Lisboa, Portugal
05/06/2022
June. Holiday season. What a chance to go out and travel again. For me and my sister, this time the destination was Lisbon. Neither of us had been to Portugal before and the place has been on our bucket lists for a while now, so off we went.
After a quick two-hour flight from Bergamo with trusted & high quality carrier Ryanair we landed at Lisbon Aeroporto Humberto Delgado. A short while later we already reached our hotel.
We subsequently went to get some food, finding a nice Italian place called “Il Monello” – funnily enough after just having left Italy. After some pasta and a steak we set out to get some first impressions of the city. For this we headed to the quarter Graça, our first destination.
After walking across a street market we were immediately captivated by a store called “A Vida Portuguesa” which till date remains one of my favourite spots in town. The store is located in an old tailor shop with a lot of wooden vintage furniture that really goes well with all the Portuguese goods – carpets, towels, food, clothing, furniture, toys, etc. I am sure you can tell which one will be my new Zoom / Teams background.
After a stop at the store with my sister getting some fancy Portuguese sneakers in white & blue we continued our stroll through the area, continuing all the way up to “Miradouro da Senhora do Monte“, a little park and lookout point where we were able to get a first full glimpse at the skyline.
We then continued through the district, spotting some really beautiful and also some development-worthy buildings. The city has a very warm and welcoming feel to it and we liked exploring a lot.
After grabbing a beer and some dried fruit at yet another street food market, we walked towards Bairro Alto, the higher located quarter of the city. Two enthusiastic gentlemen offered me weed in front of the police (“Yo bro wanna buy some hash”) but I respectfully declined. I later found out that the police does nothing since these “dealers” simply sell dried tea leaves to unknowing tourists. Anyways – we continued our way uphill past “Elevador de Santa Justa“, a big elevator into the upper town you can easily get around using by simply walking 5 minutes more – instead of waiting in line for 30 minutes and paying good money for using it.
Once there, we wanted to go for dinner and found a nice restaurant, once more Italian. “Fabbrica di Pasta Fresca” is pretty certainly not run by Italians, but it did deliver on the promise of fresh & delicious pasta, which we enjoyed a lot.
After a good dinner we continued our stroll in direction of “Cais do Sodré” to finish the night with a view of the waterside.
Chau!