Eurotrip #5: Lisbon

Hi everyone!

Today I will be telling you about my trip to Lisbon that I went on this weekend (finally I'm catching up with the trips! ) with three of my flatmates: Andoni, Isabel and Monika.

It all started when we suddenly saw a Ryanair flight on SkyScanner from Bremen to Lisbon for only 12. 99€. I had been wanting to visit Portugal and I had even planned to visit last summer (but we didn't go in the end), so I still wanted to go. Also, with us doing our Erasmus in Germany, everyone thought that I'd only be going around the North of the continent, so ending up travelling in the South of the continent did not come into our plans. Nevertheless, cheap flights inside of Europe are usually the routes going from North to South (thanks to the tourism of foreign retired people) and, for example, it's more expensive to travel to Lisbon from Murcia or from Gizpukoa, which is where my travel companions are from, than it is from Bremen.

So in this way, and with loads of adrenaline after booking the spontaneous trip, we started to look for return flights from Lisbon. In the end, we found another Ryanair flight, but to Hamburg instead of Bremen, for 29. 57€. Because we could get the train for free between Bremen and Hamburg (if you want to know why, you can read my article about transport in Bremen here), the total cost for a return journey to Lisbon came to 42€. 56.

Once everything with the flights was settled, we started looking for accommodation in Lisbon. Andoni has a friend doing his Erasmus there, so he stayed in with his friend (we couldn't all fit), whilst the rest of us found a hostel which was well located and fairly cheap. The hostel is called PH Hostel Lisbon and it's without a doubt the best accommodation that I've stayed in lately. Located close to Cais du Sodré (the area with all the clubs) and only a 20 minute walk away from the city centre, the hostel was on the lower floor of an old Lisboan building with high ceilings and old wooden doors, but completely renovated and with modern and clean installations. Also, the staff were extremely attentive and friendly, letting us stay in a room with 4 beds when there was only 3 of us, despite the fact that we had only paid to stay in a room shared with 8 people. The quality-price ratio was simply incredible, costing us 8€ a night. The only complaint that I had is that we had to pay an additional 1€ a night as there was a tourist tax, which the website didn't tell us nor did they tell us when we made the reservation, as well as it being fairly cold in the communal areas. But, as I said, everything else was perfect.

We landed in Lisbon airport last Thursday at mid-morning, where Erik was waiting for us (Andoni's friend). From there we had to get the metro to get to the city itself, with a price of 1. 40€ per journey, plus the 50 cents it costs for a rechargeable travel card. There is the option to buy a day pass for 6€, but if your accommodation is in the centre like ours, it's not worth it.

After separating and going to leave our things in our respective accommodations, we went to eat and have a wander around the city centre. Excited by the contrast of temperature between Bremen and Lisbon, we forgot our raincoats and jackets in the hostel, something that took its toll on us a while after starting to walk around; a whirlwind of rain left us completely soaking wet and our weak, foldable umbrellas weren't sufficient protection against the sudden downpour of Atlantic water. With all our clothes and shoes dripping from the waist down, we continued wandering around the centre until we arrived a the famous Praça do Comercio.

From there, we went into the Baixa district, whose most characteristic feature is the boxlike grid which its urban layout is organised into, something that is difficult to find in the rest of the maze-like Lisboetan historical centre. This contrast is due to the Marquis of Pombal, the man in charge of rebuilding the city after the devastating earthquake in 1755. Wandering around this area, we arrived at the Praça de Rossio, where we decided to feed our stomachs and eat something in a very typical Portuguese restaurant: McDonalds (a sacrilege resulting from globalisation, yes, but when you're hungry and don't have much money, sometimes it's better to go for what you know). After eating and with the strange feeling that I had returned to Spain, we met up again with Andoni and Erik, who had eaten in the university canteen, and we started to make our way to the well-known Bairro Alto. We started our wander in this district at Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara (garden and lookout point of São Pedro de Alcântara), one of the many that reveal one of the best things about Lisbon: its roofs or its fifth façade.

