Café 'A Brasileira'

Lisboa is such a fascinating place to visit! It's such a historical city with beautiful corners, great food and friendly people to make you feel home. I've been living here for nineteen years and my city keeps surprising me with its wonders. So, even not in Erasmus, one must come here and enjoy the fantastic experience that it has to offer.

To start off this challenge, I would recommend everyone to begin their journey in one of the oldest places in the centre of Lisboa: Baixa Chiado. Even though you will most probably find a lot tourists exploring this area, it was a shopping place where Portuguese people could purchase all kinds of things in the old days. Now, you will also find a lot of famous brands shops, however, not the local ones, since they closed. Even more back in time, this area in Lisboa is known to have a particular arquitectural street structure thanks to the arquitect Marquês de Pombal who, after the tsunami and earthquake that hit Lisboa in 1755, designed these streets in the way we see today.

The pictures that I've taken are in the most famous street of Baixa Chiado: Rua Garrett. It's sort of a steep street, but at the top you can find a very well-known café place called 'A Brasileira' which, I believe, is always super crowded. However, I invite you to take a look inside. The decoration stands out, since it shows modern art from the beginning of the XX century and also I find it quite cosy and welcoming, even though it's always full of people. Despite being an expensive café from Portuguese standards, I would also recommend to try their Pastel de Nata and coffee. Such a delicious Portuguese combination (the coffee is brazilian though) :P! Anyway, what makes this café spot really special also is that in the early XX century famous writers, poets, journalists, painters would gather in this café and talk about subjects of their time. Therefore, that's why we can see outside the café, in the 'esplanada', a statue of Fernando Pessoa, a famous Portuguese writer who lived really nearby in Largo de São Carlos and who went frequently to this coffee shop.

Also, what I could point out from this street is that from time to time you will notice a yellow tram (usually full of tourists). There are different routes taken by these trams, however, some of them can really take one to see the heart of Lisboa and also enlighten about what place to visit next!