Lisbon, Portugal

Well, first let me say, that I won the luck of the draw, and got to sit beside the hottest man on the plane! (FYI Ryanair is now assigning seats). Yup, even though we were up at 2am to make it to the airport via bus, it paid off!! He was a Spanish personal trainer, going to Lisbon for a conference/interview, hoping he would be returning to Madrid after 4 years in London. He understood how I was missing the sun! All of my friends were super jelly 😛

Anyways, now that I have got the bragging out of the way, we arrived in Lisbon, no problem and were greeted with sea views and the enveloping warmth of the sunshine!! It hurt our tired eyes! (As a side note, apparently people from the UK are at a much higher risk of retinal detachment/sensitivities, due to lack of light throughout the year). It was glorious!

Then, after an easy commute on the metro to Praça da Comercio, we walk out into a large square, looking onto the water and huge yellow buildings all around it. I love this city already! So much colour 🙂 And, people are wearing colourful pants (trousers for the Brits) too! I wish I had brought mine along. We had a lot of difficulty finding our place to stay, but the host of our Airbnb came and found us. It is such a good location, walking distance to everything, and with a great view out over to the city. The apartment itself is also quite nice, we have a kitchen, small balcony, and sitting area, with a loft upstairs. Katherine and I took the loft, while Hilary and Laura shared the main bedroom, and Tonia slept on the pull out couch (Ikea, which actually pulls out to a double bed size).

Despite our lack of sleep, we freshened up, and headed out to explore the area. We turned up the hill (Lisbon sits on 7 hills) towards the Sé Cathedral, and picked our way up. We were aiming towards the São Jorge castle, but mostly were just wandering the streets. Alfama (this district) is full of narrow streets and tiled houses that transports you back a couple of centuries to the colonial glory of Portugal. It was fantastic. So charming. Little pastry shops and cafes everywhere. Mid-afternoon, we found one, across from the Fado museum, where we shared a pitcher of Sangria. I could sit in the sun all day with Sangria! We even got some tan lines! Siesta time! I love the laid back feel here. The only downside, just like in Spain, is that most restaurants are closed between 2-7, and trying to find food at 3:30 was a bit of a challenge. We did find a hippy cafe, right next to the Sé, and re-fueled.

Eventually, we made it around to the river, and back to Praça da Comercio, where we stopped at the tourist info centre. Guess who is in Lisbon tonight! Backstreet Boys! Katherine and I seriously debated whether we could stay awake long enough to go to the concert. They were starting their European segment of the tour. We also found our way to the supermarket, to pick up breakfast and snacks. Anita, I thought of you as I picked up Snickers for the road.

In the end, we did not get to the concert, and called it a night around 9pm. I was very impressed with how well everyone handled themselves on little sleep. Tomorrow we are doing super touristy things in Belém!