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the low down
--Jul 20, 2005
Overall: Portugal is one of
the most laid-back European countries. It’s not too fast,
not too slow, safe, clean, convenient, and easy to get around.
The people are casual and unpretentious and we felt very comfortable
as soon as we arrived in Lisbon. Better yet, we continued to feel
relaxed and at-home in the other towns that we visited.
What we did: We spent two
weeks in Lisbon, lazing in cafes, recharging our batteries and
restocking supplies. We took a too-short day-trip to Sintra from
Lisbon, and then went south to a tiny beach town called Zambujeira
Do Mar. We spent our last week soaking up the sun with all the
Brits in Lagos.
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Castelo de
Sao Jorge in Lisbon |
Essentials: Like most European
cities you can get pretty much everything you’re looking
for here.
Food: In general, the food
is tasty and not too expensive, especially compared to the rest
of Europe. Eat fresh fish at local restaurants and try the pastries!
If you’re adventurous, the squid is delicious and fresh.
Grilled chicken is a good alternative for the not-so-brave.
People: Laid-back, friendly
and fun like the friends we made (see portugal:
luis & simao), though a bit more conservative and
less immediately affectionate than their famously outgoing Brazilian
counterparts. Overall, the friendliness of the population makes
this a great place to visit, but watch out for the grannies if
you’re trying to get on a crowded tram in Lisbon; they will
not hesitate to push you out of their way!
Cost of Living: Although cheaper
than the rest of Europe, we were still hit by the bad exchange
rate. Prices seem to be about on par with San Francisco.
Daily budget: A dinner for
2 at a local restaurant with house wine is around 25 Euros. Staying
in rented rooms (not hotels) outside of Lisbon is 25-40 Euros
per night for two people. Cheaper or more expensive options are
certainly available, but places in this range seem to be easiest
to find and a reasonably good value.
Exchange rate: $1 USD = 0.8
Euros
What's fabulous: The super-clean
streets (see portugal:
clean clean clean), easy public transportation and good
food at fair prices.
Weather: It’s off-season
now and it’s mild, sunny and warm most days with rain only
once in a while. Also, the beautiful days are really long; the
sun sets around 9:30 pm!
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red roofs cover
the seven hills of Lisbon... |
Getting around: Public transportation
in Lisbon and between cities is easy to navigate, comfortable
and fairly cheap. In Lisbon specifically, there are cheap taxis
(Mercedes!) and several tram lines to take you around all of the
city’s seven hills. Between cities, buses and trains are
the way to go (depending on your destination). The schedules are
fairly flexible and convenient.
Difficulties: Lonely Planet
guide book 2005 – it’s terrible! Even though it was
supposedly updated only a few months before we arrived, we found
a lot of things wrong or completely out of date.
Random translations: Compared
to the Brazilians (who also speak Portuguese), the Portuguese
speak like they’ve got a mouth full of marbles so it’s
more difficult to understand them if you’ve only learned
a few phrases.
| Specific places we visited/things we
did: |
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| Lisbon: |
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- Praca dom Pedro IV (locally known as Rossio): A nice,
big touristy plaza with many cafes, shopping and restaurants.
You’ll probably find yourself passing through here to
get to lots of places. |
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- Miradouro de Pedro de Alcantara: A narrow park with a
lot of benches and a nice view of the city. It’s a must-see
if you’re a fan of bougainvilleas. |
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- Castelo de Sao Jorge - Nice views of the city, clean restored
castle, almost worth it to go just for the bus ride up the
narrow, steep streets |
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- Columbo Mall (near Colégio Militar metro stop):
we heard the goal was to build the biggest mall in Europe
so we had to check it out. We just wandered around, looked
at shops, watched a movie, ate and shopped for groceries at
what HAS to be the largest supermarket in Portugal (it’s
called Continente and puts Costco to shame). |
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- Museu Calouste Gulbenkian: Very nice museum showcasing
the amazing collection of only one person. He collected all
types of art, including Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, Armenian,
Chinese, Japanese, European and some Contemporary. |
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>>
Recommended activity/restaurant: Fado at Fermentacion
Restaurant <<
This is a Fado restaurant in the old part of Lisbon
below Resto with good food and singing (see portugal:
woeful tunes for more details). Unfortunately,
we can't tell you exactly where it is, though we can
tell you it's worth the effort! |
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Recommended restaurant: Primavera do Jerónimo
<<
address: Tv. Espera, 34; phone: 21 342 04 77
This is a nice place in Bairro Alto that serves traditional
fare. Our friends Luis and Simao brought us here for
a good “locals” dinner and we went back
a second time on our own. |
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| Sintra: |
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- Overall: What a beautiful place! We went for a day trip
from Lisbon, but we wish we had stayed for a few days. Walking
around the city is romantic and relaxing. It's a tad touristy,
but there are a lot of interesting things to see and do.
And some of the architecture is amazing.
- Quinta da Regaleira: at first glance this looks like one
of many castles we've seen, but this building and the surrounding
grounds were built in the 20th century by Antonio Augusto
Carvalho Monteiro, a rich doctor, as an architectural and
environmental project for himself. The grounds are extensive
(including some symbols from the Knights Templar) and have
many secret caves and entrances.
- Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish castle): Another nifty castle
with amazing views of Sintra.
- Pena Castle: Yet another castle. Unfortunately, we didn't
have time to check this one out, but it looked very interesting
from a distance.
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Zambujeira do Mar: |
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- Overall: A small, sleepy beach town on the west coast
of Portugal where a lot of Portuguese go to take a break from
the city. It’s (yet another) super-clean town (see portugal:
clean clean clean) with just a couple of restaurants
and a few places to stay. All the action is centered in the
square right by the beach where people (little kids included)
stay up until all hours of the morning. Oh, and the beach
of course, though the water was kinda' cold when we were there
(see portugal:
diary of a boogie board). |
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>>
Recommended accomodation: Artesanato Santos
<<
location: After you get off the bus, walk towards the
beach to the main square and you'll see this store selling
beach goods (the same woman runs the store and rents
the rooms). The rooms are simple, but a good value,
and the owner is so nice! Unfortunately she doesn't
speak much English, but enough to rent the room. |
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| Lagos: |
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lots
of restaurants crowd lots of streets in Lagos |
- Overall: We debated whether we should go here since we
heard it’s full of Brits, but we decided we needed
to check out what all the hype was about. Well, there’s
beautiful weather and many sheltered and unsheltered beaches
lining the coast, but it doesn’t feel like Portugal
so much since everyone speaks English and the plazas are
full of British pubs. But, if you’re looking for a
sunny and easy destination without language barriers then
this could be your place. There are lots of hotels (50+
Euros) and rooms for rent (35+ euros/night). To further
dive into our impersonation of normal tourists, we also
went to the Slide and Splash waterslide park which was pretty
fun (20 Euros each through hotel discount). |
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Check out the portugal
gallery for pix of all the above!
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