"I shall make a cake!"

After leaving Madrid in the afternoon of the 17^th, we touched down in Lisboa (Or Lisbon, either way), Portugal an hour later. Coming from Australia it is still mind boggling to think that an hour of flying can land you in a completely different country and time zone.

Lisbon!

We collected our bags and hopped on the Aeroporto Bus that would take us nearer to our destination; the “Goodnight Hostel Lisboa”. With only a map that we had picked up at the airport, we made our way to the Hostel, arriving to find a funky building filled with little quirks; from the mirrors shaped like aviators to the colour scheme to the chair with a crown and a “take picture here” sign. We met our host, Tatiana and felt instantly at home. Goodnight Hostel is what all hostels should be like; warm, inviting and welcoming, but at the same time relaxed, laid back and easy-going. We made our way to our dorm, and once there met our new room-mate Jack and a young Korean man who never told me his name but who was also quite lovely.

We crashed. We hadn’t seen anything apart from the view from the Plane on the way over, and this didn’t fuss us much as we were too exhausted to walk around our new city. After our afternoon rest, we walked downstairs with the intent to find dinner, but instead found Tatiana holding a massive knife and a bottle of ethanol as she said “Come, come, I’m cooking Chorizo!” We were immediately invited in and given glasses of Vinho Tinto (Red wine), whilst being told that the rule was “no empty glasses around here”.  This set the tone for our night as glasses were filled and re-filled, chorizo was eaten and friends were made. The night was going quite well, and we ate our fill and drank to our hearts content (fuelled by Tatiana saying “Drink! Drink! I have another 5 litres of this for later!”). At ten or eleven (details are un-necessary) we were joined by more people who claimed they ran a pub crawl. As young Australian’s “always up for a party”, we needed no encouraging, and to our credit, we left our hardest partying until Lisboa.

Praca de Comercio

MOVING ON.

We awoke the next morning with sore heads and after a breakfast of pancakes, we set out looking for hangover food in order to wake up and explore the city. Enter the “Pastel de nata”, Portugal’s famous custard tarts. We had been told by Ben, Eliza’s brother that we absolutely had to try them, and so as we walked gingerly past a patisserie, we stepped in and once again indulged. The Pastel de Nata are incredibly different to the normal custard tarts that we have in Australia. They are made of flaky pastry in a round shape filled with custard that doesn’t have a cinnamon sprinkle and that has been slightly cooked over to give them a more solid top. It’s difficult to explain but I can assure you they are delicious.

Favourite photo from the entire two weeks-Eliza and I on Pubcrawl.

We continued on our way feeling much brighter, aiming for the Castelo de Sao Jorge and the neighbourhood surrounding it that we had been told was “very cool” to explore. We made it to the top (of course Lisboa is hilly and the Castel is at the top of the largest hill on the morning when we were most hungover) and then walked around exploring, before continuing back down the hill to the Praca de Comercio, the main square near our hostel. We were side tracked by ice-cream (they did a very good Pistachio) as we went to the square to sit. We had planned to meet Bruno and Adam, our friends from Valencia (but who actually lived in Lisboa) at either 2 or 3, so with an hour to kill we headed back to the hostel to rest.

Portugese street art. A little quirky.

When we met Bruno and Adam at the square an hour later, we headed off as they were going to show us around. Our first stop was a small shop which sold Cherry based Sherry, at which point I was reminded of my earlier declaration that “I’m not going to drink today”.  I ate my words with pleasure and found that the Sherry was lovely if very strong (you could feel it warming you as you drank it). Bruno then showed us an opulent old museum with some beautiful décor that reminded me so much of Morocco, before taking us to the Museum of Cinema for a (by this time much needed) coffee. After sitting and conversing for a good while, we set off once again, to see a statue of a (apparently) famous poet. We then headed back to the hostel, as we were fading fast and needed not only rest but decent food.

Enter Tatiana and Jack. Jack had told Tatiana he felt like Chilli and Tatiana felt like cooking. Our problems were solved. Tatiana cooked a massive serving of Chilli Con Carne and rice for the entire hostel, before declaring that she was bored and that she would therefore make a cake. It was the sort of random and relaxed night that we needed after our efforts the previous night (and it was so easy to turn down the Pub crawl offers later on).

Bruno, Adam, Eliza and myself

We awoke the next day to our last day in Lisboa, as we were moving on to Faro in the South for a couple of days before Eliza returned to Durham. We had a nice breakfast, packed and then set off for the Metro (which we would never have found if not for a lovely woman who pointed us in the right direction) that would take us to the Bus Station. Five hours later, we arrived tired but in good spirits (once again without a map), in Faro, Southern Portugal, which is where I will leave you.

Until next time,

Love Love!

Clem xx