3 Days In Lisbon

3 words to describe Lisbon:- intricate
- grand
- colourful

I'm not really sure how we ended up booking this destination, if anything it seemed a bit randomly selected by means of flight availability and affordability. We knew what we were aiming for: some sunshine and a temperature above 15 degrees would suit us just fine, hence Lisbon.
November the 17th: we landed at the Lisbon airport, excited and hungry for an authentic experience. We had three days to make the most of it. Residential florentia was our home for 3 nights, affordable and central, it provided an excellent base for us to commute from, everything was a short walk.

Taken on the sands of Cascais

Day One:

We arrived at our hotel and settled in, the room was "cosy" and it often took some coordinating for us both to manoeuvre around the room without bumping into everything and each other. Walls were slightly paper thin but the exhilaration of being in a new city made us quickly forget the rooms downfalls.
Eager to explore but famished, we literally walked a few steps and turned to the right: on the corner was Bonjardim restaurant; our first Lisbon meal just had to be grilled chicken and chips with Portuguese rolls.

walking down the streets of Lisbon near Rossio square

Belly full and hungry eye's, we headed down Rua Augusta and got an immediate feel for the city, waiters lined the street, ready to coax you into their establishments. We walked all the way down and through the main arch clock tower, the sea air slaps you in the face and your appetite is awakened once again :). Walking across the marbled square, you will come to the edge of the city that looks over the waters, in the distance the lights of a Seattle style bridge sparkles while the moon crescents in the navy sky.

view from the coast

Amorino...my love

 It is beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised to see our favourite ice cream parlour: Amorino. We first came across this heavenly shop when we were in Barcelona and took full advantage of its variety of ice cream flavours. Chocolate always hits the spot for me.(as for the rose inspired ice cream and select as many flavours as you want, it all gets crafted into a beautiful rose)

Day Two:

I had done some research on the top ten sites to see, Sintra came highly recommended and so we decided on a day trip to this extraordinary location. We woke early, an hour too early as we had not changed our time difference, we wondered why the city was still sleeping so heavily :)
We boarded a train from rossio station to Sintra, the journey took an hour. The scenery was rural but still interesting to see. We Arrived in Sintra,

Sintra train station

winding slopes leading up to the castle

Still wondering why our train was running late? ( and still not picking up we were an hour early) we finally boarded the bus and made the steep journey to the Moorish castle. Because of our limited time, we picked our two must see sights and stuck to the plan as we still wanted to fit in Cascais. As we rolled through the town of Sintra, the calmness of the town with its peaking tree tops and mossed rocks gave us a spiritual feel. My excitement peaked as I saw the tell tale signs of cobblestone rock in the distance, indicating the up coming castle. Moorish castle was our first stop, from there it is a short walk to Pena Palace. I enjoyed doing Moorish castle first as it set a tone for Pena.

green moss

picturesque

one of the castle towers

winding stairs

Moorish castle took me to a different era, my camera went into over gear as the photo opportunities were endless, the stark green moss and vegetation contrasted with the speckled cobblestone grey and the blue sky enveloped it all. I was in photo heaven.

Geronimo the tour guide

We had a feline tour guide which I named Geronimo, he spent more time brushing up against the trees than showing us around, but it was still good to have an extra companion.

Queen of my very small castle

Pena Palace sat perched high up on a green hill, as I winded my way through, I caught glimpses of worn jewelled colours through the tree's, I knew this place would take my breath away. Pena Palace has thousands of visitors and is one of the most visited sites, it is also listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. First a chapel was constructed and later a monastery, for many years, this site was a place of worship. An earthquake took the place to ruins but left the chapel relatively unharmed. Many years later, King Ferdinand bought the palace and grounds and commissioned a romantic style palace to be built which was used as a Summer house.

The palace changed royal hands over the years and was the home of Portugal's last queen: Amelia. As the royal funds declined; the state of Portugal bought the Palace and it now stands as a museum for all to savour.

Pena palace sign board at station

breath taking and Grand

Entrance to Pena

Beautiful tiles lining the inside of an arch

Pena tower

Contrasting rugged colours of walls

At this point my appetite was starting to soar and we ventured back down the hill, through the town and back to the station to catch the bus headed for Cascais. A short ride with many stops finally got us to the little fisherman's village, I immediately took to Cascais, it is small, quaint and has ample character. Flower pots in windows, locals chatting on the corner and the sea air whisking through the streets.

