First stop, Lisbon!

 Hi All, Nikita here! 

From SFO, we landed in Lisbon to begin our journey. Chester had been here once before in 2017 for his own solo 5-month trip, while this is my first time in Portugal. We're only stopping briefly here for a few days before we head to Italy.

First thoughts: Lisbon is vibey! I have been pleasantly surprised with all the cool restaurants, bars, parks, viewpoints, and art the city has to offer. This feels like the right place to get started.

Second thoughts: There are a TON of stags and hen-dos. It feels like they're every other group we see here. Also, our flight to Lisbon definitely had a whole wedding party on board. You can definitely feel that tourism is booming here. 

Third thoughts: Lisbon is super diverse so far! I have to think it's due to the rise of tourism and definitely the rise in the number of digital nomads/immigrants moving here. We're hearing all languages, and so far it's been relatively easy to get by on English. I'm trying my best to learn the basic phrases but I'm struggling 😅

Fourth thoughts: Living in the Bay Area has really prepared us for the hills. There's a lot of them!

Day One

Our first day we wanted to keep it chill as we both got about 3-4 hours of sleep and were struggling to keep awake. We refreshed and first things first, we had pastel de nata at Manteigaria, which was simply divine. This would be the first of many. We then took a stroll up some steep hills to a lovely viewpoint, and then grabbed early drinks at kitschy bar called Pavilão Chinês and then dinner at Tricky's, which had some of the best beef tartare we've ever had there. It was a great entry into the city.

Day Two

Our second day we explored a ton more. We did a walking tour with Hi Lisbon of Alfama and Mouraria, which are the oldest districts in Lisbon. 

Starting in the Alfama district, we had the opportunity to walk the narrow streets and see the locals preparing for the Feast of St. Anthony. We witnessed the whole neighborhood coming together to set up decorations in a true act of community. What resonated with me especially was the concept of fado, which our tour guide explained was a sadness for nostalgic yearning of past times. One can listen to fado, a type of blues in some of the bars along the main street. It resonated with me just because I think we all yearn for times from our youth where things were carefree and fun, and there was something chilling yet beautiful about a whole musical style dedicated to that feeling. It seems that a lot of folks in the community yearn for those days.

We also found out that street art is legal here, and there were so many recent pieces of art from the last 10 years all over the neighborhood. We spent some time on a comic strip mural of the history of Lisbon, which put into perspective the literal layers of the city we saw. We saw different ruins from various points in history that were either built over due to conquest or due to natural disaster.

Being an older neighborhood, we also met a lovely grandma who served us our first Ginjinha of the trip. I had been wanting to try the cherry liquor, and it surely didn't disappoint. And we had our second pastel de nata at Pastelaria Santo António, which won the best pastel de nata in 2019. We found this one to have a flakier crust and a stronger caramelization on the top. 

The other district we visited was Mouraria, which is an incredibly ethnically diverse neighborhood. The Moors were the first to move here, and today many communities around the world have a presence here. From what the tour guide mentioned, there seems to be significant gentrification going on, and it's become a very trendy spot. There was food from all over the world in the couple blocks we walked along. We ended up coming back for lunch to have Mozambican food, a mix of Portuguese, African, and Indian flavors. I didn't realize that Mozambique was a former Portuguese colony.

Later on in the day, we went for dinner at another delicious and vibey restaurant called Pomme Eatery, known for their tapa style dishes and natural wine. We decided to find a wine bar afterwards and stumbled upon this beautiful park square that had people enjoying drinks in the nice evening air. Forget the wine bar, we were going to be drinking in the park. There was live music and people everywhere. It was just how we wanted to spend the evening and lamented that we don't have third places like this back at home. The park felt alive with energy, and the local businesses supported that energy. How many places have you been that literally have wine bars surrounding a park? It was also super interesting for us to observe the number of digital nomads in this one area. It honestly felt like we were in Brooklyn for a minute with the fashion, the diversity, the wine, and the overheard conversations.

Day Three

Day three is a Sunday, typically what we're reserving as a day of rest. We're still rushing on the high of being on this adventure, so we didn't have quite a day of rest and ended up walking 20K steps.

We went to LX Factory with a ton of local boutiques, restaurants, and artwork in the space. If we weren't planning on traveling for 6 months, we would've done some serious retail therapy here. We found one woman who was selling postcards and had a service where she would mail them for us. That's something that we've been thinking of doing for our close friends and family while abroad, and it felt serendipitous that this was something that we just found by chance. Our first postcard has been sent!

After checking out the market, we headed over to Belém Tower, which was built in the 16th century to defend Lisbon against its enemies. It also marks the beginning of voyages for sailors. Unfortunately, the tower is under construction and we weren't able to tour it. It is quite remarkable from the outside though. Trying to honor our Sunday day of rest, we grabbed beers and sat by the river for a bit, which for me, sounded much nicer in theory than reality. I am scared of birds, and the pigeons here were fearless. I'm not exaggerating when I say that one almost attacked me for a pastry.

We rested for a bit and then went out for dinner at Bacalhau (translates directly to cod) for some seafood. Codfish is a staple in Portuguese cuisine, and we had to try some before we left! After having codcakes and grilled octopus, we made our way to Nannarella's for some of the best gelato I've ever had. I tried tiramisu and pistachio, and Chester tried salted caramel. This was just a preview of all the delicious Italian gelato to be had.

Day Four

Our last day! Our friends sent their high praises for bifanas at Bifanas of Afonso, and we had to give Lisbon's most famous pork sandwich a try. The pork is braised in white wine, garlic, bay leaf, and lard, and it was so good we went back for seconds. After indulging, we headed off on the train for a day trip in Sintra to see Pena Palace and Quinta da Regaleira.

Pena Palace is a bit of a Franken-castle. There's a lot going on with mixes of Moorish, Gothic, and Romantic architecture. We toured the castle and the grounds, and my initial impressions were "wow this is ornate and kinda weird" and "wow, the tour is showing us a lot of bathrooms." It's definitely worth going to for the sheer beauty, but it is a popular spot and the tour of the castle felt like a conveyor belt of people moving slowly.

We went to Quinta da Regaleira after. We were mainly interested in the grounds here with a lot of interesting Gothic style architecture. We had fun taking pictures in all the towers and discovering underground pathways in the grottos. The main attraction here is the Initiation Well, which felt like an inverted tower and fountain mixed into one. I've never been in anything like it.

We ended our night and our trip with pizza and wine close by to our hostel and another pastel de nata because we couldn't leave without just one more. Onwards to Italy!