Two Days in Lisbon was just enough to take a tour around the town, and see the main sites as well as the Marine History Museum. The explorers have always fascinated me since I learned about them in school, so what better museum to visit than that coveting the early voyages around Africa and across the Atlantic!? Even though I no longer dream of sneaking on board a ship and hiding among the cargo until reaching an unknown destination, their journeys and the trade that developed after interest me because of the impacts they had on the food system and what we eat today.
Jonas and I were not the most organized tourists and with only two days, I think we may have missed quite a bit. Neither of us felt when we left that we really had a feel for how Alfacinhas (people from Lisbon) live their lives or how they enjoy spending their free time, and that we therefore didn’t really get a sense of the real Lisbon. However, we did stumble upon a very cool area under the 25 de Abril bridge, with restaurants, cafes, and sustainable fashion and interior design stores. And we ate a lot of seafood and tasted a Pastel de Nato at Patisseri Nacional, and had a wonderful lunch at a terrace in Alfama with a splendid view the city, and an equally wonderful seafood dinner at Doca 6. So event though we may not have gotten the full Lisbon experience, I think we covered at least some its highlights.
We stayed at a really nice, very affordable boutique hotel (Internacional Design Hotel) right by Parca da Figueira in central Lisbon, which I can really recommend. It was cozy, the breakfast restaurant was pleasant (not the least the room), and the staff was super nice!