London to Lisbon

So a couple of weeks ago now, me, Mum and Sarah set sail (set flight? Flew flight? Were plane-bound?) for Lisbon. The largest city (and capital) of Portugal! 

Population? Roughly 500,000. Number of tourists? Roughly 475,000. 

It was a busy place.

Day one saw us driven from the airport by a super friendly taxi driver, who tried to teach us some Portuguese (we just about mastered "thank you" on our last day...), to our lovely apartment (pictures of that in a later post). We thanked our taxi driver IN PORTUGUESE, flung our suitcases inside, and set out to explore our surroundings...!

What can I say... I guess the city just wasn't what I'd had in mind, on first inspection. Everything just seemed a little... run down? There didn't seem to be much open, either, but we did later wonder if we'd maybe just gone a little too early in the season. But hey, I can definitely see how it could all be quite charming, too!  Let me show you around the area we were staying in... 

The streets were all paved in traditional Portuguese style...

... and there seemed to be orange trees a-plenty! 

Most of the buildings were quite colourful as we wandered the streets, and there were lots of old, rustic-looking lanterns lining the walls outside. 

We very quickly discovered that you couldn't walk 5 minutes in Lisbon without facing the next giant hill or staircase...! (I'm not exaggerating... if you have any kind of difficulty with hills or walking, I probably wouldn't recommend the lovely Lisboa...)

The orange trees did look lovely lining the outside of the cathedral. 

 (Doesn't it kind of look like the cathedral's desperately trying to get a drink...?) :o)

Look at all those lines that made up the tram network...!

After our flight and little meander (hike...) to get our bearings, there was one thing on my mind... DINNER. We'd been keeping our eye out whilst wandering about, but there really didn't seem to be much open at the time. Eventually, we found a fun-looking restaurant called Restaurante Lautasco. 

See! Look how fun! :o) 

Unfortunately, the food far from lived up to expectations. I'd heard some really good things about Portuguese cuisine, but this was a massive disappointment. Especially on our first night. 

The swordfish (although well-cooked) was served with plain ol' boiled potatoes; the mixed kebab was bland, unseasoned, and chewy; and the pork ribs were dry and sauceless. Boo. Hoo. Still, our hopes were not to be dashed! One unfortunate choice in restaurant did not a disaster make. We decided to get an early night, so that we were ready for our walking tour adventures the next day! Tune in for Day 2 pics :o)