Life is pretty good to be right now, y’all! I’m currently on a train headed from Madrid to Barcelona and the experience is absolutely incredible. There’s beautiful, scenic views and we have delicious breakfast coming our way! It’s currently 8:35am as I write this post on Wednesday and I know most of you all are sleeping right now since it’s sleepy time back home in Dallas! It’s honestly been so crazy living out of a suitcase the last 9 days! I definitely miss my family back home and my little sweet baby, Snuffy! It’s a bittersweet moment knowing that we only have a few more days left in Spain and then it’s time to head back to reality. Ajeet and I have a lot going on in the month of October so every single day is going to be jam packed with events, packing/planning and all that good stuff! We are enjoying every single minute of being on vacation with our closest friends. Our travel vlog is coming along quite nicely so stay tuned for that for sure!
Anyway, I was thinking about what should go live in today’s post and since I’m on a train, reminiscing about the trip so far, I thought I’d go ahead and do a Lisbon travel guide for y’all!
If you haven’t been following along, our Portugal/Spain trip started on the 18th with the first couple of days in Lisbon, Portugal. We stayed in an Airbnb that was SO spacious and so cool. The only bummer about our stay was that the apartment was on the 4th floor and the elevator (aka the lift) was broken so lugging around our suitcases was a workout!!
Our First Day in Lisbon
We landed rather early on Tuesday morning (about 5:50AM) and unfortunately, we weren’t able to drop off our bags until about 12:30pm. We stayed at the airport for a few hours and had some coffee and did a little research on what to do in Lisbon. After that, we headed to our first brunch spot at this cute little shop called Brooklyn. It was only a few minutes from our Airbnb so it worked out great! The food was pretty yum—great bagels and excellent mimosas if I say so myself. Probably the best mimosas I’ve ever had!
After dropping our bags off, we immediately wanted to explore the city and started Miradouro de Sāo Pedro de Alcânatra. There was some construction going on while we were there but the views were absolutely GORGEOUS. We then went to Alfama—the oldest district with cute little restaurants small shops! We walked around the town and had lunch nearby. We ate a place called Lautasco and it was delicious however, I think I ordered the wrong meal. I quickly learned that when you order seafood in Spain, it’s definitely NOT boneless. I ordered the seabass and there were SO MANY teeny tiny bones in there to the point where I couldn’t even eat it. I guess it’s not common to debone fish in Spain—totally not what I’m used to at all!
Saint George Castle was next on our list and I’m glad we made it there!! Tickets to get in were relatively cheap and totally worth it because there was a lot to see inside the castle and you get the most spectacular views of the city. We spent a hour and a half there. Be sure to wear comfy sneakers as there is a LOT of walking up the stairs!
We stopped by a shop that had custard tarts because that’s a thing to do in Lisbon—it was YUM!
After relaxing a bit back home, we went to a spot known as Pink Street! It’s definitely a cool place to be but definitely go there after 1am. We stopped by around 10pm and the whole street was dead!! We did find a place to eat some chicken paella (WHICH WAS SO GOOD)—I can’t remember the name of the spot but it was on Pink street and it was a hole in the wall restaurant. After that, we killed time and went to a market nearby called Mercado da Ribeira which was super cute! They had tons of small restaurants that were open until 1am which is exactly what we needed until we went back to pink street for a night of fun! The crazies I went with wanted to start out trip with a bang so we were out pretty late on pink street—I think we got back home around 4 or 5am? I don’t even know anymore!
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Second Day in Lisbon
It was our second and last day in Lisbon and we kicked it off with brunch at Nicolau Café (such a bloggish spot!) but it does get very busy so come early to get a good table! We then knocked out some shopping at the Praça do Comércio—the grandest square in Lisbon! They have tons of shops including Zara and Pull & Bear. We walked to Arco and took some pictures because naturally, you have to! We walked to the river (aka the Ribeira das Naus) where we sat down at a riverfront restaurant and had some delicious snacks and sangria! You can’t come to Portugal/Spain and NOT have sangria! 😉
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to make it to the Belem Tower or Oceanarium—two things on my list for next time! We did, however, catch the sunset at Miradouro da Nossa Senhora do Monte and it’s supposedly the best view of entire Lisbon. It’s about a 10 minute walk uphill but totally worth it!!
For our last night, we went to a rooftop bar called The Park and we stayed there until it closed—not because of the rooftop (there were barely views of anything) but because the music that the DJ was playing was AMAZING. So many great 90s throwbacks and drinks were reasonably priced too.
P.S. If you’re in Portugal, you definitely should try this drink called Ginja!! It’s a sour cherry liquor and although I didn’t like it, it was a hit for everyone else. I don’t like cherry flavored anything so it wasn’t for me but it’s a big thing to drink in Portugal!
That wraps up Lisbon for us, y’all! It’s crazy to think that this was over a week ago. This two week vacation is coming to an end so quickly—I’m definitely going to enjoy the last few days we have in Barcelona.
I’ll have another travel guide up for Madrid and Barcelona—I’m debating on doing one for Ibiza because well—what’s there to know other than party at night sleep during the day?! Maybe I’ll write one with some of my recommendations…perhaps. Anyway, I’m going to take a quick cat nap while I still have about an hour left on the train ride. I hope you have a great Wednesday and of course, chat soon loves!
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