Lost in Portugal: Sights around Lisboa

So, I neglected to actually write more posts while I was in Lisbon, therefore I don't really have a place to put these as my earlier posts were rather random and too specific, but I have to say that I loved Lisbon as a city, it is quite beautiful with some wonderful architecture that really reflects the different cultural groups that have lived in and shaped the city.

Even though most of the weekend was cool, rainy and grey, I adored wandering through the steep, narrow city streets. In fact, the cool, rainy weather combined with the replica Golden Gate Bridge over the harbor and the steep, narrow streets climbing up the hillside just made Lisbon feel that much more like San Francisco. Although San Fran feels more upscale in many ways.

We saw quite a bit of the city and with the less than favorable weather even made it to the Lisboa Oceanario which has a phenomenal saltwater tank as its centerpiece, including perhaps the coolest fish ever, the Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, a gigantic saltwater fish that can grow up to 11ft long and enjoys drifting on its side while the currents carry it through the ocean. Plus a fair number of sharks and barracudas floating around inside.

We hit most of the big sites: St. Jorge's Castle, Belém where we saw the Belém Tower and Jerónimos Monastery (both UNESCO World Heritage sites), the Chiado shopping district (although this time I refrained from tragging Nick through another shopping marathon), the Bairro Alto, and even the Jardim Botanico, which was slightly disappointing after the immensity of Berlin's Tiergarten. That combined with all the walking around the city gave us a pretty good sense of things although I can definitely see coming back for a longer stay. Plus perhaps a bit more time on the coast . . . gotta work on my timing on the waves after all.

Lost in Portugal: Lisboa Graffiti

Saw a load of cool graffiti in Lisbon last weekend. Lots of it was stencil work with some freehand stuff, but the stencil stuff was so prevalent it made me wonder if it might be a single artist.

Lost in Portugal: Pastel de Belém

So one of the things that we were told was an absolute, must try food in Lisbon was the Pastéis de Belém, a small egg cream tart in puff pastry. According to local lore, the recipe for this particular pastry cream is a closely held secret and only three people in Belém know the recipe, passing it down from one generation to the next as each retires. Jamie Oliver apparently tried to recreate the recipe without success, he just wasn't able to replicate the silky texture of the cream.

So with that knowledge in hand, we headed to what is supposedly the birthdplace of this tasty, creamy little tartlet, Antiga Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém. And taste, and taste, and taste we did. Tiny, silky smooth tarts, still warm from the oven. Flaky and tender but still sturdy as you bit into it so that you didn't end up with a lapfull of puff pastry shreds.

We purchased two dozen with the intention of bringing them home for our co-workers, but unfortunately the pastries were left behind as an unintentional gift for our new friends at the Surf Castle. I guess we'll have to return to Lisbon to partake in the joy again.

Lost in Portugal: Sintra Views

Sintra is this beautiful little village in Portugal, a UNESCO World Heritage site in fact (I seem to be racking up quite a few of these lately), that we stopped in before heading out to the coast for my surf experience.

We didn't have nearly as much time as we would have liked to have in the town so we didn't get to see the summer palace, but we did hike up to the Moorish Castle (ruins actually) which took a good hour. The view was completely worth the time and effort (we foolishly hiked along a road instead of the trail from the village, a bit hairy now and then when the locals would come barreling around the tight, steep turns).

The castle wall was supported from below by enormous granite (?) boulders that must have been carried through the landscape by glaciers during the ice age. From the topmost part of the castle wall you could see all the way down the coastline, even to Ericeira an incredibly famous surf spot. Unfortunately I couldn't tell what the waves were like from there, but we didn't go there anyway so it didn't really matter. Next time, when I'm actually better at this crazy sport I've picked up.

Lost in Portugal: Surf Castle

So it's hard to fly all the way to Portugal, which has some of the best surfing in Europe along the coast, and not at least attempt to get in the water for a few sessions. Unfortunately this entire weekend was massively blown-out with super high winds, mostly coming on-shore Saturday and Sunday. But today, today it is better. After a grey start this morning, we headed out from Sintra to Peniche so I could once again tempt fate in the water.

I had heard about this place in Portugal called the Surf Castle from a couple I met in Famara in March. So when I knew I was heading to Lisbon, I looked them up and got in touch to see if I could get a local heads up on the wave conditions and also maybe score a lesson. Still lots to learn after all.

