Christmas and New Years Eve in Lisbon

This year, I decided to stay in Lisbon for Christmas as I wanted to experience the typical Portuguese way of celebrating. That I stay for New Years Eve had been clear all the time. My sister and my best friend were planning to come to celebrate it with me, same as last year in Paris.

Already weeks before Christmas, everything was decorated for that time of the year, the streets were lit up with lots of lights and all over the city, you could find small Christmas markets. On my road trip, I had already been to the famous one in Óbidos, where you had to pay entry. There was a similar one in Campo Pequeno in the Torero Arena. It had only been for a week and I didn’t find the time to visit it. But, I went to some of the other markets: in Alameda, Marquês de Pombal and at the Praca do Rossio. There were all pretty small and very different to the ones in Germany. Rarely they played Christmas music and they were mainly thought for children: with small ice skating arenas – not even with real ice, but the fake stuff -, carousels, big wheels and other children attractions. Of course, you also found jewellery, clothes, decorations and games, but everything was very expensive. Even the food and drinks were a lot more expensive than normal and also more than in Germany.

Actually, Portugal should be less expensive, but at least for the markets, this is not true at all. For food and drinks, you find everything you need: hot chocolate, sangria, mulled wine, Ginjinha, churros, waffles, bifana… but you didn’t go there just for the atmosphere and eat something small as I would in Germany, for that it is too expensive, maybe one time. And for that price they even serve you the small cup of mulled wine in a plastic cup!

In the end of December, they showed a light show at the Praca do Comercio every night. It was projected on the buildings and the arch. For tourists, it was a bit sad as the story was in Portuguese, but luckily I speak Portuguese and understood it. I even found a grammar mistake, a very common one. The story was about a boy who has to save the world. It was clearly referring a lot to the climate change and environmental problems. It was a fascinating show with many effects, lots of colours and music. Apart from these little moments, I just couldn’t get into Christmas mood. We still had 15 degrees or even more, and a lot of sunshine.

On one weekend, I was baking Christmas cookies all day long, while listening to the typical Christmas songs: Last Christmas, Let it snow, … But even that didn’t help a lot. The baking was more or less improvised as I didn’t have the needed utensils and also couldn’t find many ingredients. For example, I couldn’t get almond paste and no one seemed to know it (this is definitely a reason to go back to Germany, I cannot live in a country, where they don’t have almond paste). So, I tried to do it on my own, but failed immensely. My flatmates and friends all loved them anyway and some of them even wanted to hire me as a baker. Apparently, the cookies were not so bad.

For Christmas Eve, I was invited to dinner with my landlady and her family. I was so happy, to spent it with a Portuguese family. They fetched me at my apartment and we drove to her parents’ house. There were her parents, her sister with the dig, her two daughters – one a bit younger than me, the other one 15 years old, her husband and his sister. When I arrived, everyone was very welcoming and friendly and I was presented to everyone. They accepted me immediately and always tried to involve me. It was a small Living-Eating room and there was a table full of sweets and with a German Christmas pyramid. That is something that they are especially proud of. They don’t have that in Portugal and brought it home from one of their many visits to Germany.

We sat in the living room, talked and listened to music. It was a relaxed atmosphere and I really got to know them well in that time. They told me many stories about the past and also asked me a lot. Then, we went to eat on the high table. I felt very small, but the others all had the same problem. They told me, the parents of my landlady had gotten that table 44 years ago and always wanted to make it shorter, but until now, didn’t do it.

Finally, we started to eat. It was emphasized many times that I don’t have to eat what I don’t like and even if I said that I liked it, they repeated it many more times. For starters, we had fish soup with the typical fish bacalhau. The main course was traditional for Christmas bacalhau cozido, which means cooked bacalhau with chick peas, potatoes, carrots and cabbage. They had packed all the other ingredients into the cabbage like little presents, which was really cute. And everything was so delicious! For desert, we had countless kinds of sweets and the cookies that I had baked and brought with me. Everyone drank coffe and me as the only one tea.

I was so full, I felt I could fall asleep where I was. We went back to the living room and sat together watching TV. The presents where only opened at almost midnight. It actually took still a while then, because they do it like one of them gives the presents to each of them and everyone watches how they open it. There were whole bags of presents from neighbours, friends, family and other people. It was so nice to see how happy they were about their presents. Also I got something, which I didn’t expect as I had already seen the invitation as very friendly. But from the presents I saw that they already knew me very well. I got fluffy shoes for the house and a very warm scarf. Just perfect! I wore both of them during the whole winter. The others got many small things, but also some they were very delighted about. The grandma was excited about the others to open her presents and couldn’t wait for that. And her presents were really the highlight of the evening. She had self-made everything for her daughters and granddaughters: a lot of beautiful jewellery, some nice pictures, puzzles with pictures of her granddaughters with their hobbies and even wrote a book about her and her family’s history. She was so proud and everyone was very happy about these presents.

It was a wonderful evening. When I said goodbye and good night to everyone, I was directly invited for the next day for lunch and everyone insisted that I should come.

So, the next day, they came again to fetch me and this time we went to the house of my landlady. There, it was well warm and they were also commenting that happily. They also don’t like it being cold and are very jealous of the warm German houses. When the others arrived, they firstly took off most of their clothes, because it was too warm for them. Sadly, I couldn’t stay very long as I had to fetch my best friend from the airport, but it was also a very nice time.

I got many travelling tips about where to go and where not, while I was enjoying the delicious meal. We had different kinds of cheese with bread for starters and for the main course it was turkey or pig, whatever everyone liked more, with couscous and other side dishes.

New year’s Eve was very exhausting as I had been on a road trip with my sister and best friend and we only came back at seven o’clock. We arrived home, took a shower, while the others were cooking, prepared us and left the house, rushing to meet our friends. We met with my Ukrainian friend and a German friend, who also had a visitor at that time, for dinner. Everyone had prepared something and the guys had made mulled wine, which was very good. We listened to music, talked and had a lot of fun. Of course – German tradition – we had to watch "Dinner for One" and show it to the others. At half past eleven, we went to the Praca do Comercio. Even though being late, we arrived on time as my friend doesn’t live far. The place was already crowded, but somehow my sister managed to get us through almost the whole crowd and very close to the river.

At midnight, we all counted the countdown, each and everyone in his language as most of us don’t even speak Portuguese. We cheered with our champagne, wished everyone a good new year and watched the firework. After the last year without a firework in Paris, we loved this one even the more. Over the river, it just looked magical. A few hours ago, I already had called some friends to wish them a good New Year as they all live in different time zones. It was pretty warm for December and we stayed outside for a long time, sitting at the river, drinking and singing along with the band that was playing.

After some time, we went to Bairro Alto to a bar and continued our party there. After a while of dancing, we didn’t have any energy left and went home to sleep. After five days of getting up early, going to bed late, not sleeping because of the cold and lots of walking and sightseeing and the stressful driving in Portugal, we just wanted to rest. It had been a fantastic evening!

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