From there we strolled around Bairro Alto, famous for housing a load of low-priced bars, full of young people and students during the night. Just as curious, there's a point called Erasmus corner, which is used as a night time meeting point for the numerous Erasmus students during their nights out. Just at this meeting point, there is a sentence written on the wall, which anyone who is doing or has done an Erasmus year will agree with:

We left this area full of small side-streets until we got to Praça Luís de Camões, where we went to another viewpoint, specifically the Miradouro de Santa Catarina which looks out towards the south, revealing the views of the south, where you can see the mouth of the River Tagus and the 25 de Abril bridge. We left the Lisboetan hills and we went back down to return to the Baixa district. After passing back through the "Praça de Rossio" and the adjoining Figueira Square, the clouds disappeared and out came the southern sun that we longed for, so we went to find somewhere to have some beers in Plaça de Martim Moniz, which we enjoyed on a terrace whilst we enjoyed the last few rays of the afternoon sun. Once we had drank our beers, we separated again and we went back to the hostel, wanting to relax a little and to prepare ourselves for Lisbon's nightlife.

With our batteries recharged, we went to Erik's flat to have dinner and start partying, we also got together with some other international students. After drinking in the flat, we went to a club called Urban Beach, located on the banks of the Tagus River in the Cais du Sodré area, just next to our hostel. Despite the place being spectacular and the music not being bad (well, the same music is listened to in all European clubs), there was something that we didn't at all like about the clubs of Lisbon: the payment method. We were used to the low prices in Bremen, we didn't expect that in the supposedly more poor Lisbon, the prices in clubs would be so expensive. On entering, they give you a type of credit card and tell you how much the minimum purchase is, on top of that, it varies between men and women. This is something that I don't support, because it seems like a sexist attitude to me, due to the fact that women pay less in the end which means that the woman's presence is used as a way of payment, making them into nothing but an object.

Inequality of the sexes put to the side, the system is based on that when you go to order a drink (at an outrageous price), you don't have to pay for it then and there, you only have to hand over the card. It's very easy to end up spending more money than you wanted to and not realising it until you have to pay for your drinks in order to leave the club. Furthermore, in the incident of loss or theft of the card, you have to pay a fine of 150€ to be able to leave the establishment.

Despite all this being critical to this unfair and strange system, I don't want to say that I didn't have fun, actually it was the complete opposite: it was a totally memorable and legendary night, which I better not record on the internet, so I'll just keep the details in my head.

The following day, making a huge effort to combat our hangovers, we got up and went to do something that every 21st century traveller should know and appreciate: a free tour. These tours, as I explained in the post about Berlin, it's based on the premise that you're not obliged to pay anything in order to enjoy the guided tour of the city, after that, you decide if the tour was satisfactory enough for you to want to pay the guide. This time, our guide was a really nice Portuguese guy (called João) from the Sandeman's New Lisbon Tours company, who drove us all through the main places and monuments in Lisbon, accompanied by a varied group of travellers from all sorts of corners of the planet.

With perfect English and a careful and dynamic way of expressing himself, he told us about the history and development of the city and of the whole country, with numerous and fun anecdotes and without making it passé or boring at any time. We started the tour in Praça Luís de Camões from where we visited Largo do Carmo, the Santa Justa lift, the side-streets of Bairro Alto, Praça de Rossio, the memorial to the Jews assassinated in the massacre of 1506, the church of Santo Domingo, Praça de Figueira and, lastly Praça do Comércio, where we finished the tour after two and a half hours of walking around. Without a doubt, it was the best way to get to know and deeply understand this marvellous city.

After the tour, we decided to follow the recommendations of the guide and go up to São Jorge castle, a monument of Islamic origin which dominates the top of the Portuguese capital. On the way up, we passed by the Igreja da Madalena (Madeleine's church), Lisbon cathedral, the city's cathedral and the remains of the Roman theatre. When we arrived at the entrance of the building, we saw that the entrance fee was 5€ (10€ if you're not a student), so we had a little moment of doubt, but in the end we decided to go in. Luckily.

