Lisboa, Portugal

Lisbon was one of the European powerhouses that colonized much of the world including Brazil and Mozambique. Today, its economy is in crisis and it is affectionately known as one of the PIGS (Portugual, Italy/Ireland, Greece, and Spain) by economists. We stayed in Lisbon for 4 nights and we could see evidence of the shell of Portugal´s former might. There were incredible stone buildings that were abandoned and left to decay because no one cared or could pay to maintain them. It seemed as though there were simply too many for the Portuguese to take care of all of them. Apart from this, Lisbon is architecturally very impressive. Virtually all of the buildings are painted white with red roofs, which is incredible to see from afar. Lisbon´s nickname is the ¨White City¨ because of this. See below:

Miradouro: (a 3 minute walk from our apartment)

For Lisbon, we decided to try airbnb.com for accomodations, wherein you pay to have someone´s apartment. It´s similar to VRBO, but the minimum stays are much less and the prices are less. We found an apartment in the neighborhood Alfama that is a pedestrian only neighborhood with tight streets on a hill. See picture. It´s interesting to see a city in Europe that has centuries of history that grew organically before the concept of urban planning existed. The streets twine and twist in no particular order and end abruptly. In the US, streets are perpendicular and parallel with names like 1st, 2nd, 3rd, so you can find your way. Not here. Our map didn´t even bother showing many of the streets on the hills.



The sites that Lisbon chose to maintain are impressive. Here is the Praça do Comercio. It was absolutely massive with a huge Roman style buildings surrounding it and looking out onto the sea. I imagine that in the past this was filled with markets and goods from inbound ships. Today, it´s pretty much just tourists and restaurants for tourists.

Interstingly, Lisbon is surprisingly similar to San Francisco.
1) Cable Cars run throughout the city and, just like in San Francisco, they are used 90% by tourists.

 2) There is a massive red suspension bridge that looks just like Golden Gate.

3) Hills. Lisbon was built on 7 hills and some of the streets are very San Franciscan in steepness. 

Sandra and I also discovered that the best was to explore a city, especially the first day, is by bike. Bikes are amazing because you can go long distances, you aren´t bound by public transportation, it´s cheap, it´s good exercise, and if it´s hot you stay cool because you are perpetually cooling yourself off with the wind generated from your speed. So we biked to the Torre de Belem, which is an old castle that somehow ended up in the water. I´m not sure if the land eroded or the sea level rose or what, but now there´s a castle in the water and tourists love it. Perhaps the centuries ago the castle was constructed to one day attract tourists.

 Torre de Belem:

One of the most most beautiful things about Lisbon is the blue and white tile art that is pervasive in the city. I love the simplicity of blue and white. Here is an example from a tile shop we went to. I really wanted to get one for Michael and Lindsay´s wedding present, but in the end the logistics of transporting nine tiles in my backpack for 2 weeks seemed quite risky. Wouldn´t this look amazing in their kitchen!!
Azulejos

Azulejos in the streets. This one says Milk-ery and Butter-ery

Lisbon has a strong alternative culture which has lead to an abundance of artistic graffiti throughout the city. The one below, for example, takes a shabby building and makes it picture worthy. 

Graffiti:

 Vino: Just saw this and thought it was cool. Worth a picture, but for 25 euros not worth a purchase. But, hey, at least I know I am not cheap.

 Oh, in case you were wondering, we´ve been eating well...

 Sandra in the Alfama:

Lisboans:
From my experience in Lisbon, tourists are not treated in a friendly way in Lisbon. Now, my opinion is a little skewed because I was benchmarking the Portuguese against the Brazilians. Turns out the Portuguese gave the Brazilians their langauge, but not their demeanor. Despite knowing a decent amount of Portuguese, I was treated as a chump in 80% of my interactions. They just didn´t care to know you. It´s too bad, because Portugal desperately needs tourism dollars to help their economy, but they treat the tourist poorly. The concept of ¨don´t bite the hand that feeds you¨ is lost on Portuguese.

Libyan or Lisboan?

Also, having learned Portuguese in Brazil, the Portuguese Portuguese accent was much different. Lots of ¨ssshhing.¨ When I heard the safety announcement on the airplane, it sounded like I was listening to a cartoon character speak Portuguese. I also had a more difficult time understanding Portuguese people in comparison to Brazilians. After listening to Portuguese people all day and getting a really low self-esteem about my language abilities, I heard a Brazilian girl and I was like, Holy Crap, I CAN understand.  

Overall, Lisbon was a beautiful city, but if I had to choose between Portugal and Brazil, I would 100% say Brazil. Nao deixe o samba morrer!!

Saudade de Brazil: