Lisbon

 

 

 Lisbon was a great place to base ourselves as it wasn’t summer weather the whole 5 days – just the last 2 really so its great to be based in a city where you can explore, go out for nice meals, try local dishes etc and then you get trains out of the city on day trips. Public transport was so reliable and cheap so that was a huge bonus. On the first day we were really tired from the early start and travel so we went exploring and it didn’t take us long to find a nice restaurant and order a bottle or Rose wine… and of course I found the traditional custard tarts pretty fast mmmm!

On the second day we walked all around the city and had a delicious lunch of paella with prawns as well as a jug of Pimm’s! After this we somehow walked up to the famous castle ‘The Castle of São Jorge’ which is a Moorish castle that occupies a commanding position overlooking the city of Lisbon. The strongly fortified citadel, which, in its present configuration, dates from medieval times, is located atop the highest hill in the historic center of the city. The castle is one of the main historical and touristic sites of Lisbon. (Thanks Wikipedia!!)

It cost 7 euro to enter (4 euro for KB and I as that was the price for 25 and under!).

On the third day in Lisbon we went on another epic walk – Lisbon has very steep hills and I don’t know how I made it up them!!! We checked out some markets before stumbling upon such a cool restaurant with incredible sea views. So we had a late lunch with yes, some cocktails and just chilled out there for hours and hours enjoying the music, sun and views.

That night we found a traditional Portuguese restaurant down a side street and I had a beautiful codfish steak with rice and raisins with some Port to finish off the meal…

My favorite aspect of Lisbon was all of the beautiful tile designs – they were everywhere! I had a book at my job at Jason Products on Portugal tile designs that I cherished so much and this weekend I saw them all in real life – I’m still pinching myself a nearly a year after leaving NZ – and there is still so much more to be amazed by!