Food, Fado, and steps (many steps!)
A mere minute from our apartment, we found a small, but wonderful, bakery, that would become our first stop each day for a delicious breakfast of cakes, toast, coffee and orange juice, all for less than a total of ten euros (that’s a total of ten euros, not ten euros each)
Suitably fortifided, we headed off to discover the streets of Lisbon, with no more of a plan than to head towards the Basilica de Estrella, because we knew we could climb onto its roof. So we began to walk, and we walked and walked and walked!
We saw red doors, and red aliens,
brand new murals, and brutalist architecture,
as well as more traditional Portuguese streets. We went uphill seemingly endlessly, before finally arriving at our destination. However, after all those steps and hills, we took a quick break, and I had my first Pastel de Nata of the trip. Delicious!
We then went into the Basilica and ascended the 149 steps to the roof, to take in a sweeping vista of where we had walked from.
We then walked some more, finding more street art, and view points
but we needed somewhere to have lunch, and stumbled across this little gem:
The food was fantastic, and cheap, Becky eating “Grandma’s chicken” whilst I enjoyed a chick pea curry. Salud!
Later in the day, we went out to eat in the evening – having traipsed so much of the city in the daytime, we didn’t want to go far, so picked a local grill, on a street near our apartment. The food was fine, a very rustic feel as we sat outside on benches near the bbq grill, and we were “entertained” by some Fado singers. I will be honest – not my favourite music, very earnest and worthy I’m sure, but just a wailing melancholic woman singing in a language I didn’t understand – perhaps if I’d done the three months study instead of thirty minutes on the plane it would have meant more to me, but I don’t think any Fado tracks will be making it onto my Spotify playlists.
