Alright it’s about time I write something in this blog, seeing it has been a looong while since I’ve made any updates. Apologies for the lack of posts!

As Ian mentioned earlier, in the last 2 months we’ve made a few weekend trips. On the very first trip (26th-28th May) we went with a couple of Lawrence’s friends to visit the beautiful Lisbon, capital of Portugal. We left, still half-asleep at 3:45am, and headed towards Gatwick Airport on a pre-booked mini cab. We checked in at the FlyMonarch counters, airport securities are pretty strict with keeping all hand-carried 100ml liquid bottles in a clear plastic bags when going through security checks. Making sure we were fully charged for Lisbon, we slept through the whole 3 hours flight to Lisbon.

Going through Lisbon airport’s immigration was a pain, there were not enough counters for the amount of people going through during the long weekend. After 50 minutes of queuing we jumped across to a very empty-looking EU counter, our passports were stamped straight away and we saved ourselves probably another 30mins of queuing. We took a public bus towards Baixa (Downtown) and got off at Avenida da Liberdade. As we were trying to locate the hostel, Ian became extremely excited when he saw a building with ‘Tivoli’ on it. Eventually we found the hostel, checked in, dropped our bags then went exploring :)

Lisbon is the western-most capital in Europe with population of 2.8 million. A bit on the history…Portuguese were amongst the first Europeans to look for colonies and explore around the world. Most of the Portuguese expeditions in the age of discovery left from Lisbon during the 15th-17th centuries. The 16th century marks the Golden age for Lisbon. The city became the European hub of commerce with the Far East, while gold from Brazil also flooded into the city. Colonies were found in Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Prínci), the Middle East, India (Goa founded by Vasco de Gama for spice trades), East Asia (Macau, Taiwan and Japan), East Indies (Malacca, Timor) and of course Brazil (when Pedro Álvares Cabral’s ship was blown off course on his way to India).

Lisbon is a city full of beautiful architectures. Many buildings, rebuilt after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, are influenced by the Gothic and Renaissance periods.

As we headed towards Rossio Square, we must have walked past 4 bakeries with Portuguese tarts but they didn’t look very fresh so we all resisted. There was an Information Centre at Rossio Square, we orientated ourselves with some maps/info but then found all of Lawrence’s friends had disappeared. It turned out they had gone into the bakery next door to buy Portuguese tarts! Personally I thought the custard was nice & creamy but the pastry was too chewy. Feeling content, we made our way to Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square). Over the misty smog across the Tagus River, we saw a tiney weeney monument which resembles the Corcovado monument in Rio de Janeiro, it was apparently built after WWII because Portugal was a neutral country during WWII.

After that we took a bus to Belem Tower, which was suppose to be only 10 minutes from the city center but we missed our stop so we did a scenic walking tour through some really nice residential properties, some of which appeared to be embassies. The Tower of Belem commemorates the expeditions of the 16th century and also acts as part of a defence system to the entrance of the Tagus river, to protect Lisbon and the Jerónimos (Hieronymites) Monastery. The Hieronymites Monastery really does amaze with its very intricate ornate Manueline-style carvings. Both the Tower of Belem and the Hieronymites Monastery were classified by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1983.

We caught the tram back to Baixa. The tram was relatively new, fast and comfortable. Streets of Baixa are grid-like, filled mostly with shops. There is one really busy shop on this main strip which caught our attention, behind its window was these columns of neatly stacked with fresh Portuguese tarts and some other Portuguese desserts. We looked at each other and we knew we had to make a stop for Portuguese tarts! It was without a doubt the nicest Portuguese tart, the custard was still warm, puff pastry was light with a little bit of caramelised sugary crust around the edges making it just-right crispy and together it just melts sweetly in your mouth…mmmmm!

Our hostel turned out to be quite good, it was central and right next to the metro. We booked it through http://hostelbookers.com. One thing we learnt at dinner that night is that in restaurants, the bread and butter/paté and other things such as olives, smoked ham, cheese served on the table are not free. They are actually starters/entrees on the menu which happen to be on the table. So if you eat one olive, you will have to pay for the whole serving, same goes for sliced cheese, bread, etc…

Following day we decided to visit Sintra, an UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its 19th century Romantic architecture. First we caught the metro to Jardim Zoological station then caught the CP trains to Sintra. The Sintra area actually consists of the Pena Palace, the Castelo dos Mouros, the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park and Palácio Nacional de Sintra (summer residence of the kings of Portugal). Unfortuanately we only had time to visit the Pena Palace.

From the train station we went to the tourist information center where they told us that there’s 5 kms to the Pena Palace. Just after exiting the place we saw a bus that announced ‘Sintra Sightseeing Palace tour’ on its front sign so we hopped on. It was 4 euros for a return ticket! Once reaching the ticket booth at the Pena Palace, luckily the queue wasn’t too long, we had to pay 8 euros each to visit the palace and the gardens. After passing the security gate there’s a little green rip-off tram that charges another 2 euros for a 3-minute ride. It takes 5 minutes walking up a 1 km slope! Ok it did start to rain quite heavily so the walk wouldn’t be very pleasant and there was only 1 umbrella amongst the 7 of us.

Pena Palace is a very colourful moorish castle built in the 19th century. Inside the rooms are decorated extravagantly, with all furnitures and fittings in place, not a detail amissed including the bread! (and yes, that room did smell mouldy) It really looked like a real castle. One thing that really fascinates me was the tiny rooms and low door entrances, it makes me wonder whether the Portuguese are amongst the smallest Europeans!

That night we had a fantastic meal at Ribadouro Restaurant, the boys ordered fresh seafoods including this huge crab with claws the size of my palm. Well fed & satisfied, we made our next stop and watched a Fado (Portugal’s national song) show.

Castle of São Jorge is on the tallest hill of the central city, we caught a bus to get there from Rossio Square. It was definitely a great vantage point to view the entire city of Lisbon from the hilltop, very impressive. We could see the 25 de Abril Bridge (or 25th of April Bridge, the day Carnation Revolution started in 1974) over the Tagus river, it looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, probably because it’s by the same construction company. We did a quick tour of the Castle of São Jorge. Being in the oldest part of Lisbon, the Alfama, it is within easy walk to the ancient fortified Lisbon Cathedral. The Cathedral has many different styles because it has been modified many times and survived many earthquakes.

As we made our way back to the train station, we must have made two more stops for Portuguese tarts ;P

Overall it was great long weekend, met some new friends, saw some beautiful architectures, not to mention ate a lot! Really should start doing some exercise!

A bit surprised we didn’t find any Portuguese yellow chicken curry…maybe it’s a Macanese dish?!