Lisbon, February 2017

This year my friends and I celebrated our yearly 'escape the January Blues' holiday in Lisbon. It was an action-packed weekend where we seemed to visit so much, and yet somehow left so much still left to see! I would come back to Lisbon in a heartbeat, and Portugal itself is becoming one of my favourite places to visit, having also been on an amazing work trip to The Algarve last year. In Lisbon, we stayed in a lovely Air B&B, the highlight of which was the little balcony with a gorgeous view of the city. The streets around Lisbon are very picturesque but very steep in places so it's a very good work out spending a day wandering around!

On our first day, we had lunch in the Time Out market which you'll be advised to try by everyone you meet there, and it really is worth it. It's a great way for everyone to eat whatever they want, perfect for big groups, and with so much choice you could easily come back day after day. Wine is cheap (you'll be happy to hear) and the food highlights for me were probably the croquette stall, along with some amazing mushroom and truffle pizza. The food highlight of the trip, of course, had to be the custard tarts. I can't even express in words how amazing they were, and in honesty, I lost count of how many I ate... at roughly 1/2 euro per tart you can't lose! The tarts (Pastéis de Nata) originated from Belém which is only a short ride away from Lisbon on the tram. The Pasteis De Belém is the birthplace of the custard tart and you'll see it straight away from the queues outside the shop, and it's hard to imagine how big the seating area inside the cafe actually is until you go in. If you have time I would definitely recommend going, although we did collectively agree that some of the tarts we had tried from the Time Out market were actually better in taste.

There are a few other highlights to see whilst in Belém and, despite the strong winds, we had a lovely time walking along the sea up to Belém Tower. You can also see the brilliant statue, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, during the walk which is definitely worth a look. Personally, the highlight of Belém in my mind is the Jeronimos monastery and church which I would strongly recommend having a walk around. (See above picture of the beautiful ceiling.) 

During one of our days there, we walked around the old town (Alfama area) which is perfect for photos. Lisbon's old town is covered in amazing decorations which I can only describe as colourful tinsel. (See above) A must visit is the Castelo San Jorge in the old town which offers amazing views. If you would like to get great views whilst in the new town you can go up the Santa Justa lift which we stumbled across a few times, which gives you good photo opportunities of the Carmo Convent which was mostly destroyed many years ago in an earthquake, see below the lift in the foreground and the ruins just behind.

The nightlife in Lisbon is also brilliant and consists of lots of smaller bars and clubs in the Bairro Alto area. The streets are full of people drinking and talking in the streets into the early hours and it really does have a great atmosphere, with lots of different style bars to visit.

The second day trip we did from Lisbon was to Sintra which is only a train ride away, and as there are so many things to visit whilst in Sintra I would recommend staying there for a night if you want to see it all. We chose to just visit the Pena Palace whilst there, as it was the one that we all liked the sound of the most. The colours of the Pena Palace really are incredible and if I had to pick a favourite part of the trip, although it would be hard, I would probably pick this day trip as the scenery really is stunning.