Lisbon, or 'Lisboa' (pronounced liszh-boa) to the locals has to be one of my all time favourite stops so far for two reasons: free cultural stuff, and fabulous food - there’s free concerts in museum courtyards; fabulous night life in Barrio Alto where people spill out into the streets with mojitos in hand; free entry to the museums on the ‘night of the museums;’ and who would I be if I didn’t mention the famous Portuguese tart??
Our time in Lisboa was made all the more special because we were able to catch up with two good friends from Santa Maria Animal Rescue Centre in Ecuador - Andreia, our very own local tour guide and hostess-with-the-mostess , who very kindly put us up, and took us here, there and everywhere; and Iza, who flew in all the way from Poland to see us for the weekend.
Iza, a serial photographer, captured every moment of our time here on film - the good, the bad and the ugly. So here is my week in Lisboa, photo book style... most photos courtesy of Iza.
We were introduced to the amazing city of Lisboa at sunset on our first night as we strolled through the triumphal arch on Rua Augusto towards the Praca do Commercio and the harbour. After watching the sun set over the 25 de Abril suspension bridge that we’d just driven over, we joined the locals at the ‘night of the museums’ – where all the museums in the city are free if your under 25. We chose to go to MUDE – the museum of design and fashion – that had an exhibition of old scooters and designer clothes from the 60s, 70s and 80s. After being verbally abused twice, once in Portuguese and once in English for taking a photo, even though the establishment lacked ‘no photo’ signs and being tailed for 20 minutes around the exhibition by the narky curators who took their job in preventing us taking photos so seriously that they were attempting spy manoeuvres and rolls around corners, we gave up on scooters and left, directed to a hidden 10 table restaurant tucked precariously in a side lane by Andreia. The lane wasn’t filled with the most distinguished types – across the way, men took quick glances over their shoulders before they snuck through a red velvet curtain that sat beneath a glowing neon sign, but the food was fabulous! After waiting patiently for other diners to finish sipping on their post meal coffees, we were seated and presented with a menu entirely in Portuguese. Our Spanish didn’t help a bit, but Andreia translated and soon a plate of lamb that fell off the bone (the national of dish of salted cod arrived for those with a more adventurous palate than my own) and a glass of ‘Vinho Verde’ or green wine, something unique to Portugal, was on the table in front of me. Yes, you read that right, but no, the wine wasn’t actually green. The name refers to the the grapes youthfulness rather than its colour. Not my favourite drop, but when in Rome…
Getting a Portuguese reading; and sampling ‘green wine’
The next day, after the welcome addition of Anna, a friend of Andreia’s from vet school to our trio we all took the ferry across to Lisbon for a day of wandering – we should have taken our sneakers - Lisbon has a lot of ups and our calves were soon 
screaming in agony as we chose to take on the hills. About half way up, we gave up, and jumped on the touristy yellow Tram 28 that rattled us up the rest of the way to Amalfa – a maze of ancient pathways that snakes its way through crumbling, bent houses, designed to make life difficult for the invaders trying to make their way up to the St George Castle. After a refreshing beverage – a mini beer – and a ham and cheese pastry, we had the strength to keep going all the way up to the castle where we enjoyed a birds eye view of Lisbon as the sun began to set before heading for delish noodles at restaurant Nood, a welcome change in cuisine.
From top left: Andreia enjoying her mini beer; the lanes of Amalfa;
and waiting for Tram 28.
After more than enough food, including a to-die-for chocolate brownie dripping in hot chocolate sauce, we were taken by the locals, Andreia and Anna, to a ‘site seeing spot’ to have a couple of drinks before heading out. Lisboa has a fabulous culture of ‘open air’ drinking. Sitting at a viewpoint high up over Lisboa with a glass of wine in our hands and the sound of a jazz band in the air, we joined the Lisboans as they took in the fresh night air before hitting the bars in Barrio Alto where the outside drinking continued. With limited room in the bar besides for the bar itself, the Lisboans drinking in Barrio Alto have come up with a practical solution of taking your drink to the street - bar-goers flow out into the cobblestone streets as they sip their beers and mojitos.
As if we weren’t spoilt enough by being put up by Andreia for our time in Lisboa, she made sure our bellies were well and truly happy. For breakfast every morning we got all things Portuguese – cheese, cured meat, Mr Crunch cereal with huge chocolate chunks, and an array of home made jams to spread on our warm bread rolls. When we told the girls we often had eggs and bacon for breakfast, we got looks of disgust and cries of ‘ewwwww, how could you have that for breakfast?!’ One thing we all agreed on as delicious, was Andreia’s mum’s chocolate mousse that we’d been introduced to in Ecuador which we can be seen stuffing our faces with in the photo on the right - Yum, yum, yum!! Another was the must eat thing while in Portugal – the Portuguese tart. While we’d picked up a few tarts along the way in Portugal, nothing would compare to what we were about to sample. We were driven all the way to Belem in Lisboa to Pasteis de Belem, where they make the original Portuguese tart, from a recipe that is as secret as Coca-Cola. The only way I can think to describe it is like those custard tarts you get at Chinese restaurants for dessert (which I don’t actually like), only better – clearly, because otherwise I wouldn’t have like them! These are creamier, fluffier, and lightly dusted with cinnamon. They are to die for. I devoured two in about a minute, and went back for more that afternoon – oink - before rolling over the road to an evening in the courtyard of the Belem Cultural Centre listening to the husky voice of Spanish born Concha Buika.
On our last day in Lisbon, we took a day trip to the ‘must see’ district of Sintra, about 40 minutes from Lisbon. After getting a later start than planned, caused mainly by our inability to work out the Portuguese transport system (something which locals don’t seem to be incredibly good at either), we followed the hoards of tourists that pilled off the train and squished onto a local bus that wound through the village and up to Pena National Palace. After getting over the shock of the admission price – some 15 euros – we made our way through the palace garden gates, and up to the decadently coloured palace. I’m talking orange and deep red towers, along side mosaic blue tiling and gothic carvings. It was beautiful, though the day was slightly hazy.
With the sun threatening to set, we quickly made our way back down the hill and joined the masses – I’m talking a queue at least 150 people long – to get back on the bus that would wind us back down to the village and the gardens of Quinta da Regaleira which we explored quickly, conscious that we had one more stop to make – Cabo da Roca.
Though we froze to death as strong winds whipped the coastline (smart locals came prepared with thick blankets), watching the sun set at Europe’s most western point – Cabo da Roca – was absolutely magnificent and my favourite part of the day. With hardly a cloud in the sky, we got a picture perfect view of the sun as it dropped into the ocean.
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