M and I went to Lisbon for Valentine’s Day weekend this year and had a great time. Portugal is one of our favourite places to visit! I’m obviously a little biased because my parents are originally from Portugal and I have many fond memories in Portugal during our family vacations. Nonetheless it’s a delightful place to visit and M and I try to go at least once a year.
Lisbon holds a lot of wonderful memories but there is one extra special one cause that’s where M proposed on my birthday in 2007. So the word Lisbon always brings a smile to my face and I’m sure once you’ve visited, it’ll do the same for you. Lisbon is one of my favourite cities and once again it didn’t disappoint. We drove to Lisbon and stayed at the Tsar hotel. We found a great deal on Trivago and it was an amazing value for the price. We paid 44 Euros a night with breakfast included for a nice modern 4 star hotel; can’t beat that! M and I love getting up and stuffing ourselves with the breakfast buffet and then we go back to bed for a little bit (breakfasts in Portugal are served quite early so we get up earlier than we’d like on vacation and need that little after breakfast nap). We waste half the morning sleeping but it’s one of our favourite traditions – weird, I know. Do you guys have any weird vacation rituals?
M and I aren’t the best tourists because we really aren’t into a lot of sightseeing. What I mean by this is that we don’t have a page long list of must see things and spend the whole day going from one tourist attraction to another. Even when we go to new places, we pick a couple of must-sees and then we just walk the city. We love to eat and drink so a large portion of our holidays are spent getting fat but we enjoy every calorie ridden second and this get away was no different.
Since we’ve already been to Lisbon we didn’t go to any cathedrals or museums, we just walked around, a lot.
We walked down to the Praça do Comercio right by the water and had a walk around and looked for somewhere to eat. We found this hole in the wall joint that has probably been around for 40 years and hasn’t been renovated since but WHO CARES!!! Don’t let its old school appearance fool you because the food is AMAZING!!! It’s called Casa da India and it’s a churrasqueira which is a Portuguese BBQ joint and we had the chicken with homemade fries, rice, and a big salad. OMG, this was the best chicken we’ve ever had!!! It’s called frango assado no churrasco and it’s just barbequed chicken but there is something secret to it because my BBQ chicken never turns out like this. It looks like it’s cooked slowly because they have some pieces on the grill when you come in and they take their time about it. You should definitely go if you’re in Lisbon and it’s one of the best and cheapest meals we’ve ever had. We still can’t get over how inexpensive it was. Sure the place lacks some serious lustre but it has a special kind of old school, run down, home cookin’ vibe that’s worth checking out. Have you ever had a huge fresh salad for 2.50 Euros??? We also had dessert and it was great but we totally forgot about taking pics. You’ll just have to go there and taste it for yourself!
We then walked all around the city and did some shopping. We love how nice everyone is and the customer service is amazing. Unfortunately Spain isn’t very customer service oriented in stores and restaurants so it was a nice change to have people smile and assist you with pleasure.
The next day we met up with my godparents and had seafood in Eriçeira, which is a coastal town near Lisbon. Eriçeira is known as a surf town and M and I have been there plenty of times before since it’s one of his favourite places to visit. We’d never been to this restaurant but we will definitely be going back.
We waited about an hour and a half to sit down but it was worth every single minute standing in the ugly entry door with a ton of other hungry souls! This seafood was DELICIOUS and the seafood rice (arroz de marisco) was the best I’ve ever had (don’t tell my mom I said that). There are no pics cause we were starving by 3:30 pm and just dug into the lobster, prawns, rice, clams, and crab. Food always tastes better when you’re hungry but this stuff was fabulous. The restaurant is your standard seafood restaurant by the sea and it’s called Viveiros do Atlantico . Make sure to make a reservation if you’re going on the weekend cause if not you’ll get stuck waiting like we did.
We then took a drive along the coast and stopped at a few points to take some photographs. Lisbon had suffered some severe storms all winter and the ocean was a force to be reckoned with and entire beaches were swept away because of the of the crazy waves. Hopefully the sand will be back in time for the summer and the tourists.
It doesn’t sound like much but we really had a fabulous weekend just relaxing, eating, and enjoying the view. Lisbon is an amazing place to visit because you have a capital city with everything that has to offer plus a bunch of great beaches that you can get to by public transit; the best of both worlds. It’s a definite must see if you’re in Europe and you won’t regret it.
Have any of you been to Lisbon? What were some of your favourite places to see in this memorable city?
I'm MYC on Ravelry.
Thanks a million for all the great tips…. I can’t wait to visit Lisbon!