Lisboa

I think the word that best describes this trip is YOLO aka You Only Lean Once. It has been a culinary journey from spain to portugal. 

It was a tiring journey to Lisboa with a 7am flight from Barcelona. Had to wake up at 4am with only 2 hrs of sleep and lug ourselves to the airport just because of our check in baggage. Vernon really went crazy with the shopping there.

Arrived in Lisbon half dead, fully concussed on the plane. The metro services the airport and i recommend buying a day pass for 5 euros since you'll be taking tram 28 or one of those elevators up the hills anyway.

Lisboa is a little quaint town different from the other cities i've been to. Its a beach side town filled with hills which can be tiring to walk. So one day, a lazy fella thought... why not build tram like elevators up the slopes! So tada, Lisbon became known for their iconic old school trams and elevator systems. 

the elevator up Rua Gloria

The Portuguese love their cod fish. It can be found in almost all the menus serving traditional Portuguese dishes. Cod fish with potatoes, grilled cod fish, baked cod fish, cod fish lasagna, etc. The place we had lunch at on the first day was a restaurant frequent by the locals. You can tell that the food is really good when the place is filled with locals and few or no tourists. A Licorista E O Bacalhoeiro (Rua Dos Sapateiros 218-224) served very home cooked meals. Love the hospitality of the Portuguese as well! They gave us free Ginja (their local cherry liquor) shots after the meal! 

Good portugese lunch at Bacalhoeiro

Spent the rest of the first day walking around the shops and didnt do much sight seeing till the evening cos of the rain. Alfama is a really nice area to walk around and get lost on the narrow cobblestoned streets. I tram surfing is quite cool! too bad i didnt manage to attempt it successfully.

How tram surfing is done

another tram surfer

Lisbon church. Apparently the graduating students of the university have their ceremony here. How cool is that!

Take a road trip out of the city and you'll enter another dimension. The city seems to be a mix of different cities. At Belem, there's a bridge that looks like the golden gate bridge and across, there's a statue that looks similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio De Janeiro. But whats out there is the real treasure, wait for it.... THE MOST AWESOME PORTUGESE EGG TART which can be found at Pasteis De Belem (pronounced belei) at Rua de belem 84 -92. Driving along the Portugese costal road was nice, with the view of the beach and the waves ideal for surfers. It really reminded me as if i was in South America. Drove by Cascai on the way to Cabo Da Roca, the most western tip of Europe and were greeted with awesome views. Finally ended up our trip in Sintra where we arrived too late with most of the attractions starting to close. Had nice Portuguese pastries at Piriquita 1 (Rua das Padarias 1)

For those planning of doing the same itinerary, i suggest driving up the Sintra first and explore the moorish castle and the quinta da regaleira before heading down to cabo da roca and belem for some egg tarts. If i had the time, i'll definitely do a road trip from Lisbon to Porto! there're so many nice sights on the way north! Just that we didnt have time to fully explore em. 

Heavenly Portugese egg tarts!

At the most western edge of Europe!

Exiting the cave at Quinta Da Regaleira

Queijada and Travesseiro at Piriquita 1 in Sintra

Met up with our Portugese friends that we met in Krakow. Had more good food! Always love meeting up with the locals and exploring their local hunts! Food portions aren't that big (similar to tapas) but had a great variety of portugese food! Petiscaria Ideal (Rua da Esperanca 112-114) Had a really great time with them. They even brought us to an gelato place which served the best chocolate cake in the world! and no im not kidding, its name is the best chocolate cake in the world! ahha its actually quite nice too! one of the better choc cakes that i've eaten in europe!

Our awesome Portugese Hosts, Catarina and Jorge