Ale Hop shop

Ale Hop is one of the best stores, where you can find funny (and useful) gifts for your friends, situated both in Portugal and in Spain. In Lisbon, there are several Ale Hop stores, the two that I have visited most frequently, are situated in Baixa – Chiado and in the building of Campo Pequeno.

In general, the Ale Hop store is the best place to buy a birthday present to someone.

What can you buy there?

Some of the items they are selling, are completely useless, but they are low priced, and therefore you just can not resist to buy them.

Here are a few examples of the items that you can buy in Ale Hop:

1. Incense sticks with a marijuana scent. My roommate tried it and it really smells like cannabis, however, the sticks do not include any effects that you get when you smoke it.
2. Toilet golf. This was the item that we laughed at the most. Well, I have a picture, see for yourself:

   

3. Landline phones in funny shapes, such as shoes, lips and so on.
4. Vibrating travel pillows. I bought one because it feels awesome. The only thing I need to figure out is, how to replace the batteries.
5. Yodelling flamingo toy. This can be a funny birthday present.

There are, of course, more ordinary items for sale, too:

1. Phone cases (mostly for iPhones) with funny themes and in funny shapes.
2. Swimming costumes. Very cheap, three to five Euros for piece. The quality is good, I bought them over a year ago and they still look like new. They are available in one size only, but if you are average height and weight, they will fit you. If you try them at home and they do not fit, you can return them, you just have to show the receipt.
3. Laptop tables. Those are the most expensive item in the store, and they cost 16 Euros. They are available in different colours, and they have a light, a glass holder and plenty of space for the laptop/book/notebook.

How to get there?

If you wish to visit the Ale – Hop in the Campo Pequeno, you have to get to Saldanha, more precisely to the building Campo Pequeno. The Saldanha area has good bus and metro connections. If you choose the bus number 727 (which you can take in Marques de Pombal square), it will stop right in front of the building. Once you are there, you have to walk down the stairs (escalators almost never work) and when you enter the building, turn to your left and soon, you will notice a big cow statue. This is the Ale Hop store. This one is bigger than the one in Baixa – Chiado, and you will not find exactly the same items in both of them, so it is worth to explore both.

And that cow statue was so interesting to my roommate that she wanted to take a picture with it:

Ale Hop store in Baixa – Chiado is situated on Rua Augusta. In case you do not know which street I am talking about: this is the street with a big arch, that faces the Tagus river. Just walk along this street, which is very beautiful (and it is pedestrian zone only), and the store Ale Hop will be on your right. The entrance is hidden and the Ale Hop sign is very small. You just have to look for a cow in front of the entrance to know where the store is. Since this store is smaller than the other one, and situated in the tourist zone, you sometimes have to wait outside until groups of tourists come out.