After breakfast we bought tickets to our first hop on hop off bus experience. It’s hard to get around lisbon using public transportation so we knew it was time to buy our first tourist double decker bus ticket.
The first stop we got off at was near the cathedral we had visited the day before during our tour. There we found the pastry shop we were looking for, the reason why we got off the bus, pasteis de belem. Both my cousin and the tour guide told us this shop was a must eat. They are famous for a dessert made especially in lisbon, a custard tart. I love custard and tarts so I was really excited. It was absolutely delicious.
After our fabulous tart tasting we caught the hop on hop off bus and headed towards this very old castle in lisbon. I don’t have the slightest idea how old the castle is or what its’ significance is but it was built on top of a hill and heard that it has great views. Of course we got lost trying to find our way there, even confusing some random portuguese church we came across for the castle.
Luckily, dorene and I give up as often as we ask for directions (almost never) and eventually hiked our way up to the castle. The view from there was gorgeous, the castle itself not so much.
Most of the castle had been destroyed but we were still able to climb up some old steps to a second level. Dorene made me play princess for a photo since she was too lazy to climb up the steps herself but insisted that she had a great picture idea.
Yes, I know, you’re shocked that I’m wearing a tank top in the picture above, at the end of october, in europe! It was super sunny and warm that day, we even wore sandals out. It was pretty amazing. Oh how my poor feet missed fresh air and sunshine. The keychain I bought from portugal is sandal shaped symbolizing the fact that it was the one day/place I got to wear flip flops in europe! Super cute idea, I know.
Anyway, we took a bunch of picture at/in the castle remains and then worked our way back down to the main part of town, somehow.
We stopped by mcdonald’s for a late lunch. I got a happy meal and dorene got a tolberone mcflurry. I have some sort of crazy obsession with mcdonald’s while abroad. It’s kind of a big problem. dorene’s mcflurry ended up being toblerone with some ice cream, it was a little ridiculous but at least it was a cool new flavor. I’m still obsessed with the crumble flavor in france that is basically an amazing shortbread cookie with caramel and ice cream. I can’t even begin to describe how perfect it really is.
Sorry for digressing about food, I tend to do that pretty much all the time. After our true portuguese lunch, we decided to make the most of our day long bus pass and went on the less popular bus route. Lisbon hosted a world fair I want to say about twenty years ago, so they have all these pretty, modern buildings and such throughout the eastern part of town. We didn’t get off at any stop on the new route because it was getting late and well there wasn’t much to do, but at least we can say we say almost all of lisbon and have photographs for proof.
Once we were finally done with the new part of the lisbon tour, we decided to buy some super bock, portuguese beer, and had a mini happy hour in our luxurious room. Of course I got green bock while dorene tried other kinds.
We had big plans for that night, we decided to go to a fado show. I’m guessing you’re either wondering what the hell a fado show is or you’ve already opened up another tab and are googling the word fado. Actually, maybe I should be googling fado because I’m still confused as to how/why this whole sad portuguese singing is still popular. Our hotel booked us reservations at “clube de fado,” a restaurant with what we were told had authentic fado singing.
Once we got to the restaurant, we ordered salad for appetizers, (dorene indirectly convinced me that we needed vegetables in our diet), two different beef dishes and green wine. My cousin had warned me that green wine in portugal was basically white wine but I mean, who wouldn’t order green wine when given the chance.
Long night short, clube de fado, was an almost total fail, hence our sad faces below.
Our salads sucked, it was basically a small plate of lettuce and awkwardly shredded carrots with some onion all sans dressing. I don’t think the portuguese understand the word salad and the whole fado singing, so boring. The restaurant would turn off all the lights and all the waiters would leave for fifteen minute intervals while some lady would sing songs in a depressing tone while accompanied by a couple string instruments.
The green wine tasted, well not great, and dorene ended up catching a live fly in her glass at the end of the night. I persuaded her to tell the waiter, hoping he would comp something (I was still pissed about my salad) but instead he just opened another small bottle. Keep in mind that at that point we were done with dinner and about to leave so it didn’t make sense. The only good thing that night, surprisingly, was my beef dish that had some sort of cream sauce and fries, but I mean, how hard is it to mess up something with beef, cream, and fries? Am I bitter much? Yes.
We managed to leave the fado prison and were waiting for our taxi when we saw one of the fado singers and the “band.” For the fun of it, I decided to make the singer feel cool and asked to take a picture with her. Apparently, she’s already too cool for me.
Once back at our hotel, we packed and started saying our goodbyes to our five star room. Tragically, we had to check out super early the next morning to catch our flight to barcelona, but we will always remember the fact that “oh lisbon, you were so good to us.”
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