Currently sitting on a plane to Boston to visit my high school friend for the weekend, and I thought I’d spend this time finishing writing about my Europe trip. After Marrakech, I flew to Lisbon to meet up with my other college friends.
When I arrived in Lisbon, it was about 8pm and my friends had landed earlier that day. A couple of them were quite jet lagged so they went to sleep early and a group of us went to the restaurant downstairs and I ordered salmon and house white wine.
On Saturday, we started off the morning with breakfast and coffee at Fabrica Coffee Roasters, and I got a latte and avocado toast. We then met up with our tour guide for our day trip to Sintra and Cascais. Our tour guide Nuno was hilarious, the tour group was just my friends and I and a lady that was traveling solo for work and she was really cool. We visited Sintra and Pena Palace, which honestly looked like a lego castle because it had so many different bright colors and different influences (Portuguese, Spanish, Moorish). It was extremely cold, windy, and rainy, so even though we were on the top of a hill visibility was rough. After visiting Pena Palace, we ate lunch in the nearby city, and I ordered a seafood salad, cabbage soup, and really delicious cider (it tasted like actual apples and they added a cinnamon stick). Before heading back to the van, we stopped by a popular bakery, and I bought a couple of different Portuguese tarts. They were very sweet but served as a tasty dessert. Then we drove to Cabo da Roca, which is the westernmost point of Europe. It was extremely windy but it was still pretty to look at the lighthouse and explore the vast coastline. A lot of it reminded me of Land’s End in SF actually, and it was pretty cool because a couple of my friends were also SF natives so we were able to appreciate the similarity together. Our last stop was then the Cascais, a tiny beautiful seaside town. We just wandered around for an hour or so, and I got some ice cream from Gelatos Santini. We then drove back to Lisbon’s city center, and rested in the airbnb before dinner. I wanted to watch the sunset so one of my friends and I went to a miradouro (viewpoint) that was about a block away called Miradouro da Graca. The sunset was stunning, we could see all of Lisbon’s city center, its rolling hills, the Golden Gate Bridge replica in the background and the water. When we walked back, we all then went out and ate at an Italian restaurant near our airbnb so we could end the night early so we could be prepared for our race tomorrow.
Sunday was the big day. We woke up early to go to the station to ride the buses that would take us to the start line on the Vasco de Gama bridge. We were struggling a little bit because we were unable to get pins at the expo and they didn’t have any at the start line. A couple of us had running belts that they could tuck their bibs in, but a couple of us didn’t have anything to keep in attached to our shirts. We thought about using our earrings, but this really kind Portuguese lady gave us some of the pins from her own bib and used her shorts to keep her bib attached, she was so incredibly kind and we were so incredibly foreign with our single pinned bibs.
We were freezing on the bridge, but when the race started it was lots of fun! The weather was beautiful and sunny, and race day magic was keeping the adrenaline pumping. Four were running the half together, and three of us ran the 8k. For the first 6 miles, I kept pace and jogged with my friend. When we broke apart, I turned up the gears since I wanted to possibly beat 2 hours. It got quite hot so I was definitely not as hydrated as I would’ve liked, and I needed to pee. The last 3 miles were running through the city center which was pretty cool, but it also meant that I had hit the wall, there were cobblestones everywhere, time was ticking, and the race had a brutal half-mile long uphill at mile 10. The race finished at the famous commercial square, and after I finished I got my swag and stretched and rested on the ground. I waited for the rest of us to finish, and then we walked back to the airbnb to rest. Since my friends were tired/in pain, I decided to wander more in the city. I went to a couple more miradouros, my favorite one was definitely Miradouro da Senhora do Monte. It literally took my breath away, there was a band playing chill music in the background and there was a quiet crowd that gathered to watch the sunset. Afterwards, I also visited Miradouro de Santa Luzia, Miradouro de Santa Luzia, and Miradouro do Castelo de Sao Jorge. I ended my little wandering walk at castle Castelo de Sao Jorge, which was pretty fun to explore. I went back to the Airbnb to meet up with my friends and we went to the Time Out Market for dinner and the nearby bar district Bairro Alto for drinks.
On Monday, we went to a nearby brunch restaurant called Quase Cafe and I ordered eggs Benedict and an omelette. Then my friends went to take a train to go to Porto for a couple of days, and I wandered the city before my flight to London. I left my luggage at a luggage storage area near the Airbnb, then visited Belem Tower, Berardo Museum for contemporary art, the monastery, and the famous pastry shop for Portuguese tarts. Although it was quite hectic to order the tarts because it was such a popular destination, the tarts were absolutely heavenly. The tart was so flaky and just the right amount of sweet, and sprinkling powdered sugar and cinnamon on it was delicious. Then, since it wasn’t too long of a walk and I wanted to wander more of the streets, I visited the LX market, which is a converted arts center that had many stores, galleries, and restaurants. It was a pretty cool spot, and I ordered a snack there to rest for a bit. I took a ride back to the city center, visited a rooftop bar called Topo Martim Moniz briefly, and then took a ride to the airport for my flight to London.
After Lisbon, I went to London for a couple of days and then New York for the weekend. I had a wonderful visiting with friends and exploring, and I love those two cities so I’m sure I’ll be back to those two places.
Until next time!
the world around me 