Let´s Go To Lisbon

Lisbon Portugal is just a stones throw away from Spain, so it would make absolutely no sense not to take a weekend trip over to the coastal town.

Instead of taking the twenty minute flight, we decided to check one more thing off our bucket lists while abroad and take the ten hour night train. So Thursday night we boarded the train in Madrid at nine o´clock and settled in for our arrival in Portugal the next morning.

Once we arrived in Portugal we settled into out hostel and devoured breakfast, absolutely devoured. We started our day with a free walking tour our hostel offered,we walked the major areas and took in some really pretty views. Our guide was real big on the history side of Lisbon, which was good since none of us knew anything about it.

Following the tour we grabbed lunch which ended up being ice cream, basically blizzards, as we were still pretty full from breakfast that morning. We then took the afternoon to pop into various shops and explore the area, taking a brief visit to the worlds oldest library still in it´s original place. It was actually kind of a disappointment, they didn´t make too pretty of libraries back in the day.

Augusta Arch

We then headed back to our hostel to clean up and rest up before dinner. We ate at our hostel, as they had a phenomenal chef, Anna, who made traditional Portuguese food that was to die for. That night we had a Portuguese cabbage soup followed by a pork sandwich with mustard, chips, salad and rice all finished off with carrot cake. After dinner we did a pub crawl with our hostel that hit up a lot of the major bars in the area and was a ton of fun.

Saturday morning we rose bright and early, grabbing breakfast at the hostel before heading out for our "We Hate Tourism Tour". This tour aimed at taking us around to all the hot spots of Lisbon and it´s surrounding areas while also letting us in on the local favorites and secrets. I would come to refer to this tour as the foodies tour, and I loved it.
We started the day off in Sintra, just outside of Lisbon it is the World Heritage City filled with beautiful architecture and winding cobblestone streets. We immediately sampled the local pastry, Queijadas, which were really sweet and good. once we arrived in the city center we tried ginja, a cherry liquor in a chocolate glass that was pretty good. We spent some time wandering the area and learning a bit about the history of Sintra before hopping back into our bright yellow van. From the city center we headed up to Quinta de Regaleira, an old castle and gardens that was closed to the public until the 1980s. It was seriously one of the coolest places I have ever been, the majority of the grounds are gardens and wells and waterfalls all connected by underground tunnels that are pitch dark, as out tour guide put it
"the whole purpose of this place is to get lost". We had a blast wandering around and finding dead ends as well as secret passage ways that eventually led to these castle esque structures, it was like living in a real life game of clue.

Sintra 

 Quinta de Regaleira 

 Quinta de Regaleira, Inverted Well

 Quinta de Regaleira

After Sintra and Quinta de Regaleira we headed towards lunch, we wandered the local market amazed by the fact that it was seriously some of the largest looking produce we´ve ever seen before hitting up the food truck for lunch. Our guide said that this food truck is one of the best kept secrets in Lisbon and I don´t think he was kidding one bit, we each had Pao de Chorizo, a traditional food in Portugal. The food truck had a traditional wood fire oven where it cooked the calzone esque sandwiches filled with chorizo (spicy sausage), cheese and tomato and then baked to the perfect crisp (to be one hundred percent honest it kind of reminded me of a Portuguese Smashing Tomato).

Pao de Chorizo

Market and the World's largest kiwi

After enjoying our lunch we made our way to the end of the earth, or as it is formally known, Cabo de Roca. It is the farthest west point in Europe and back in the day it was believed to be the end of the world before they found out about the whole world being round thing. We took time to enjoy the beautiful cliffs and views before ignoring our tour guide's recommendation and climbing over fences and up onto rocks and cliffs (he later loved us for this as we were an adventurous group). It was absolutely beautiful there and i could have stayed there the rest of my trip and been content.

After the end of the earth, we made a stop in Cascais a beautiful coastal town known for it's resort feel, it's Casino that inspired the Casino Royale James Bond book, and the gorgeous Marina. It is also known among the locals for the best gelato in the world, so we of course had to try it and they might just be right. I had strawberry, raspberry, and walnut gelato and the flavors were so obviously fresh and amazing .

We left Cascais and made our way to Belem, an area right outside of Lisbon known for it's beautiful architecture, history and pastries. We viewed the changing of the guards at a monument in honor of Portuguese soldiers, then took in the views of the monument of explorers and the Portuguese version of the golden gate bridge. We then ended our tour with the oh so famous pastries, Pastel de Nata at the original shop. Only three people in the world know the original recipe and it's secret ingredient. We ate them like locals with a little bit of powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. It was a great way to end the day.

Changing of the Guards

Pastel de Nata

Explorer's Monument and Bridge in Background

That night we grabbed dinner at the hostel again, this time it was a spinach and pumpkin soup, piri piri chicken which was a curry style sauced roast chicken, rice and salad, then finished off with apple crumble with homemade vanilla ice cream. It was one of the best meals I have eaten abroad.

Sunday morning we slept in a little bit before catching a train back to Cascais. We spent the day walking the streets of the coastal town and lounging by the water. The weather was wonderful and it was absolutely beautiful out. We grabbed lunch at a hot dog place as street food is the way to go in Portugal, and not being a huge hot dog fan I was amazed by how good this hot dog with bacon and cheese and onion and mustard was. We grabbed some more gelato down the street in the afternoon before we hopped back on the train to Lisbon city center.

Once back in Lisbon we took the winding long way back to pick up our bags from the hostel, taking in the sites and stopping in shops. We then grabbed our bags and headed back to the train station to head back to Madrid on our ten hour night train.

Lisbon was a wonderful surprise, everyone I knew who had been had loved it but could never really put a finger on why. I know I completely understand, Lisbon was beautiful and relaxed and fun and filled with amazing food, it was a trip I took because it seemed silly not to but I am beyond glad I did.