Lisbon

Okay, back on track.

Well, this blog is still way out of date but I hope you can all forgive me.

Lisbon, Lisboa as the natives say.

Once the proud trading centre of the world, now; no longer, but the history remains, in the cracked painted tile walls, peeling paint, long hily streets and remains of castles and cathedrals. Physically, Lisbon is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve visited so far. It’s known as “The City of Seven Hills” (not to be confused with the suburb in Sydney). An urban sprawl coats it’s hills looking over it’s wide river mouth, which lazily makes it’s way out to the Atlantic just a few kilometres down stream.

Lisbon is intriguing: sometimes the people reflect the physical city and seem to be a part of a centuries old story: in the fado bars and markets; other times the young and hip seem to have teleported in from elsewhere. But these young folks are right at home in the bar and nightclub lined alleys of Bairro Alto and Baixa Chiado.

While the Portuguese capital shares certain similarities with Spain, it appears to be having a hard time forging itself a young and modern identity. Not that it needs one, of course, but it seems that there are those young and hip referred to earlier who might like it this way. I found a good music store and searched through the local artist section, listened to both the melancholy traditional fado and the new contemporary rock and decided to go with the rock. Fado is full of soul and sadness, locality and loss (and the Portuguese guitar makes a damn nice sound in the right hands), but Lisbon’s hip edge had made it’s mark on me.

In contrast, I spent most of the time just walking around and soaking it up. Perhaps because the weather was perfect everyday of my stay. I trekked up to the hill with the castle, found beatuiful terraces and long concrete porches with cafes overlooking the river. Walked over to the old Moorish quarter, the usual tangle of streets and alleys (only these ones were so hilly they were commonly just made up of steps).

Spent quite a bit of time lounging around in the hostel courtyard, drinking port wine, talking to other travellers and playing my guitar.

I took a day trip out to Sintra (I’ll cover that in another section) with some of the guys I’d met in Seville. Took the tram down along the river out to Belem, where Colombus set sail to find a western route to India and ended up discovering America instead. Yes, the famous custard tarts of Pasteis de Belem are famous for a reason. Ate quite a few of those sugar and cinnamon coated goodies.

Some more pics:
Cops on Segues

Funky graffiti

The Praza Commercial down by the water

Christmas lights

Ah, how can I forget the awesome Portuguese food I tried – grilled codfish smothered in olive oil with potatoes! Great stuff!