This is a four part travel diary where I will talk about my trip to Lisbon, Belem, Cascais and Sintra. I went away for 4 days spending about 2 days in Lisbon, 1 in Cascais, 1 in Sintra and an hour or two in Belem.
Here are the posts:
- Cascais (this one)
- Lisbon
- Sintra (coming)
- Belem (coming)
The great thing about living in Europe is that after a while you’re bound to have friends that live in other cities or countries which are just a train ride or short flight’s distance away. I was supposed to meet my friend from Sydney, Ray, mid last year but we couldn’t make it happen so… as usual when it’s January and Christmas and New Year’s are both over and the weather is just neverending freezing and awful, I wanted to go somewhere warm and I immediately thought of my postponed trip to Lisbon. I asked when he would be free and he said late February (since it’s the school holidays and it’s also a public holiday for Carnivale) so those are the dates I booked my trip for. I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t go immediately but in hindsight it turned out to be great because we got fantastic weather while I was there. Sunny, warm and in the mid-teens (which is very warm for winter in Europe). Even better than going in summer when it’s packed full of tourists.
Ray actually lives in Cascais, a beautiful, affluent seaside fishing village 40min by train from Lisbon. If Lisbon were Sydney it would just be a suburb (let’s say something like Manly, Bondi or Cronulla but much much smaller) but it’s actually an entirely different city. It is apparently very touristy in summer (as evidenced by the large number of restaurants catering for tourists, with flags all over the menus written in 5 different languages) and souvenir shops.
As much as I love travelling alone, it was so nice to have a ‘local’ person pick me up from the airport and take me around and show me how everything works (including the confusing public transport system/tickets), and being able to speak Portuguese. It was great!
I had literally only had about 2 hours’ sleep so the first thing I wanted to do is get back to his place and nap! I did gain an extra hour though due to the time difference. As it was around breakfast time and my stomach was rumbling too (since I flew Easyjet and I didn’t eat anything on the plane). He suggested we get off the Aerobus at Rossio to have breakfast, which we did.
A note about the Aerobus. If you buy the tickets online you can save 10% and save time. If you buy your return ticket (ie 2 tickets for the same person) you save even more. If you have a friend coming to pick you up they only need to buy one ticket, since each ticket lasts 24 hours (note that the bus does not run 24 hours though). So my return trip cost 4,95€. Bargain!
The Aerobus bus stop is very easy to find. All the flights land in Terminal 1 and the stop is pretty much just across the road once you exit the airport. Note that there are several routes though and you want to take Bus 1 for the city centre.
We ate at one of my friend’s favourite pastelarias (ie patisseries), Casa Pastelaria Chinesa.
Apparently the locals (usually men from what I saw) just eat standing up at the counter. I assumed that this was cheaper than sitting down (like it is sometimes in France) but it wasn’t, it’s simply the culture. You can sit down if you wish but people usually only do that if they are drinking something.
So with my suitcase, they invited us to sit down. As I was pretty much starving I felt like a kid in a candy store, or more appropriately, Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. My eyes and stomach went crazy and I wanted to order one of everything. Since I’m very much a visual person, I was attracted to the colourful cake. I ordered a “rocha” but I can’t seem to find any information about it online. It’s a big solid cake thing, a bit like a scone, but filled and topped with dried and candied fruit. It was nice but it was so big and filling I couldn’t finish it! The other thing I ordered was a “tarte de amêndoa” (almond tart), topped with almond flakes. Ray got 2 natas (portuguese egg/custard tarts) and 2 savoury things. I wished in hindsight that I’d gotten something savoury too but oh well! I purposely didn’t want to get any natas because I wanted to get them from Belem (more about that later).
I asked Ray why it was called Chinesa, is there a Chinese restaurant next to it, or did it used to be owned by Chinese or what? He said that the pastelarias are named after the merchants where they used to get their supplies from many moons ago. Interestingly, there was also a Pastelaria Suiça (Swiss patisserie) nearby. So you have your “Chinese” patisseries, your “Indian” patisseries, “German” patisseries, “French” patisseries and so on… interesting!
We then walked to the train station at Cais do Sodré. Even with my small wheelie suitcase it wasn’t too difficult as the footpaths are wide and paved.
A note about the paving. The entire country is paved (with not cobblestones but hand cut squarish stones that are never completely flat). Everywhere. There aren’t any smooth paths anywhere except in carparks. At first it didn’t bother me but by the third day my feet were dying. Wear comfortable walking shoes or sneakers because you need to walk a LOT to get around too. Not only is everything cobblestoned but Lisbon is also VERY steep in certain areas.
This was my second time to Lisbon but it seemed different. I think they had upgraded the road and footpaths.
We walked to the sea (actually, more like a river but it goes out to the ocean) and I remember this view! The view of the “Golden gate bridge” and the “Jesus statue“. They both look just like the originals only smaller.
Normally I’m super organised and do research about public transport tickets before I travel anywhere (like I did for the Aerobus) but this time I just let Ray do it all for me 😉 It was nice to relax for once and not have to think too much. I ended up getting a pre-paid ticket that you can add credit to. It’s less confusing that way as Lisbon has many different systems of public transport operators and therefore tickets.
We hopped on the train and almost as soon as we got on the clouds parted and the skies became blue! I was overjoyed. Watching the sea and the train speed past made me think back to my Cannes train trip. Watching the sea, I feel like a kid again, as if I’d never seen it before. Growing up in Sydney I lived quite close to the beach and took it for granted, which of course now I don’t. Living in Shanghai before and now in the middle of Europe miles away from any decent beach I miss it like crazy. The salty sea air, the smell, the waves, the view, seeing the horizon, the sand between my toes, the shells… all of it.
I highly recommend going for a day trip to Cascais if you are visiting Lisbon. It doesn’t take that long to get there and it’s totally a different vibe from the hectic inner city of Lisbon. It feels like a sleepy seaside village and it’s so relaxing!
So we came back to Ray’s place and got the spare room set up for me. I couldn’t function without a nap so I had one and then I was raring to go! except now we were both super hungry as it was slightly past lunch time. It was quite windy outside and windy weather seems to bring out the hunger too…
I said that given it was such a nice sunny day I wanted to get something take away and eat it by the beach. I just wanted something quick, easy and cheap and he suggested chicken and chips. Perfect! The only Portuguese chicken I know is from Nando’s (a South African chain) or Oporto (an Australian chain) but this was the real deal! Cooked the traditional way and with a delicious peri peri sauce. A whole chicken (we had half each) and a huge bag of hot chips cost 8,90€.
It was quite cold due to the wind and something so hot and filling was perfect to satisfy our hunger. It was finger lickin’ good. It was what we needed to give us energy to go for a walk all the way around the coast to “Boca do Inferno” (literally, Hell’s mouth), a cliff formation. There is a small archway at the bottom of one of the cliffs (formed by waves over a long period of time), ie the ‘mouth’.
Along the way I suddenly became aware that these cobblestones things were everywhere. Ray told me that they are all handcut on site and so any roadworks takes months or years. No two tiles are the same size/shape and therefore, the ground is never completely flat. Not only are ALL the walkways paved like this, many of them have beautiful and intricate patterns (both in Cascais and Lisbon and I assume all over the country too).
Before we arrived at the Boca do Inferno, we came across this ‘castle’ which is actually a museum, the Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães situated inside Parque Marechal Carmona. There is a little bridge in front of the castle/museum and over the other side lies the Santa Marta lighthouse. It’s interesting because it’s square shaped instead of round, giving it an almost toy-like appearance.
Beautiful tilework at the entrance of the museum/park
Finally, we arrived at Boca do Inferno. What a view! For such a ‘middle of nowhere’ place it was actually quite touristy as lots of people had just done the same walk we did. There was a plaque about a man who committed suicide off the cliffs because he’d been caught cheating on his partner. Ray and another English speaker there had fun trying to translate the Portuguese plaque into English. Still not quite sure what to make of that story!
When I say it was touristy, it wasn’t crowded though. It was great. In fact it’s a great time to travel if you want to avoid the summer crowds! The only evidence of “touristyness” I saw was a little stand selling these cute hand carved zodiac cowrie shells.
Check out the huge waves nearby! Great for surfers.
The palm trees! One of the first things I’d noticed were the palm trees. They are actually my favourite type of tree. I love them so much and never get to see any in Geneva 🙁
Look at his amazing palm tree which looks like a giant pineapple. “How’s the serenity?”
Here is the same tree from a different angle.
We had so many interesting conversations and I made lots of observations and noticed the pastel coloured houses nearby, obviously owned by the very wealthy as they were all huge mansions overlooking the sea. We tried to imagine what kind of people would live in them and how many staff they had working for them for the upkeep! Cascais is also full of 5 star hotels. In fact, we only saw one 4 star hotel.
Being an expat/immigrant in Europe really makes me realise how much I took for granted as a kid, especially when I grew up in such a cool country as Australia and such a great city as Sydney 😉 The weather is one of the biggest things I took for granted. In Sydney the winter can be cold but is still fairly mild overall. Being in Lisbon reminded me of that as it was similar. In Geneva it’s freezing for about 6 months of the year where I’m forced to wear goosedown coats, 4 layers of clothing, scarves, hats, gloves and boots. Not only that, nothing much grows in winter and everything is grey grey grey.
It was like all of a sudden my sense of vision exploded when Ray and I went to the park on the way back. I was exclaiming, “Look how GREEN everything is!” You’d think I’d never seen green plants before. But really, by this time of year I’ve practically forgotten what green foliage looks like!
and flowers! Pink flowers! You’d think I’d never seen flowers before. What was interesting about this tree was that all the flowers were hanging down, as if they were trying to avoid the sun (a bit like how sunflowers turn with the sun). Ahhhh… I didn’t want to leave this beautiful park. In fact, I was enjoying my time there so much that I barely took any photos. We climbed this spiral ramp thing which lead up to a lookout where you could see the entire park. It was a beautiful view.
I took a picture of this tree because I only just found out recently those funny looking stumpy trees found around here (and other European cities) is called Platane in French, Plane tree in English and Platanus in latin. But the one here isn’t stumpy! It must be a different kind of tree in the same family. I’d never seen them before as they only exist in Europe and North America.
There was a sculpture made by schoolchildren from recycled materials, which I immediately recognised as a globe of the world.
There were a lot of brightly coloured roosters in the park too and you could hear them crowing from everywhere.
It was starting to get dark and really cold so we headed back…
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The morning after the next I wandered around Cascais by myself. It’s fairly small and easily walkable.
The Cascais emblem/crest/coat of arms/symbol
The beautiful sunrise and pristine beach
Beautiful ‘castle’ which is actually the town hall
Market stalls
Charming restaurants and shops
How pretty is this?
Let’s not forget the pastelarias (natas galore!)
We ate dinner at home but for my last night in Cascais Ray booked us into Baia do Peixe, a restaurant he’d tried before and said was very good. We confirmed this with my ‘bible’, Tripadvisor. We had a window seat and a sea view. Portual is pretty cheap in general and food is no exception. It’s good and it’s cheap! Win win. 🙂
The downstairs is more casual dining, Maresia, owned by the same people.
The upstairs for more fine dining (you’d need to book to get a table). It was fairly empty when we arrived at 7pm but at 8 or 9pm it was almost completely full.
We ordered the fish degustation.
Entrée – fish soup
Main – Turbot, Bream, Grouper, Salmon, Squid (with sides of bread, salad and potatoes)
Dessert – choice of cakes
Please note this is not the chef’s presentation as I had already started eating before I took the pics 😀
Ray had told me about this Portuguese pie/cake Queijada de Sintra that I had to try, so I chose it as my dessert. It’s hard to describe the taste. It’s made of cheese but still tastes sweet, like a cake. It’s very dense/heavy.
Starters, drinks and the meal cost about 40€ for the both of us. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip to Cascais.
The next morning (and my last day in Cascais) we had planned on going to the fresh food market and buying something for breakfast but they were closed so we went to a pastelaria instead. I didn’t realise it was so big! It was huge on the inside. Being such a gorgeous day, we opted to eat outside though.
Part of the huge selection of offerings
One of the things I ordered, a chicken pie
See that lady in the red coat with the stroller/pram in the first photo of this pastelaria? Well she overhead our conversation and asked us if we were Australian. Turns out she’s from Perth where she met and later married a Frenchman. They used to live in Spain and now they live in Portugal. It’s always so nice to talk to Aussies abroad and she was no exception. She said she was off to the aquarium in Lisbon with her baby. I didn’t know anything about Lisbon having an aquarium and it was just another reason that made me want to come back to this wonderful place.
ADDRESSES:
Pastelaria Casa Chinesa (patisserie)
Rua do ouro 274-278 (Rossio), Lisboa
Tel: 213 423 680
Jardim dos Frangos Churrasqueira (chicken and chips)
Avenida Marginal, Cascais
Tel: 21 486 1717
Baía do Peixe restaurante
Avenida D. Carlos 6, Cascais
Tel: +351 214 865 157
Sacolinha Pastelaria et Padaria
Cascais
(many addresses on their website)
(see all the pics in my Flickr album).
Stay tuned for the Lisbon part!
