Sardines and Sangria in Lisbon

When I pictured moving to London, I certainly saw myself travelling a lot, whether on city-breaks or epic backpacking trips.  I didn’t quite foresee that jetting away would so quickly become a part of London life, that when I discovered I had no overseas trips planned in October I would feel compelled to immediately remedy the situation.  The solution?  Four days in Lisbon!

Lisbon is the perfect city to visit for a long weekend from London – far enough away that it feels like a proper holiday, much warmer in October, and very easy to explore.  One of the first things Nicole, Kate and I did on our arrival was make a bee-line for the Santa Justa Elevadore lift for some awesome views over the centre.

The Santa Justa lift is the only vertical elevadore left in central Lisbon and was constructed in 1900 to improve access between the Baixa area and the Carmo Square.  It still serves this purpose, as well as providing a great way to get your bearings.

Grilled sardines are one of Lisbon’s best-known dishes so, of course, I had to try them straight away.  Apparently the Portuguese have a very neat way of eating them without the skin or bones, but I dug into bits of the crispy skin too.  Delicious!

I was totally charmed by the architecture in Lisbon – between the tiles and the brightly-painted walls there was a lot of colour!  The buildings had a lovely historic feel and in the centre the cobbled pavements all have different patterns – they must have taken forever to be laid down.

Although Lisbon is a hilly city, there are lots of ways to get around if you want to rest your legs – metro, buses, and best of all gorgeous little trams.  I would advise getting one of the travel cards for these as they can be quite expensive if you just want to hop on and off – as we found out.

Another Portuguese specialty are the pastéis de nata, or custard tarts.  The ultimate place to try these is the original factory in Belém, but they can be found all over the city.  We decided that strictly for research purposes we would have to try a few different places… just to compare of course!

Later that evening we met up with Louise and Jono, who were continuing their epic holiday around Europe.  We headed into the Baixa and stumbled upon the street Rua de Atalaia which proved to be a great choice for dinner and drinks – there were heaps of restaurants and the bars were pumping!  The caprinihas were pretty amazing too…