Lisbon short break

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After nearly six months of teaching, I'm on holiday! Ben and I had planned a short trip to Lisbon before he went home, and then I would do a short tour of Andalucia on my way to the airport. Our plan for the trip was to spend the day in Seville sight-seeing before getting an overnight bus to Lisbon, but of course the trip wouldn't be complete without a Ben 'n' Orla transport adventure! The bus was full and we would have had to wait until the next night. Luckily we took a few minutes to discuss our options and found another bus company that would take us there that day. Which only gave us 45mins before the bus left! We arrived in Lisbon around 9pm and embarked on a mission to find a hostel. Luckily we hit the jackpot with the first one we tried - "Stay Inn" in the Barrio Alto. It was very modern and only opened five days so it was very cheap and had exceptionally friendly staff.

After we got settled in we went out for a wander and to find something to eat. Lisbon was incredibly quiet coming from Spain, and it obviously doesn't follow the same late eating times either as most places were closed or had stopped serving. The few places that were open seemed a lot more expensive than we had expected. We finally found a relatively cheap Indian restaurant to eat at, before going back to the hostel for a good long sleep!

After a seemingly endless amount of breakfast, the next day we decided to do a bus tour of Lisbon to get an idea of what there is to see and do. We found the buses leaving from near the Terreiro de Paco square with its majestic architecture. The tour took us around various other squares and parks, long avenues lined with trees and old buildings, to the new commercial district with modern shopping centres, and back down alongside the Tagus river. We got off at the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (Hieronymites Monastery) and saw as much of the building as was free to visit! Then we walked down to the waterfront and to the Padrao dos Descobrimentos; a monument to the age of discoveries featuring Henry the Navigator as well as other writers, navigators, mathematicians, captains and astrologers. Then we walked down the riverside to the Belem Tower - the only building we were willing to pay to go inside. It's a fortified tower that played an important part of a defence system at the mouth of the Tagus. Having explored every room and crevice, we grabbed a quick lunch before getting the bus back. So far our impression of Lisbon is of a more central/eastern European city with a French flavour! The Portuguese language sounds very similar to Spanish (although they slur their 's'😉 with a French accent. We didn't realise that France had an influence on Portugal until we looked it up. During the 10th and 11th centuries, many Frenchmen immigrated to Portugal to help fight the Moors, influencing Portugal with their manners, customs, and language. E.g. the Portuguese for 'street' is Rua derived from the French Rue.

Back at Terreiro de Paco, we found some free wine tasting under the arches in one of the buildings. We tried a delicious crisp fruity white wine from the North; a woody rich red from the South; a very tart cabernet sauvignon from mid-Portugal; as well as a five-year-old dessert wine that tasted like sweet sherry from the North. Delicious! However, nothing was in our price range so we departed, a big tipsy. Later we headed out to find a bar that was showing the England soccer match, and ended up in the Alfama medieval quarter. There was bunting everywhere, left over from the celebrations for St. Anthony's Day the week before. St. Anthony is the patron saint of Lisbon, it seems we just missed out on a good party! The game itself was poor but we got nicely drunk as the beers (200cl) were only 80c each! To be fair the owner did her bit to keep us sober by feeding us multiple dishes of free nuts and random fried chicken pieces. We went out on the street and found somewhere cheap-ish to eat - battered fish in tomato sauce with prawns and mash. We also got served some great cheese and bread, but alas it wasn't free! After getting some advice we decided that the Barrio Alto was our best bet for drinking options. It still seemed quiet, but we randomly turned down a street with a broken tram and discovered what seemed like all the bars in Lisbon all in a row! While we were there we met an ameteur film crew who were making a film about a girl who gets drunk in a bar, and eventually gets thrown out. We were invited to take part - she falls into Ben as he's sitting down and we both look annoyed.

After a few more bars and a failed attempt at finding a nightclub, we found a very fancy 20's themed bar called 'Foxtrot'. The drinks were expensive as expected, but they also tried to charge us e10 for an hour of pool at the end of the night! Cue a long argument in Spanish trying to bring that down!

The next day despite a very long afternoon lie-in, we headed back to the Alfama district. This time we got the no. 28 tram up the hills, which gave us beautiful views at the top. We walked up to the castle but didn't go in, instead we wandered around the backstreets. We saw many old whitewashed houses packed tightly together around the narrow streets, some had songbirds in cages hanging out the front, and a lot more of the colourful bunting from the festival. There were a lot of outdoor restaurants and places advertising Fado - local melancholic folk music. We sat down at one place and nibbled on jamon, cheese and empanadas washed down with delicious white wine, while taking in the atmosphere. The singers were great, accompanied by the classical and Portuguese guitar. We were happy until the bill came - it was enormous and we didn't even have a main. Very disgruntled at the hidden costs in Lisbon.

Ben left early on our last day to head home to England, and I had the day to myself until my overnight bus back to Seville. I was determined not to spend any more money in Lisbon, feeling cheated after all the unexpected extra expenses. I went for one long last walk around the Alfama district for some lovely panoramas before settling myself in a cafe with a book to pass the day. I was really looking forward to getting back to Cadiz, where everything is cheaper and people are more honest! Lisbon was nice but after a good start, all the arguing over bills really put a negative spin on the whole visit.

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