This was meant to be a work trip but ended up being a work friends trip instead, which honestly had a better ring to it.
Wed 25th February #
Staying at Hotel Excelsior
For 2 Nights
We asked the reception for a recommendation for some food nearby Chú-Chú
Ordered octopus salad and Melon and Ham. When the waiter showed us pictures of the octopus salad it looked large, but what arrived was much, much smaller. It wasn’t enough to fill me up, so I ordered a chicken burger.
We planned to do a walking tour tomorrow, so we went to bed to rest well.
Thur 26th February #
Woke up at 7, but the hotel doors were very thin and not well insulated, so I didn’t sleep that well. Kept hearing someone giggling and running outside, and a baby crying the whole night 😫.
We signed up for a walking tour which starts at 10 this morning
Lisbon City Center Tour - The Unmissable Lisbon
But first we wanted to have lunch.
Where we got some bagels, had to eat them quite fast tho, as we had only 20 mins until the tour began
Starting point Monumento dos Restauradores
We passed through
Church of Saint Dominic Church burned down multiple times and got restored. Last time they decided to leave the melted rock. Looks very cool
With the artist’s signature as a flower
A peaceful revolution happened on this square which overthrew a 40 year old dictatorship
This is meant to look like a face of an author 🤔
After finishing the walking tour, we went for a quick break to refresh ourselves with some ice tea.
After that break we carried on exploring the city on our own
7 Euro for entrance
This is worth the visit, it’s stunning inside.
On the way up to the viewing platform we stopped for a bite to eat. We found a nice pizzeria after passing some very obvious tourist trap restaurants that were just begging for you to come inside. Their menus had way too many pages and were full of pictures, bad sign. But the pizzeria was very nice, quiet and the food was good.
At the viewing platform there were a few Portuguese musicians playing and singing, which added to the atmosphere. There are actually so many musicians throughout Lisbon; it was a shame we didn’t have much change to tip them.
As we started to climb down, we went through a number of stairs filled with cool graffiti
Roosters just living in this park, not something we expected to see.
Found a book exchange booth with lots of Russian books. Looks like someone decided to get rid of a ton of their collection, or there is a large Russian population in Lisbon.
Roo’s Cafe ( Cafeteira Snack Bar )
We got overheated and really needed something to cool us down. I made yet another bad choice and decided to be healthy, so I ordered an avocado, banana, pineapple and spinach drink. All I could taste was avocado though, haha.
Santa Marta Mediterranean Restaurant Lisbon
I had high hopes, but my order ended up being too small and way too salty, probably down to my poor choice or the restaurant being too busy. Had to stop at the nearest convenience store to get some biscuits so I didn’t starve during the night.
Fri 27th February #
Quick breakfast at Café Castro’s
Took a 20 mins bolt to the monastery
It was more cloudy today
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Jeronimos Monastery At 19 euros it felt too short. There was a designated path we had to follow and we couldn’t backtrack, so we only spent about 40 mins there.
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Church of Saint Mary of Bethlehem Igreja de Santa Maria de Belém
Free
Got a box of 4 pastel de nata. They were very nice and creamy. Pigeons and Ducks were staking out outside the restaurant to pick up crumbs
We took a taxi back to the original hotel to pick up our stuff and check in to Easy Hotel
Staying at EasyHotel Lisbon for 2 nights
I kept being unlucky with my restaurant choices. This time it was entirely my fault for ordering basically a plain cheese pizza 😫.
Then we did a bit of a rehash of yesterday. We did a bit of tour guiding for the friends what joined us later, trying to retell all we could remember from the day before. It was a test of our memory and attention 😆
Tried some Ginjinha at Ginjinha Sem Rival, which translates to “without rival”. The guy behind the counter said “Come on you are killing me” with the most New York accent when we couldn’t choose how many drinks to take
Visited the Carmo Archaeological Museum
Met this museum cat who kept posing and not giving a hoot about the people
I am trying to keep myself from adding more pics of him
Had dinner at Zazah
Finally had a good dinner which was just enough and tasted good. We mostly shared, which means the damage from my choices was minimised
Saturday 28th February #
Will be downstairs at 8 for breakfast and will take a 9 am train to Sintra.
But first we had a quick breakfast at Café Castro’s.
Walked to the Rossio station and got on our train to Sintra (40 mins trip).
Once we reach Sintra we will get the 434 bus sintra-portugal.com
The ticket was just €10.96
The buses kept moving forward even if they weren’t full, which meant that at one point you’d be first in the queue, then the bus would move, people would panic and start trying to pile in, completely breaking the perfectly formed queue. No one respects the queue here!
We decided to skip The Moorish Castle, as it didn’t seem like it was worth visiting. Looked like many ruins in the UK we have seen.
Also we saw it from the bus stop, so that was enough.
A tuk tuk got into a standoff with the buses. The road was closed and it would have broken the bus windows, which meant we couldn’t go to Pena. So we went back to the station and got an Uber to Monserrate instead. They were waiting for the national guard to sort it out. At least, this is what the bus driver told us, he might have been exaggerating.
- Park and Palace of Monserrate
- 12 Euro
This Palace was constructed by an English Millionaire Francis Cooke, in the 19th century. Known to have one of the richest botanic gardens to exist in Portugal consisting of waterfalls, exotic trees and lakes.
- 12 Euro
This Palace was constructed by an English Millionaire Francis Cooke, in the 19th century. Known to have one of the richest botanic gardens to exist in Portugal consisting of waterfalls, exotic trees and lakes.
We took the bolt back to the Sintra station. So many of the Portuguese drivers we encountered seemed to be incredibly impatient. At one point our driver even got out of the car to argue with another driver when he was clearly in the wrong. We just sat awkwardly in the car waiting for him to come back 😂
We went on in search for our lunch spot, passing by multiple tuk tuk drivers trying to convince us to take their services. They won’t take no for an answer.
- National Palace of Pena
- 20 Euro
The palace is 500 meters above the sea level. It was built in 1839 when king consort Ferdinand II of Saxe Coburgo-Gotha adapted the Monastery of Our Lady of Jerome Pena to the palace.
Looks like a sand castle
There wasn’t a lot of consistency with the design; it honestly seemed like it was built by a child. But it had a very nice charm to it and we liked it the most out of any palace we’ve ever been to. It was fun exploring it.
The sun was setting so we headed back to the bus and the train.
Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to walk to Quinta da Regaleira as the sun was about to set. So we caught a 6:50 train back to Lisbon.
Came back to the hotel and collapsed on the bed for 40 mins
Went out for food with more of our coworker friends at Orquídea
After dinner we had a 30 min walk back to the hotel, a nice way to wind down.
There were so many guys in black puffer jackets offering marijuana on every corner, jesus.
Sun 1st March #
Breakfast at Maison Luce Avenida and then headed out to explore Cascais
The water was freezing.
Boca do Inferno - Devil’s Mouth
On our way to Lisbon we stopped at Belem once more to dine at Pastéis de Belém
Got back to the EasyHotel, got our bags and got on our way to the airport.
