Lisbon…the ending
My days in Lisbon, while numbered, still held a lot of things to see & do. I booked my return ticket back to Canada for December 15th, so I had 10 solid days in the city of Seven Hills. The cobblestone streets begged me to walk them & most days I’d get up, do some writing & then start my day…walking up one hill & down the other.
I walked over an hour to the tile museum & learn about the history of ceramic & clay tiles & how they are an important element in Portuguese design history.
I walked up to Torre da lgreja do Castelo bell tower & took in the view of the harbour & roof tops, the days were mostly clear & sunny so the view from up top was spectacular & I could see for miles. I walked through outdoor markets galore, with booths selling handmade crafts & food. The local Sunday flea market is particularly interesting with locals selling their second-hand treasures & so is the LX Market with a plethora of cute shops & restaurants in among the market stalls. I walked down to the TimeOut Market where the giant food hall was packed with people & had a difficult time choosing what to have for lunch. The hall was surrounded by food court style stalls with every kind of food offered up in this modern & casual building. The other side of the hall is a food market full of vegetables, meat, fish & cheese for purchase. I met up & walked to the MAAT gallery with Katherine, in the pouring rain, & cemented our friendship with laughter & chocolate almond croissants. I walked up from my apartment to the Principe Real district where Scarlett Johansson has an apartment, the streets lined with hip restaurants & funky shops. I walked to Prazeres Cemetery & read the tombstones, searching for the grave of Fernando Pessoa, the poet…his literary quotes fresh in my mind from a book I’d purchased earlier. I walked to the pink street one evening for a Fado concert, where I met a man from Paris who bought my dinner & we stumbled through a conversation of broken languages. The quote by Victor Borge came to mind as we tried to understand each other…”Laughter is the shortest distance between two people“. I walked to Vesuviano Pasta restaurant & gorged on the absolute best porcini & truffle stuffed tortellini I’ve ever had in my life & gushed over the waiter who brought me a free Tiramisu dessert. I walked the promenade past cruise ships docked to let the passengers enjoy a day in the beautiful city & then on to catch the ferry to get over to Almada & Cacilhas for a different view of this incredible city.
I sought out book stores & found Bertrand Bookshop, the oldest bookshop in the world, established in 1732 & Libreria Mondo bookshop with hoards of aging first edition novels to dig through. Ler Devagar, a quirky book & record shop with two floors lined with new & used items for sale + a neat coffee shop to spend the day in, was a favorite. I always carry a book in my purse & I blew through five books while spending ten days in Lisbon.
I took a day tour out to Sintra & Pena Palace with a stop at the seaside town of Cascais. Sintra was the cutest town, full of shops & restaurants & Pena Palace was a photographers heaven, with so many spots to capture the beauty of the palace. All I wanted to do in Cascais was find the perfect spot to sit & watch the ocean & I came across a bench in a sunny place to enjoy the shore birds dip & duck the wind currents. The day after the tour I took the train back to Cascais & spent the day walking the sea wall for hours to watch surfers & waves crashing. I’m addicted to that now…the ocean mesmerizing me.
As I walked I came across Christmas markets with the smell of hot mulled wine permeating the air, even though it didn’t feel like Christmas season to me. I just couldn’t believe it was mid December already. I had absolutely NO room in my bags for gifts, but I managed to squeeze a couple of tiny things in for memories. I want to come back & live here for awhile…make Portugal my home for a few months & enjoy her properly.
The food in Lisbon is remarkably diverse. Of course it’s a coastal city, so seafood abounds, but you can get anything you’ve got a craving for. My tastes ran the gamut from Italian pastas & pizza to Lebanese falafels to Japanese sushi to thick cut steaks. The service was always thoughtful & friendly, the food perfectly seasoned & delicious. Europeans eat at different times than people from North America & it took some getting used to, but I enjoyed my routine of walking all day, coming back to my apartment for a nap in the later afternoon & then going out for a long walk & dinner about 8 p.m. Lisbon has an insane nightlife & on the weekends the streets are packed with people…restaurants & pubs overflowing onto the street. Honestly, it’s a bit unnerving, but definitely a lively atmosphere to revel in.
It’s also really quite remarkable the number of gourmet canned fish stores with their colourful cans of sardines, tuna, octopus & caval + the most aromatic anchovies, mussels, squid & clams. It’s not usual to be so enthusiastic about canned fish, which has been considered a poor-mans food, but the Portuguese have taken this way of preserving their fish to another level. Restaurants dedicated to canned fish have become the rage & I had to reserve a table fairly far in advance to get into Can The Can, a canned fish themed restaurant made famous by Anthony Bourdain. The first commercial cannery popped up in 1853 & the thriving fish industry paved way for more canneries until this method of preserving fish was common place. Fresh bread, olive oil, canned fish…maybe accompanied by fresh greens & olives…perfecto! I brought my Dad home a bunch of different kinds of canned sardines, a favourite of his.
On my final full day in this quirky city, I spent the day just walking & walking with semi-regret that I didn’t have more time to spend. Then I kicked my own rear-end because after 119 days on the road that sounded stupid. I found an empty Adirondack chair outside a restaurant, ordered an apple cider & sat with my face to the sun for a solid hour. I closed my eyes & absorbed all the elements of Lisbon…the smell of the ocean, the sound of the waves, the feel of the sun on my skin, the taste of the day. I ended my day at Bairro do Avillez, a particularly favourite restaurant of mine. I ordered their charcuterie platter & savoured every mouthful of salty cured meat & pique cheese. The crisp white wine a perfect match to the aged old cheese & the glass of port I finished it off with will cling to my memories so that every time I drink port, I’ll be taken back to Portugal…back to the city where I ended my four month adventure…perfectly.
