Lisboa, Portugal - November 2-6 (Part I)

I will admit to being naive about Portugal before we arrived. I really didn't know what to expect from the people or the food and had no idea about the sights. I didn't expect it to be like Spain, but I wasn't quite prepared for the differences either. Obviously the language is a major difference. Despite looking similar to Spanish, it sounds Slavic, and because we were so close to done I didn't even exert the effort to learn the language that I had in other countries. All that ignorance made what we found even more surprising. Lisbon is an amazing city and even after 4 nights we weren't anywhere near being sick of it.

First, Lisbon is hilly...very hilly. We got an excellent workout marching all over the city. The main commercial area is in a sort of valley between the hills and an old castle complex towers over the city.



Because of the hills and narrow streets, the main mode of public transportation through the old part of town are awesome old trams. On our first day we took Tram #28 through pretty much all of the touristy sights (the cathedral, the castle, the lookout points). It took a while to figure out where to buy day passes and how to explain what we wanted in Portuguese, but everything else was easy.



From the viewpoints and the castle we were able to get some great views of the town and the bay.







The Golden Gate Bridge replica completes the San Francisco feel of the city.

Our great B&B, Casa de Bairro, was in the Bairro Alto area of town. One of the few remaining funiculars was just around the corner and we took a ride on it our last afternoon for kicks.



We had a bit of an uphill walk, but there were some great restaurants nearby. Our first night (after some serious lost wandering and direction asking because Lisbon is extremely confusing and a good map was hard to come by) we went to O Barrigas. There Ali found her new obsession in Bacalhau Espiritual, which is essentially a salt cod souffle.

On another night we were craving roast chicken. We left the first restaurant shortly after being seated because the waiters were too pushy. We climbed up some steps and found a little hole in the wall chicken place called El Rei D'Frango (I think that's right. Don't confuse it with Bonjardim aka Rei Dos Frangos which is the aforementioned ditched restaurant. It's more central and busier, but while the food might be good, it doesn't come close for price and service). We perused the menu and ordered chicken...before being told they were out of chicken for the night. We settled for two entrees (different kinds of pork, but I'm still not sure what) and a liter of wine. The entrees were enormous and came with rice, potatoes and salad. Everything was delicious, but we had no chance of finishing it. Somewhere through the liter of wine I decided to strike up a conversation with the cook/server/owner. Using the guidebook translator, I asked when they would have chicken and somehow made a reservation to return for the chicken three nights later. We returned three nights later not sure if they would remember us. We sat for a few minutes and still weren't acknowledged, but we saw the woman hard at work. Eventually, without speaking with us, she presented a roast chicken plate. Great stuff.

We also had our first encounter with a Portuguese pastry shop which also seems to triple as a coffee shop and diner. A ham and cheese sandwich and bowl of soup lunch special got us through Porto our last few days in Europe.

That's only half the Lisbon post, but it should give you an idea of how much we enjoyed it.