Portugal stay #1: Lisbon
It didn’t take long after we arrived in Lisbon for us to fall in love with this city. Lisbon, especially the neighborhood we stayed in, is a very okd city. There are winding cobblestone streets everywhere, orange tiled roofs, and open air restaurants and shops around every corner. We are in a very touristy neighborhood so we are able to get by with English only with ease, and everybody we meet is very friendly.
Our apartment
We have a VRBO apartment in the Baixa neighborhood. It’s up a stump hill with beautiful views do the river, and only a couple blocks from where Rita and Gregg are staying. It’s on a short side street, at the end of which we learned from Gregg becomes a party at night, with live music, street food oardes of mixes locals and visitors dancing and drinking into the evening. We would get to see this for ourselves on the second night, but the first night we passed out early before the festivities started and barely heard a peep from out our window.
That first evening after we arrived we walked down our hill and ate dinner at Pistola de Corazon, a little Mexican place near us. Yea, it was a little strange to land in Europe and head straight for Mexican dinner, but it had great reviews, was easy, and it lived up to our expectations.
Tuk tuk rides and street cars
Our first course of action as just to walk around a bit and explore. We had promised Sawyer that Portugal was the land of bakeries and treats, so we immediately seemed out the nearest spot and picked up a couple of Portugal’s most famous treat, a small custard in a flaky crust called a pasta de nata. It did not disappoint.
It was a beautiful day, but the sun was hot and the distances long, and sawyer was getting quickly tired trapping around, so we grabbed a nearby Tuk Tuk to give us a ride to the other side of town where we could have some lunch and catch a streetcar …
Street art and sailboats
We started our second day with a scheduled “street art” tour around Lisbon. Our guide walked around the city showing us graffiti, murals, tags and tons of amazing public art, both legal and illegal, throughout the city. It really gave us a new viewpoint on the city, and we saw so many little beautiful details we never would have noticed just wandering around ourselves
Next day, morning walk, pasta da nata, Tuk Tuk ride, lunch with a view, tram 28, food hall, night out with Alyssa