences which is hard to put into words. When we first heard the music and the singers our minds were instantly at ease. It was AMAZING! They close the doors and shhhh you because this kind of talent demanded respect and attention without disruption. Everyone there were friends and neighbors. The people around us eating and drinking would get up and sing a song or two. It was like a hangout for the local fado musicians and they got to eat and drink for free as long as they contributed some songs. They were all wonderful and we felt like the only real customers. I should mention it was traditional Portugese food (so not the greatest) but the wine and drinks were flowing and with the music and atmosphere no one noticed or cared about the food. It was like we were in on something special that night, a true local experience. They barely spoke english but were just the sweetest people. Our waitress loved us, begging us to come back tomorrow and almost not letting us leave. I wish my pictures or videos did the experience justice but they just don't so this long winded story was my best attempt. It was definitely something I wont forget.
Us with our sweet waitress. They turned the lights on in the restaurant so we could take this pic :)
After our amazing dinner we started to walk around the winding streets and alleys of Alfama. By this time it was almost midnight and even though this is a very residential area the streets were alive! Locals would set up card tables outside their homes selling beers for .50 with music blaring. We starting hanging out, chatting with locals, drinking and wandering around. We heard some music turned a corner and saw this Portugese street party. We had the best time dancing front and center to songs we had never heard of while the locals screamed every word. We had a blast and it was a night not to be forgotten!
Lisbon is very similar to San Francisco; there are 7 hills, trolleys that take you all over the city and there own version of the Golden Gate Bridge. Saturday we took the Tram 28 line to explore the city.
Our first stop was in Graca to look around at the Theives (flea) Market
We ventured back to Alfama for lunch, it looked very different in the day than it did at night.
We went through the Baixa area and then walked around for awhile in the center of town in the Chiado area.
Stumbled upon a beautiful park:
We went up on one of the hilly areas with the best overlook views:
Dinner at a little tapas restaurant and drinks at The Old Pharmacy
Sunday we took a ferry to Cacilhas for even better views of Lisbon.
We had lunch at a cool restaurant called Chapito. It is also a circus training school
and bar with great views of Lisbon.
Here are some pics of the graffiti and beautiful tiles we saw all over the city!
Some fun facts since I love Lisbon so much: Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, the oldest on Western Europe- even older than Rome! It is known for it's traditional fado music, cherries, cork and tile buildings, 7 hills, trams and probably much much more. In case you cannot tell, we can't wait to get back there!
