A Rainy Weekend in Portugal

Lisbon is a beautiful city and small enough that you can see a lot in a weekend. It is called the city of 7 hills and we certainly got a workout climbing through the different areas. We explored bakeries, nightlife, and neighborhoods. We also traveled to Sintra and Cabo da Roca, two amazing places I hope to visit again soon. I did not know what to expect when visiting Portugal. On this trip I fell in love with the charming country and its friendly people.

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The metro in Lisbon is very easy to navigate and inexpensive, busses are a little more complicated, but both busses and the metro stop around 1 am, so after a night out you will have to take a taxi. If you do not want to walk Lisbon's hills, take a trolley, a common form of transportation here.

We stumbled into this restaurant lost in the rain in Lisbon so we could ask for directions back to our hotel. We ended up buying food to go that night and returning the next, and if we had been in the city longer, we certainly would have eaten at Taste of Bengal again. To get to the restaurant, you go downstairs (the entrance floor is part of another restaurant). Order several dishes and share, as it is inexpensive and that is the best way to find out what you like if you are inexperienced with Indian food, as many of us were. The staff was extremely friendly and the food was great. This restaurant isn't really in a touristy area, but if you happen to be in the neighborhood, definitely visit.

The Barrio Alto ("high neighborhood") is a fine place to visit during the day, but it is best to visit at night. The Barrio Alto is full of bars and clubs, ranging from places to get dinner and hear live Fado music to places with Margarita specials and karaoke. Some of the shops also stay open late and start serving drinks (caipirinhas in a jewelry store--I must be in heaven!). It's a good idea to ask some locals on the street for a good place to go; the people here are so friendly, they'll be happy to help you out. Portugal loves all things Brazilian, so if you aren't sure what to order at a bar, try a caipirinha or a mojito.

Before high-rise buildings, this tower was considered quite tall, and extremely important. The tower of Belem sits at the mouth of the river, just before it opens into the Atlantic. This was a very important place in the years of the European discoverers, who often used Portugal as a starting point on their way to the Americas. You can go up in the tower, or just take a little time to walk around and look at the beautiful tower.

The rainy weather when we visited the Castelo made it seem even more like we had stepped back in time. Lisbon was covered in a grey mist but the views of the city from the castle were still beautiful. It wasn't what I imagined in a castle, no interior with fancy rooms and exhibits of lavishness. But this castle feels important when you stand at the top of it next to the waving Portuguese flag and look out over Lisbon's hills and river. As we walked around the castle I noticed that there were not really any closed off areas- we were free to explore however we wanted, and several people in my group decided to start a game of tag. The Castelo de Sao Jorge is a good place to relax and enjoy the view or run around climbing the castle.

Sintra is a pretty short drive from Lisbon, though the road gets curvy at some points and several of the people I was with felt carsick, but it is definitely worth the ride. Lisbon is a city, but still has a small charming feel and Sintra has that same feel except much more. When you drive or walk up to the city center, the first thing you notice is probably the castle, which looks like it came straight out of a Disney movie. The rest of the town is equally cute, most of the buildings are pastel colored, the cafes are small and slow, with good coffee. Just up from the castle is the shopping area. It is small but the shops have all the typical Portuguese products like painted tile, wool, and various products featuring a rooster (I am not sure why the rooster is so important to Portugal, but it is everywhere), and the prices are less than those in Lisbon. Most people here speak some English, but it was helpful to know some Portuguese. After a few hours here my friends and I were ready to move to Sintra, or at least to Lisbon so we could visit Sintra often.

Cabo da Roca is a little remote, I'm not aware of any busses that go there (though there may be some), but it is absolutely worth the trip, especially if you've already rented a car to go to Sintra-Cabo da Roca is on the way. It means 'tail of the rock' in Portuguese-named this way because it is the westernmost point of continental Europe, nicknamed The End of the World. When we went to Cabo de Roca, I had never heard of it and did not know what to expect. But I think even if I had high expectations for this site, they would have been exceeded as I walked from my group's bus to the cliffs. There is a small lighthouse, but otherwise Cabo da Roca is a bluff covered with green plants and small yellow flowers, dropping sharply off into the Atlantic. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We all agreed we could have spent hours there, staring out over the cliffs and running around, unfortunately, it gets windy at the end of the world and we left when a huge thunderstorm rolled in (not before we got to watch the storm cloud come in over the ocean).