Who Would Ever Want To Leave Lisbon?

For the second part of our fall vacation, my friends Kasia, David, and I went to Portugal. After flying from Madrid to Lisbon, the first site we visited was St. George’s Castle. There, we walked through an archeological site and took in spectacular views of the city. Afterwards, we went to the Jeronimos Monastery, where the tomb of explorer Vasco de Gama is located. After a quick lunch, we walked towards the Belem Tower and saw El Padro dos Descubrimentos, a monument honoring navigator Henry V, along the way. Our final stop was the Berardo Collection museum, which was free and full of modern art. Then, we had a delicious dinner accompanied by the best tasting port wine and, of course, ice cream for dessert at the end of the night.

We spent the majority of our second day in Sintra, but returned to Lisbon for dinner in the Mercado de San Ribiera. Since we all wanted to eat different things, we agreed that this modern looking food court and market was perfect for us. Also wanting a taste of Portuguese nightlife, we started our night in Baixa-Alto, where a lot of people gather in bars before flocking to the clubs. The three of us talked, drank, and briefly crashed a bachelor’s party, so the night was off to a fun start. Although David headed back to the hostel, Kasia and I still had energy to go to the club Lux-Fragil. I thought I would have left earlier than I did, but I was having such a fun time I lost track of time!

The following morning, we went to St. Roque church, home of St. John the Baptist’s Chapel, the world’s most expensive chapel. For lunch, we headed to Pasteis de Belem for pasteles de nata, a yolk based and custard filled Portuguese dessert. Since, I’m not a big fan of custard-filled desserts, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked them so much, especially with cinnamon on top! All in all, we had an amazing three days in Portugal. We got to do and see everything that we wanted and to be honest we didn’t want to leave by the trip's end. Then again, who ever wants to leave the paradise of vacation?