Our view from the restaurant

Local walking on a Sunday

We grabbed a prego roll with a beautiful view on a secluded beach, the sun was by no means hot but temptation took hold of us and we headed down to the coved beach and just lay on the sand for an hour...it felt soooo good. The waves lapped romantically while some traditional Portuguese guitar melodies played in the background. I was full, sleepy, happy and elated.

I was very surprised by the food in Lisbon, we have quite a big portuguese population in South Africa and I have also been to Mozambique which has the same; I always thought the food would be saucy and heavily spiced, quite the opposite here, main flavouring ingredients are simple coarse salt and garlic and you will get a peri peri based oil on the side. Our first prego roll seemed quite plain, it had flavour but I was expecting a kick in my tastebuds, we ate at many more places and it was the same thing. I like it when I think something and then I am pleasently surprised by the true authentic experience of it.

We were over enthusiastic to think we could fit Belem in too on the way back, we just looked at it as our train passed by. The view from the train is beautiful and you get a good idea of the coastline from this vantage point.

A little afternoon siesta was much needed and then we were back up on our feet looking for a good eating spot. We went to Sacremento in Chiado; I really loved this spot, beautiful modern decor, attentive waiters and delicious food, it all went down so well with the local bottle of wine we ordered.

Day Three:

Shopping shopping shopping, Lisbon is very affordable when you are coming from Copenhagen and so we took full advantage, a good 2 hours was spent in Zara alone. We off loaded our parcels and headed back out to catch tram 28, this came highly advised on trip advisor. I was disappointed and nauseous, the tram driver was unhelpful and after 30min we ended on the other side of Lisbon after a journey that was interrupted, crammed and bumpy. We had to wait 15min to catch the same tram back along its same route, we decided to take it up to St Georges castle which was our original plan but because there are no announcements, its hard to figure out where to get off. My advice is, grab the tram behind Mundial Hotel, take it up the hill and when you see the ocean and a white umbrella deck restaurant overlooking the ocean; GET OFF, this is the best stop, the rest of the journey is not pleasant and you can barely see everything out the window. By this stage we were famished; we shared a sandwich and drinks at Portas do Sol and lapped up the phenomenal view and slivers of afternoon sunlight.

the white umbrellas

We found st Georges castle easily and strolled around the outskirts, we made our way down very easily back to Rossio square, my sweet tooth was hammering at my brain to satisfy its sugary needs and I could not leave Lisbon knowing I had not tasted their traditional custard tartlets, so we stopped at Casa Brasileira on Rua Augusta at a popular patisserie and restaurant, warm heaters and chairs lined the centre aisle of the street and we took residence there. An enthusiastic and surprisingly quick handed waiter served us cappuccinos and deserts; we had a pumpkin fritter and a custard tartlet in two varieties, one traditional and one with pine nuts.

My happiness

My patisserie delish

 Everything was scrumptious. For dinner; we went to a local establishment called Licorista...something or another . I had fried sardines for the first time in my life, how appropriate to bite into these delicious little fishies in Lisbon. Some white wine went down well with our meal. The ambiance was cosy and local and it was a great send off for our last dinner in Lisbon.

Overall, Lisbon is now in my top three destinations, the city has so much to offer its visitors. Prices are affordable all round; and what I love about Lisbon is you don't fee like you have been taken advantage of, the locals are all around and eat and shop at the same places so they are willing to pay those prices too. I have often found cities have tourist traps and you always need to go in search of some neighbourhood/back street local joint to get value for money. Lisbon differs in this respect.

If there were some negatives to be mentioned it would be two things; i am a realistic traveller and will always paint in colour but I do like distinguishing between the black and the white too.

1. when you walk past restaurants, every single one of them have a waiter perched outside for attack, they all want you to eat at their restaurant and are eager to pull the tourists in. It can get very annoying when you are trying to have a romantic stroll.

2. every ten minutes some shady character will come up to you and offer you hash or cocaine(day and night). They slide up to you like snakes and whisper in your ear, or worse yet, they actually touch you to get your attention. After three days we were still not used to it and it really was the one thing that exasperated me and my partner as it happened too often to ignore. It happened mainly on the main streets as this is where the tourist hives are.

Otherwise, Lisbon is a true must see

OBRIGADO

Door at Pena Palace