Exploring Lisbon!

We didn't get back from the super fun pub crawl until about 3:30 or 4am soooo our day did not start very early. I was feeling a little under the weather so eating breakfast was a slow process for me. Lacey had a better situation than I did. We were ready to roll out to start sightseeing at around 11am or so (way late for us haha). 

Lisbon has 4 main areas, 3 main inner-city areas, and one popular suburb area. One inner city area is Baixa which is the flat area right by the water. This has very gridded streets and a super popular main square area. Bairro Alto is to the left of that on a map and is where we did our pub crawl. Lots of bars, lots of nightlife, lots of hills. The third main neighborhood is Alfama. This is the historic area with hills and a castle and lots of terraces on the hill. The popular suburb area is Belem which has a tower and a long walking esplanade along the water. 

First, we walked down from our hostel and into the Baixa area. We checked out the main commercial square and really enjoyed the walk down to the water along the commercial walking streets with shops and lots of things going on. We waited a long time for a tram to go to the Belem area. It's about a 20-minute tram ride from the commercial square over to Belem. The tram was insanely crowded with tourists. We were getting a little hungry so we got some Pasteis. These are egg custard tarts that are a little burned on top. Portugal is known for them and the oldest and most famous shop is in Belem. The tarts were super delicious and very rich. 

We walked over to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos Monument. This is a monument along the water that celebrates all of the famous explorers during Portugal's heyday of the 1500's and 1600's. It was BEAUTIFUL walking along the water and seeing all the people and the sunshine was fabulous. We were getting hungry again (we're always hungry) and shared a Portuguese style chili dog. We finished our Belem time at the Belem Tower. It was built as a fortification many, many years ago and now is a tourist spot. 

There were two hipster spots that our hostel suggested we see on our way back into the main Portugal area. The first area was called the LX Factory. It's some former factories that have been turned into stores and restaurants with urban art all around. Super hipster but pretty cool! We were going to skip this but the tram stopped working right by it so we walked over. It was fine but not exactly our scene. 

The next spot we were told about definitely was our scene. It's a place called Time Out Market and it's a big indoor area that is surrounded by food stalls. Each stall has different food items offered. The place is massive and the options are basically endless. We did a couple of loops before deciding what to get. Lacey got a meat tray of prosciutto and cheese. I got a steak sandwich. Both were absolutely delicious! 

We were feeling very tired after our weird sleep schedule so we headed back to the hostel to nap. Our original plan was to go out before sunset and watch it from a terrace area in Alfama. Ultimately, that didn't happen because we were both so exhausted. That's a little disappointing but it leaves something for us to see the next time we go to Lisbon! 

We spent the evening planning out the next day. Our hostel offers group tours of a place called Sintra that is outside of Lisbon in the hills and has palaces (think Versailles but Portuguese). The tour was full so we found a scooter rental company to try. We each had a piece of pizza that the hostel made for dinner. 

This was a smaller sightseeing day but that's what happens after a pub crawl. Plus, we wanted to save all our energy for the next day for the scooter rental. 

Last thing. Lisbon is very, very, very pretty. The weather was fantastic. The streets are super clean and paved nicely. Almost every building is a pretty color or cool design. It might just be that we were coming from Fes, Morocco but we loved every second walking around.