This is part II in a four part series.
I. Cascais
II. Lisbon
III. Sintra (coming)
IV. Belem (coming)
Ahhh Lisbon… you have my heart. I love that it’s not a super big and touristy city (I’m looking at you Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, etc) but yet it’s still big enough to have lots of interesting things to see and do. And a bonus is that Portugal one of the cheapest countries in Western Europe to visit!
My first visit to Lisbon was kind of a total waste of time (basically, I didn’t have any time to spend thanks to a very delayed flight) so I was really happy to see a whole ton of things I didn’t get to see the first time around. I noticed that the majority of tourists seemed to come from northern Asia (ie China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong) or Russia and there were also a lot of French tourists. I didn’t notice that many tourists from other countries though which I found odd. I guess they are too busy going to Paris or London 😉
So, on the second day of my trip we went to Lisbon especially to take Tram 28. It was something I wanted to do during my previous trip to Lisbon but I totally ran out of time. All the guides say that it is a must do! I was so disappointed I missed out last time that I told myself I was doing it this time no matter what. I meticulously planned everything, printing out timetables and route maps with stop names. I didn’t expect that my friend would want to do it with me (having done it many many times before) but to my surprise, he didn’t mind at all. And it was great to have a ‘tour guide’. Btw you don’t need the timetable because it ain’t going to run according to it anyway. The map would be helpful but the timetable is pretty useless. The tram runs pretty frequently so I wouldn’t worry about it. Just turn up at the stop, wait a while and one will come. Lisbon is definitely a place where you take things easy and go with the flow…
I didn’t plan on taking the tram for the entire route, only half of it but we ended up doing the entire route, starting at Martim Moniz. The queue for the tram was pretty long and my friend suggested it might be quicker to take the bus and then change later for the tram. However, as it was a public holiday that particular bus did not seem to be running. Being disappointed at not being able to carry out our genius plan we had to then queue up with the rest of the lemmings.
As each tram is so small (there’s a reason for this! the roads that it takes are super narrow and windy) they can carry only about 25-35 people each. We had to wait for the fourth tram before we could board, waiting a total of an hour. I’m not sure if this is typical or not but please plan accordingly if you’d like to take Tram 28.
Queue going down the road…
What we’ve all been waiting for!
And the interior… it gets MUCH more crowded than this though!
Even though Tram 28 is pretty touristy, it’s not actually a tourist tram. It’s a normal tram used by locals too. If you don’t want to or can’t walk up the very steep streets, it’s the only way to get up (unless you take a taxi). As we were one of the first two people to get on, we were lucky to get a window seat. If you don’t get one you won’t be able to see much as it gets very crowded very quickly. On various travel forums online people warn against pickpockets. I was very careful but luckily didn’t see any. Guess they are more common in summer.
The tiny wooden tram snaked its way along various roads, some narrow and windy, some wide and flat. I totally lost my sense of direction, orientation and altitude.
After a while we stopped and the driver told everyone to get off, saying that the tram was terminating here. In saying that though, most people stayed on. We were awfully confused about what was going on but luckily we decided to stay on. I couldn’t decide where I wanted to get off so I decided to just take it all the way to the terminus. Afterall, waiting 1 hour to get on and getting a prized window seat, I wasn’t about to give it up that easily!
We got off at the terminus, Prazeres. It was about 1pm when we arrived and I’d hoped to find a nice not tourist-trap, not too expensive and not bad restaurant there. But it seemed to be mainly a residential area. At the same time, I needed to find a toilet and my friend suggested we go to the nearby market – Mercado de Campo de Ourique, which was located right behind a beautiful church. I was shocked to see a public toilet right near the entrance, clean, vacant and free. In many (most?) European countries, public toilets are not free and there’s usually a huge long queue.
Prazeres
It was a stroke of luck that we found this place! The market I mean, not the toilet 😉 My friend had never been inside before and it was perfect for lunch! There was a food court inside this fresh food market and numerous stands selling all sorts of delicious food. My senses were being overwhelmed by this place. My eyes were attracted to the huge number of brightly coloured fruits, and also the delicious dishes. My nose was attracted to all the wonderful fresh aromas wafting about in the air…
I really felt like we’d stumbled upon a goldmine. It was exactly what I needed! Food: good food, fresh, good quality, not expensive food and lots of it.
The dish I opted for – Seafood linguine
My friend ordered 2 chicken pies and a salad, and a raspberry cheesecake in a jar for dessert. I kept eyeing it and despite going around to almost every stall I decided to get the same thing… and it was amazing!
I don’t think it would have mattered what I ordered. Every single thing there looked utterly amazing and delicious.
The prices were higher than what you’d expect for Portugal (my linguine was 9,50€) but still cheaper than a restaurant, and certainly cheaper than Geneva 😉 and besides, I think it is very good value because everything is so fresh and tasty.
Afterwards, my friend kept raving about this nearby chocolate cake shop. I had no idea what he was talking about until he showed me. The name of the shop is actually O Melhor Bolo De Chocolate Do Mundo (The world’s best chocolate cake).
Here are all the newspaper and magazine articles about the place on their wall
The store is tiny and was chock full of non-stop customers. Here I am with one of their little cakes. Was it the best chocolate cake in the world? It was good but I can’t say for sure because I’m not a huge chocolate cake fan. However, according to my friend.. it is definitely the best!
Afterwards we discovered that they have a store in Sydney (for my Aussie readers)!
With that done and our stomachs satisfied, we walked back to Prazeres to catch the tram back in the other direction. There is a beautiful cemetery nearby but I wasn’t in the mood to look at it.
I was so lucky to get spectacularly sunny weather during my entire trip. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was summer looking at my photos. The tram weaved its way in and out and the journey is truly spectacular. Lisbon is a city that has hardly changed in centuries… but I remember seeing a lot of $2 type stores along the way except they were €1 stores. Wow! and despite the steep roads, there were lots of old people walking up and down them.
While it’s nice to take the tram, it’s even nicer to get out and walk so that’s what we did. We got off at a viewpoint/lookout and then walked around for ages until our legs couldn’t take it anymore.
We kept walking and walking and soon it was sunset (I’d forgotten that because Lisbon is much further south than Geneva, the sun also sets much earlier).
I love this beautiful, whimsical mural
This was one of my happiest moments, just chatting away about anything and everything watching the sunset over the gorgeous city…
Doesn’t look like a lot, but we walked soooo much and went home absolutely exhausted…
Two days later I came back to Lisbon. This was a LONG day. First we went to Belem (post coming) and then I checked into the hotel and then explored the city. I had a bit of a checklist to get through. I wanted to see some things I didn’t get to see during my last visit or maybe just to revisit them as I’d gotten such horrible weather last time.
At Rossio, Locks of Love
I wanted to walk down Rua Augusta, one of the wide pedestrian-only streets which leads to the sea, but not before ending with a stunning, dramatic archway, the Arco Triunfal da Rua Augusta (I guess it’s a bit like the Arc de Triomphe of Lisbon).
You can also climb up to the top of it for spectacular views but I didn’t do it.
The sunset by the water’s edge after Praça del Comercio
I really wanted to check out the haberdashery street to buy some braid/trim… I’d read this article in the Guardian about Retrosaria Bijou so I decided to check it out. It certainly has the most impressive shopfront which is a beautiful turquoise colour and has an art deco look to it.
However, the inside was super teeny tiny and I preferred to shop in another store on the same street (J.R. Da Silva) after having poked my nose (and camera) into a few. They all sell these bits and bobs that us crafty girls go gaga over.
Buttons! Look at all those buttons. All the shops here sell thousands of varieties of buttons. This is certainly the place to come for that one-of-a-kind button you’re looking for.
Here is a guy measuring out my jacquard trim. I’ve looked in Geneva, nearby France and Lyon and it costs around 10-20 €/chf a metre! Since I need 3 metres that’s way too much. This one (although it was not 100% what I was looking for but it was close enough) cost only a mere 3€ a metre!
Here is Tram 28 going down Rua da Conceição past all the cool little haberdashery stores selling buttons, ribbons, trims, wool, zippers, tassels, etc.. and there are a few that sell gorgeous fabric too.
Usually when I travel I try to spend as much time outdoors as possible, that is, unless it’s pouring rain. However, I decided to make an exception by doing something cultural and go to this museum. I don’t go to any museum though. I wanted to go to this one because it’s a design museum! MUDE is its name (Museu do Design e da Moda / Museum of design and fashion). It’s also pretty small so doesn’t take that long to look at (about 1-2 hours), it’s right in the centre of town not far from the Arch and it’s also free!
The ground floor had a retrospective featuring items from the last 100 years or so, organised into decades. It featured interior, industrial, furniture, print and fashion design. The Dyson vacuum cleaner was featured! My favourite items were the designer dresses, especially one by Schiaparelli. It was really cool but no photographs were allowed on this floor.
My favourite exhibition, “De Matrix à Bela Adormecida” (“From The Matrix to Sleeping Beauty”), was the one on the top floor, featuring a whole bunch of costumes created by costume designer, António Lagarto.
I went absolutely gaga over his collection of jaw-droppingly beautiful costumes that he’d designed over a period of 30 years. Having studied in the Royal College of Art and St. Martin’s School of Art in London, Antonio not only designed costumes for the Matrix but also for many theatrical productions.
Swan Lake
There was another exhibition in the basement, “Behind the Shades“, and the presentation was a bank vault theme (interesting!) It was all about sunglasses and there were soooo many different varieties of weird and wacky sunglasses.
Overall I really enjoyed this museum. It was a great size to explore, with a variety of different exhibits. After having been to museums in Europe that are just HUGE (and you’d need a whole week to look at), I really enjoy the smaller ones much more.
After the museum I walked all over the city. Actually I wanted to buy some comfy shoes and I got totally lost trying to find this shoe store. The reason why I got lost is because the roads are steep and criss cross over each other. I had the same problem the first time I went to Lausanne! My map reading skills go out the window when I’m forced to see a 3D world and 3D streets on a 2D map. I passed a ton of shops selling dried bacalhau (dried, salted codfish) and canned fish. There were sooooo many brands and each with its own history and beautiful graphic design on the packaging.
