Portuguesey

We made it out of the UK on our second trip of the fall last weekend to Lisbon, Portugal. Again, we played the "where's the cheapest flight from London this weekend" game and ended up in the lovely city of Lisbon. Unfortunately, we might as well have played the "where's the craziest weather going to be this weekend" game as we felt like we were back in London for most of the weekend. Ontario just doesn't get the wild bright blue clear skies with torrential downpours minutes later like they do here.



One of many walls of rain headed our way on Saturday.

Despite the insane weather, we jammed in a ton of sightseeing and saw enough of Portugal to know that we definitely want to go back and have a warm and / or at least sunny vacation next year. Portugal is also super cheap compared to London so we didn't feel that guilty about being on "vacation" as we were probably spending less money on food & necessities than we would have if we had stayed in London!

We had undoubtedly one of the best meals EVER in Lisbon on the Friday night at Cruzes credo in the "Alfama" (super old) part of the city. It's conveniently located right outside of one of Lisbon's stunning churches on a steep hill so the scenery is almost as impressive as the food. We shared a few appetizers that included a giant bowl of olives (amazing), olive tapenade (the silly waiter warned us we were ordering a lot of olives HA!), and BUTTERY chorizo. I could eat only that chorizo for the rest of my life and be so happy. Well maybe with a few olives once in a while.  ANYWAYS, for the main we had pork shoulder with clams. Again, INCREDIBLE. Pat wanted to eat there for every meal the entire weekend. I forced him to try other places but secretly would have been ok with that if he had really insisted. It was that good.

We stayed at the Yes! Lisbon Hostel which was also excellent. It was absolutely the cleanest hostel I've ever stayed in. There was constantly someone going around mopping or checking on the washrooms. It was a pretty lively atmosphere as well which made us feel young again! Breakfast was included & I will not lie and say that I didn't indulge in some Nutella every morning. If it's free, then it doesn't have calories. Fact.

On Saturday we tried our best to squeeze in all of the main tourist destinations including the Castle and the Belem Tower. The tourist spots were surprisingly expensive, but they were all very impressive & worth checking out. The Castle especially was very cool, and very scary if you're not good with heights. There are some walkways around the towers that are definitely not up to code in terms of handrails.



Deceivingly blue skies from the top of the Cathedral!

Architecture inside the military museum



Interesting neighbourhood around the Castle entrance 

We took the train out to Belem in the afternoon to see the tower and the monastery. We didn't go inside the monastery but the architecture of the building itself was very cool to see. The tower was interesting but again, very expensive & of all the places we went I felt like we could have skipped paying to go inside. Walking along the water in the Belem area is so nice and if I were to go back (with money being no object) I would probably stay at the Altis Belem Hotel & Spa - its rooms looked amazing.



Monastery in Belem

"Monument to the Discoveries" (with "Golden Gate Bridge" and "Christ the Redeemer" in background!)



Boyz & their toyz



Hopefully catching my dinner!



Belem Tower



#belemtowerselfie

Saturday evening we ate at another small / cute little restaurant in the Alfama area. I forget the name of it - the food wasn't noteworthy - but they had an acoustic guitarist playing in the restaurant who was PHENOMENAL. He played an acoustic version of Get Lucky by Daft Punk that had the whole restaurant singing along it was super cool. Now that I look into this more it appears several musicians have covered this song, but his was so good - it was a pretty magical moment. Here's another musician's take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TMIUAzF2q4 (He even gives the vocals a go.)

We tried to book a guided tour on Sunday to head up the coast but for some reason the tours were all sold out - even though the website said there were spots available. So we decided to be brave and venture out of Lisbon on our own by train. Ha! It was so easy. We are such wimps sometimes. The train was about 45 min from Central Lisbon & about the price of a single tube trip in London. We ended up in Cascais, which seems to be a little resort town on the beach. There were so many surfers enjoying the autumn sunshine, and even a few paddleboarders riding the waves which I didn't know was a thing. We pretty much just spent the day enjoying the sunshine & 20 degree weather along the water. The beach in the town is lined with a nice promenade filled with cafes & restaurants so we just café-hopped our way along the beach and then back again before catching the train back to Lisbon.



So excited for fresh air!



Paddleboarders & surfers braving the cold water
 



Catching some rays



I carried the banana & umbrella around all day only to have the umbrella confiscated by airport security :(



Boogie boarders



Cascais

We headed "home" to London Sunday night, arriving back to our apartment at the lovely hour of 3 am. Thanks Stansted! and Ryanair!

I am anxious to fit in one more weekend trip before Christmas. Pat may have to go to Tours, France for work so I'm hoping he will be able to fit his work trip around my schedule ;)

We are also planning to visit my cousin in Cambridge this weekend and perhaps try to squeeze in one Christmas market in the next few weeks. So much to do so little time! #nottheworstproblemtohave

Cheers!

ps - we managed to print our boarding passes ahead of time this trip :)