The owner, Joao, was incredibly helpful, besides giving me the insider update on the conditions (which led to me NOT dragging my board along with us this weekend), he also helped me set up a session with an instructor named Pedro. All in all, a pretty sweet afternoon although I was only able to get a single, hour and a half long session in and the water is sooo much colder than it was in Famara. Once you start moving though you don't really notice, besides it's going to be a lot colder in Chicago this winter. Yes, if you look very closely at that little black dot in this picture, that is me, actually surfing. Albeit not as well as I would have liked . . .

The waves were small, but Pedro said it was the glassiest day they had all weekend, and besides I wasn't complaining, it's not like I can afford to be picky after all.Anyway, even a short session is good for me. The more time in the water the better I say! Gotta work on my timing paddling into the waves though. Practice makes perfect!

So a funny bit of the day actually took place over a late afternoon snack that Nick and I had with Pedro and his girlfriend. They asked me how I had found out about the the Surf Castle, as I related my Lanzarote story, talking about this kind of crazy Italian guy and his Irish girlfriend, they said, "You know Allie and Jenny? They're hysterical. They're coming back in September."

Not that I was really that surprised that they remembered those two, but Pedro even commented on Jenny's board, which isn't really her board since Allie rides it ALL the time. But anyway, love the small world connections.

Lost in Portugal: Coffee Days

Much to Nick's delight we have discovered that Lisbon has quite the coffee culture. In fact, I think ordering coffee in Lisbon might almost be a complicated as ordering coffee in Vienna. A fact Nick found highly reassuring. That and the coffee tastes sooo good. Strong, but not burnt, deep roasts that can be served any number of ways if you just know how to ask for it. Not that we managed to figure that out in three days, but it was good nonetheless. Wish I had pictures, but sadly I have none.

Here is my quick Lisboa coffee primer, courtesy of my failed attemps and TimeOut Lisbon:

For Milky Coffee in a glass, ask for um Galao, basically like a latte but if you add the words Maquina, you should get coffee that's fresh from the machine as opposed to coming from the carafe of the stuff that's been sitting around for a while getting burnt

For a Cappucino like drink ask for uma Meia da leite (half milk).

For Espresso, ask for Bica but ask for um cafe or um duplo if you'd like a double shot.

For the really strong stuff, ask for uma Italiana, a tiny cup of sludgy coffee essence.

Granted, they don't take it quite to the levels of the Viennese, but I have no doubt that if you really know the city, one would find that the subtleties are just as extensive when you know your way around.

Lost in Portugal: Capoeira in the Street

We started the morning wandering through the streets down towards the water and the main square. As we walked down that way, pounding drums and chanting started to fill the causeway between the buildings. I always love street musicians so we made our way towards the crowd and the drumming to find the delightful spectacle of a Capoeira school doing a demonstration with the instructors and their students.

We stood and watched while the teachers and their students wove a dance of martial arts and gymnastics. It was great. I've always wanted to learn a martial art, perhaps this should be my next sport . . .

Lost in Portugal: Literally lost

This may be the worst marked subway station ever. It took us asking directions three times before we were able to locate it, and getting to it meant walking over a highway and through a roundabout. Not so convenient. . .

lost in Portugal: Caracois, caracois

OK, we arrived in Lisbon. It was kind of cold and rainy and I was STARVING! Big shock there I'm sure.

So Nick and I went wandering around our hotel to see what we could find to eat. We wandered into this tiny little storefront and ordered a couple of sandwiches. I happened to see two women behind us eating what looked like a plate of teeny, tiny escargot. So when the server came over I said "I'd like a small plate of those, please."

He looked at me, said "Caracois?"

And I said, yes, what those girls are having. With smile he returned about 5 minutes later with a steaming, garlicky pile of tiny little snails, complete with tiny, little, smiling snail heads that had antennae.

Now I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but for just a moment even I paused. But after a stern, internal pep talk, I dug in with my toothpick while Nick looked on rather horrified. Until he tried them. And boy were they tasty. As long as you can get over the little heads, these suckers are really, really good. Nick only made it through four, but I devoured a good plateful almost before I was full.

Although not for the squeamish, I highly recommend them if you happen to be in Portugal and they're available.