I walked around a bit before I met an old friend (from Geneva) for dinner.
We walked up this hugely steep street. If you’re unable to make it there’s the tram but it’s a bit overpriced at 3 something euros for such a short distance. We went to the Barrio Alto district to eat and check out some live Fado music but as we didn’t book we couldn’t get a table. Both my friends were going on about Fado music. It originated in Lisbon and it’s quite emotional and mostly sad sounding. There’s a lot of info here on Wikipedia since I don’t know enough to be able to explain it.
Yes, I made it! Well, this is me halfway up.
We ate at a homely (non-touristy) restaurant and I ordered the Bacalhau for my last Portuguese dinner. Finally, I was having the famous salted cod! Mmmm salty codly goodness. 🙂
After dinner we went to Rua das Taipas for a beautiful panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately I don’t have any good photos of that though as I didn’t have a tripod and it was pitch black.
That was basically it. My last night in Lisbon and the last night of my trip.
Here are some of the “cobblestones” which are called calçada in Portuguese. As I said in my previous post, it requires a lot of skill and a lot of hard work to carve the stones and create a mosaic pattern at the same time. As beautiful as they are, they can be dangerous to walk on too, as they become quite slippery after being worn smooth over time. According to the article in Wikipedia this is a dying art that is slowly being phased out. I don’t think it’ll ever die in Portugal, though. It’s part of the country’s history and culture.
This is me buying a pair of comfy sneakers after almost killing my feet and my ankle boots. Look, there are even calçadas inside the store!
Originally I wanted to buy something from Eureka shoes, the store everyone raves about on travel blogs/forums. It has some amazing shoes (nice to look at and good quality) at decent prices. However, I didn’t find anything super comfortable that was also in my size… Disappointed, I just kept walking up the road (literally up, as it was uphill) and soon ran into another shoe store, Casa Senna. This one only sold sports shoes… yes, that’s what I needed!
Given I had no time to find another shoe store, and given I’m so fussy (no black, no white, no white soles, no 80s fluro colours), it was amazing I actually found something that fit my criteria. I was really happy with this Adidas Adipure pair with its cool colour combo featuring one of my favourite colours. They are really comfortable and light. Perfect! Note that the salesman doesn’t speak a word of English but somehow I got by.
I also just passed the threshold to get the tax back at the airport (however, in the end I wasn’t able to as I had to take Easyjet from the dodgy Terminal 2 which is for all the budget airlines and does not have a tax back office. I’m guessing it’s because most of the passengers are from the UK (Easyjet, Ryanair, etc) and you can only get tax back if you don’t live in the EU). I pretty much guessed that that would be the case and I wasn’t too disappointed as it was such a small amount anyway.
It’s always sad when a holiday ends, but it’s even more sad having to say goodbye to good friends. Still, who knows? I might be back one day and the time here I had was amazing that it will stay in my heart and memory forever.
I had heard and read horrible things about Terminal 2 so I was prepared. Everyone says that it’s overcrowded, there aren’t many shops or eateries, the security queues take forever… so I would get to the airport super early and take the first Aerobus leaving at 7.40am.
The night before I’d taken this photo
and I unintentionally took another photo in the same spot the next morning. One thing that always fascinates me is how beautiful the light is during the golden hour or the blue hour and how quickly the light changes from stunningly beautiful to dull grey.
I had some natas for breakfast (not as good as the ones from Belém though). I basically stuffed myself so I wouldn’t be hungry on the flight and it worked because it was about 2pm by the time I got back to Geneva and I wasn’t hungry in between.
posted off a postcard
and said goodbye to beautiful Lisboa! I’ve only just scratched the surface and I really hope to make it back here some day to see all the other cool places I missed. Te vejo em breve!
ADDRESSES:
Market – Mercado de Campo de Ourique
Rua Coelho da Rocha (behind the Paróquia De Santo Condestável church)
Chocolate cake shop – O Melhor Bolo De Chocolate Do Mundo
Rua Tenente Ferreira Durão, 62A
Junto ao Mercado de Campo de Ourique
Hotel – The Imperial Guesthouse
Praça dos Restauradores 78 – 4 andar, (Restauradores), Lisboa
Buttons store – Retrosaria Bijou
Rua da Conceição 91, Lisboa
Haberdashery store – J.R. Da Silva Lda retroseiro
Rua da Conceição 95, Lisboa
Design museum – MUDE
Rua Augusta 24, Lisboa
Shoe store – Eureka Shoes
Rua Nova do Almada 26, São Nicolau, (Chiado), Lisboa
Shoe store – Casa Senna
Rua Nova do Almada 48/52, (Chiado), Lisboa
Pastelaria (breakfast) – Pastelaria Casulo
Rua 1º de Dezembro 120, (Restauradores), Lisboa
(see all the pictures from Lisbon on my Flickr)
