I recently went on a holiday with a group of my coursemates to Lisbon and Barcelona. This is part 1 of the photospam, of Lisbon and a little bit of Cascais!
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| Yes this is the banner for my blog. |
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| Love the flowers on every balcony |
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| Word of caution, Lisbon is a city with many steep inclines and the pedestrian paths are all paved with really slippery marble so do be careful! Wear shoes with a good grip if you are afraid of slipping. |
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| Just a random gate, but I love how pretty it is. |
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| The main shopping district, right beside the port. |
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| Grilled Octopus |
We had our first dinner at Restaurant O Chiado, and I can highly recommend it! The prices are very reasonable, the food is good and the service was friendly. Their specialty is their grilled octopus, which was very tender, but their Bacalhau à Brás( traditional Portuguese dish with pan-fried cod, eggs and onions) is also very good (and large). The portions are quite large, so I would recommend sharing if you don't normally have a big appetite.
The next day we headed to Castelo de São Jorge, which sits on one of the peaks of Lisbon. It's really more of a fortress than a castle, but the garden inside is really pretty.
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| Inside the Castelo de São Jorge |
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| "Girl, talk to the beak." |
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| Lunch at Comidas de Santiago |
This is a restaurant I would recommend everyone to steer clear from. The service is extremely unfriendly and the food was mediocre at best. The sardines (pictured above) were still bloody in the middle. Also, they still had guts inside, although I've been told that this is quite common in Portugal, but if having fish guts in your fish is a problem for you, you might not want to order the sardines. Personally, I don't like the idea of keeping the guts in the fish because it makes the fish spoil faster and the bitterness also spreads to the flesh in its immediate vicinity, but that's just my own preference.
Headed to the famous Pasteis de Belem, where you can supposedly find the best/most authentic Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese egg tarts) in Lisbon apparently.
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| Production line at Pasteis de Belem |
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| Interior |
Tip: Skip the long line outside and just head in to the cafe to sit down. There's no line for that but service is pretty grumpy. (Maybe because they're understaffed?)
Are these egg tarts worth the hype? They've got delicious filling, but not really worth the hype. Crust was totally crunchy and burnt. May have been a bad batch, but when I eat an egg tart I expect the shell to be flaky, not eliciting a crunch sound when I bite into it. I've had better egg tarts in Singapore tbh.
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| Mosteiro dos Jerónimos |
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| SO FLUFFEH I CANT EVEN |
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| Cod fish soup with rice |
Dinner this night was at Alfama Cellar. A little bit pricey, but really good food!
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| Streets of Cascais |
Took a day trip out to Cascais to spend the day at the beach. Cascais was GORGEOUS. Totally charming little beach town (although a bit touristy).
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| Look at how clear that water is! |
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| Mr Krabbs |
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| No idea what these are, somebody please enlighten me! |
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| Seafood platter Catalan style |
Dinner at Tasca da Vila. Was pretty nice, the seafood platters are pretty worth it as they can easily feed 3 (although it says for two), and the service was also pretty friendly!
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| Grilled seafood platter |
I have to say, I might have fallen in love a little with Lisbon. The streets of Lisbon, though small and narrow, were just so authentic and charming! I completely fell in love with the mosaic patterns everywhere. The only thing I didn't like about my experience there was that the service was pretty unfriendly in some places, except in a couple of restaurants, although this might have to do with the fact that it's probably peak tourist season, so they were probably very busy. Most of the ones I've posted here (except the one that I REALLY disliked, Comidas de Santiago) are good though, so if you're ever in the area you should check them out!
That's all the photospam for today, will add more posts when I feel bored again.
