Loosing ourselves in Lisbon, Portugal

Main street (Rua Augusta), Lisbon

Happy Easter! Happy holidays or in Spanish; Semana Santa! The lead up to Easter in Spain isn't quite what we thought it would be like... 

There's no bunny, chocolate eggs or hot cross buns, nor is there that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you secretly eat about three too many deliciously rich Cadbury cream eggs. There is church though, lots of going to church and people carrying around olive branches- still looking into that.... Rather than going on chocolate binges, most Spanish locals take this time to start their summer vacations by heading to the coast or to their family pueblo's (village house)! 

For us, we headed to the neighbouring country, Portugal. 

Landscape of Lisbon

Beautiful buildings 

Truthfully, we were VERY excited leading up to our holiday!! Finally back to the seaside and that fresh salty air we miss so much! Our bumpy plane ride to Lisbon (Lisboa) arrived in the early afternoon flying so low over the old, orange roofed city you could see clearly how it snugly blankets the rolling hillsides and we could make out the tiny laneways weaving around the buildings. 

Just so beautiful!


One of us was jumping like a kid crazy on a sugar high after landing (the other had the bags) but we skipped out of the airport with the sea in our sights. Nothing could hold us down, except maybe those bags... Haha.
After dropping off said bags at the guest house we started walking.

Up (slip) and down (slip, slip). Up (slip) and down (slip, slip).

One of the first distinguishable features of the city are Lisbon's beautiful(ly) dangerous cobbled footpaths made of white rock and jammed into the ground. In older parts of the city the centre of the paths have been worn down by centuries of foot traffic and if you venture off-course you just find yourself sliding back towards the middle. But certainly OHS would have a field day back home!

Next would be the rustic, old tiled and painted buildings, of every color imaginable! So bright and freshly painted, or others faded like a subtle sunset, standing proudly and strong through the years each with their own definable character.

Catch a city tram

Stunning colored tiles

Trams on the road

Arc de Rua Augusta

Eating on the terraces 

We would say that we were truly enchanted by the old city, the colours, the terraced plazas and cool ocean breeze. It's difficult to find an appropriate adjective to describe the city. 

It's old and worn, and many once were beautiful buildings have been deserted and left uncared for but the city breathes life and charms its visitors with resilience, warmth, its history and its general lived in and homey feel. 

munch munch... pastis de nata

We spent hours walking, turning left or right towards whatever we saw that interested us, usually driven by the shine of tile, a scenic outlook or a beautiful alleyway.


When we weren't walking we were eating! Although not very 'Portuguese' on our first evening we stumbled across an all you can eat sushi bar for only 8 euro! Oh no!

All day as we ventured we munched on small delicious sweet pastis de nata (egg tarts), ohh they were wickedly delicious.





We tried the local sardine speciality and Sagres beer. On our first few days in Lisbon we explored the city by foot, visiting palaces, churches....... and clocking more than 10kms of foot power daily!

A day at the beach! 

Another day we went further up the coast to the beach Cascais and it was stunning. We could have been basking on the Mediterranean the water was so clear and blue and the sand a golden white.
With a cool wind whipping across the bay it kept the temperature feel low and we got a bit too much sun in! 

Kara in the Paça do Comércio

There are many similarities between Portugal and Spain but everything was just different and all the same. In Spain there are cervecerias (bars) on every street corner where you head for a small drink and tapa but Portugal has pastelerias (bakeries) where it's sweets rather than savouries. 


Spain has similar building styles but doesn't have the hilly landscape or color. 

Building after amazing building! 

Fortunately for us Portuguese have an excellent grip on English and those that didn't, understood our Spanish- there's possibly a larger ethnic range in Lisbon than Madrid. 


It really felt like a fantastic holiday destination!

We loved Lisbon.

Tot Siens, 
John and Kara