My Visit to Lisbon


Lisbon was a pleasurable surprise. The first reason why I decided to visit Portugal was because Lisbon is at a five hour bus from Madrid. So, as I did with most of my European trips in 2016, I bought my bus ticket with the Goeuro app, and booked a hostel with Hostelworld app. Afterwards, I was happily searching in TripAdvisor what to do in Lisbon.
Oh my God, Lisbon was astounding. I think that the closest place to the capital of Portugal, that I have ever been, is Andalucía, and the simple reason to that, is the Muslim influence of course. It cautivated my attention immediately. I remember walking away from the bus station and thinking “what am I doing here?” I felt I was walking through a South American neighbourhood. There were building workers around and I just made the worst mistake ever: to prejudge. Maybe I did that, because my past experiences in Ireland, England, Italy, France and Spain had been decent and I was afraid this would be my first terrible decision traveling alone. I am so glad I was wrong as fuck. So, I walked around twenty minutes to my hostel and it catched my eye that there weren´t many people how I thought. I visited Lisbon at the beginning of November and the weather was exquisite. I stayed at Yes! Lisbon Hostel and it was one of the best things for sure. The Hostel is great, friendly staff, social meetings and dinners organized for the guests. Delicious breakfast included (I paid 11€ the night) and the best was meeting cool travellers with whom I discovered Lisbon with. I met four girls with whom now I am friend on Facebook. First day I did a walking tour alone and it was okay, but not wow! At night, there were many people having dinner and listening to music in the common area. Suddenly a girl approaches me and invites me to join her group. They were planning a pub crawl and of course I joined them. It was a really cool and fun experience; we talked a lot and shared plenty of drinks and laughing.
 The following day with some of the hostel guests I met the previous night, we toured Lisbon with the hostel´s free walking tour, which was magnificent. The tourist guide was didactic and entertaining and showed us typical neighborhoods, picturesque trams, stupendous views and the flea market. I enjoyed a lot the flea market, because I believe is one of those places you can immerse into the local culture. I was glad I could buy some photographs of the city taken by a local professional photographer. Photos that now I treasure as witnesses of my visit.
 How can I not mention about a special small restaurant, someone recommended a Georgian woman I met in the tour? We both, plus an Israeli girl of the hostel, made a half an hour queue to enter, because we were promised that it is a splendid place to eat seafood. And yes, it is an extraordinary small restaurant served by a Portuguese family. I have eaten one of the best paellas ever, which we all shared with some wine. The following day I signed up for the Sintra Tour and it was sensational, we even stood in the most Western point of Europe. Sintra is a beautiful place with an enormous park with ancient architecture, I was delighted at it. It also included a tasting of wines, cheeses and chocolates. All for 30€! I discovered that Port wine is a sweet, red wine. I heard about it before, but I had never tried it.
At night, I went to the cinema with my new Georgian and German friends and had a blast at dinner too. The subway was pretty modern, and kind of enjoyed to travel in it. I loved Lisbon, it gave me an unexpected journey full of emotions and contact with people from all over the world. Though, the main thing that this trip gave me, are more willings of Portugal as soon as possible. Next time I must go South, because a Brazilian friend (of Dublin) who travelled two weeks through the Portuguese small towns and beaches, highly recommended it to me. She specifically said, "you should visit the South because it is cheap and marvelous." 








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