The fist thing that we discovered was that, of all the views of Lisbon from the numerous viewpoints, without a doubt this one was the best. The sun was getting close to the horizon just behind the 25 de Abril bridge, which closed the access to the mouth of the Tagus, illuminating the ochre roofs of the city with the hot light of dusk, giving Lisbon a magic air about it. The experience of seeing the sun changing into an incandescent ball, hiding itself in same place as where the Tagus and the Atlantic met was almost spiritual, one of those moments which burn themselves into your retinas and which you can only marvel at how beautiful the world can be and how lucky you are to be able to witness it.

Also, as the light went on, the bustling city at our feet started to light itself up, with a reddish and changing sky as a backdrop. Happiness in its purest form. If you go to Lisbon, I can't recommend enough going to the São Jorge castle at dusk.

Once that incredible show had ended, we came back down from the castle and we went into the side-sreets of Bairro da Alfama. The guide said that we shouldn't miss this neighbourhood, since we were experiencing the authentic Portuguese experience in the uncountable corners that make up the chipped and modest walls in the neighbourhood. It may have been due to the fact that after the castle, we were a little overwhelmed, but Alfama didn't seem at all as spectacular as the guide had told us it was. It reminded me a little of the neighbourhood "barrio de Albaicín" in Granada thanks to the maze-like streets that the Arabs had left behind.

We were so tired after going up and down so many times and with such a bad hangover as well, so we went back to the hostel to relax a little and recharge ourselves with a pre-cooked lasagne accompanied by the traditional Portuguese green wine. We bought both types (red and white), of which, we liked the white a little more (it reminded my friends from San Sebastian of txakoli vasco). From the hostel, we went to one of Erik's Italian friends' flat party which was full of local and foreign students. It was very good to be able to get to know the student atmosphere of Lisbon from an inside perspective and to see how the Erasmus experience was there. Furthermore, it just so happened that I met some friends of friends from Murcia there, which just goes to show what everyone already knew: it's a small world.

The following day, we took the bus to the area of Belém, where after giving way we found a small restaurant which offered the dish of the day and a drink for only 4. 50€. Wanting to try typical Portuguese food, we ordered two dishes of cod and two of veal, which were huge and delicious, so we ate a lot.

With full stomachs, we went to the banks of the Tagus where we lay down for a bit at the foot of the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and we enjoyed the heat of the sun and the fresh sea breeze, with pleasant music from a street artist as a soundtrack. From this area, you could see perfectly the 25 de Abril bridge, a gigantic bridge built by the same company that built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was, without a doubt, another brilliant tourist monument.

From there we went wandering around the coast until we got to Belém tower, one of the main symbols of the city, where we saw one of the tallest monuments during the whole trip, when a happy Chinese tourist insisted on taking a photo with me. Nothing out of the ordinary.

After a day of relaxation in the area, we went to catch the bus back to the centre of Lisbon. I still really wanted to go into the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, one of the gems of Portuguese architecture, but the price and the lack of time meant that my travel companions preferred not to go in, so after a lot of doubt, I also decided to postpone my visit. I will have to come back to Lisbon, what a pain...

After passing by the hostel, we went to eat at Erik's flat, from where we went to Bairro Alto. We started drinking on the view point of São Pedro de Alcántara, which was quite lively. Then, we set off for the lively streets of Bairro Alto, with a bar on every corner and with a street-life atmosphere which was purely Mediterranean - something I miss a lot in Germany. The only problem with this area is that all the bars close at 3, so if you want to carry the party on you have to end up going to one of the clubs that I spoke about before. Nevertheless, I suppose that in a city the size of Lisbon and with so many parties there has to be some way to carry on partying until sunrise without going to the clubs. We actually ended up in a club called Place, also in Cais du Sodré, with another epic night.

And here ends our visit to Lisbon, since the following day the only thing we did was sleep for a few hours and make our way back to Germany, which was covered in snow and had a brilliant temperature of -5ºC. It was an incredible weekend, where we discovered and enjoyed a beautiful and decadent city, with its own soul, full of life, light and music. Lisbon is a special place.

Until the next post!

Photo gallery