The day we planned to leave for Lisbon, Portugal was scheduled to play Iran in a World Cup game. We left Porto by train and made it with just enough time to get to our Airbnb, change, and head to the main square, Terreiro do Paço, to watch the match.

View of Sao Jorge Castle and the Old City were we stayed the first three nights.

Boy does Lisbon know how to make an entrance. I step out of the train station and gawk at the scenery. The river is wide and a stunning color of turquoise blue. Across the water are tree-covered hills for as far as you can see in either direction. Then I turn around to see the city. And I have to look up, because this area of Lisbon is on a mountain. We check our directions, and our apartment sits just below the Sao Jorge Castle – straight UP from the train station. We have a rule that if (according to Google Maps) our destination is walkable in 30 minutes or less, then we walk. Anything more, we’ll check out other options. A 28 minute walk through alleys and steep stone staircases. Dang that rule. No Uber. We start the hike.

View inside our Lisbon apartment.

Within the windy, steep streets of the old city, we find our apartment. It sits just north of one of Lisbon’s oldest neighborhoods, Alfama. We enter directly from the street and walk down a half flight of stairs into a courtyard. Inside the courtyard are four or five apartments that used to function as servant quarters. They are small and very close together. All of the windows opened to the courtyard, so there wasn’t much privacy, but it worked for us.

Lisbon is rugged. It feels like two completely different cities because it kind of is.

A flea market set up in Lisbon – old part of the city.

In 1755, an earthquake destroyed nearly the entire city, with the most damage occurring in the valley. The hilly side of the city to the east, particularly the Alfama neighborhood, mostly survived the disaster. So while the medieval old city consists of windy, narrow, disorganized streets, the new city was completely rebuilt after the earthquake on an rigid grid system. The difference between the two is quite distinct.

The main avenue of the new part of the city.

Tiled building in the new part of the city.

The old city is narrow alleyways that wind through tall, stone buildings. It’s two-table cafes tucked into small spaces. It’s street sardines seared over open charcoal grills. It’s old men gathered in doorways and women leaning out of windows. Young people congregate at the hap-hazard intersections of alleyways, where tents or tarps are set up to create shade over cheap, plastic tables. Black smoke billows from open charcoal flames where sardines are tended to by a woman who stokes the flames with a bamboo handfan. A man serves beers and Coca Cola from a wooden booth in the corner. At night, these popup bars come alive with music and dancing that lasts well into the morning.

The new city is straight lines and upscale shopping. Tourist cafes with pictures of food on their sign boards and hosts forcing a menu in your hands. Flat, open squares with panhandlers and buskers.

And what do the old city and the new city have in common? Graffiti. There is graffiti on every surface of every part of Lisbon. Some is art, most is vandal. I’ve never seen so much graffiti in my life.

We watch more soccer

After we drop our bags off at our apartment, we walk downhill to the main square to watch the World Cup game. The match has already started, and the streets are empty. It’s a ghost town. As we navigate through the windy cobblestone streets, cheers erupt from somewhere above us. Through an open window, I see people huddled in front of a small television. Neighbors gather inside the tiny markets that occupy the ground level of the ancient buildings and stare intently at the soccer game. As we walk, we pop into one of these small stores to check the score. Still 0-0. As we approach the square, we’re greeted with the bellow of horns and the din of a crowd. There are thousands of soccer fans watching the game on the big screen. We wait in line for beers and squeeze into an area that barely accommodates the two of us, but we have a decent view of the game.

Our view of the World Cup match, Portugal vs. Iran.

Whenever we’re in a crowd, Stephen likes to wear his Boulevard t-shirt (the one he got from being in his commercial – also check out Jenna and me at the picnic table at :13) and he finally has someone comment and ask if we’re from Kansas City – an American who went to school at Benedictine.

We eat FOOD

Lisbon is a trendy vacation spot, so for my foodie friends who may find themselves there soon, here are some notable meals we had:

• Santa Rita
  Lisbon has so many restaurants, but this one in particular Stephen and I both really loved. It’s one of those that you kinda have to stumble upon and get lucky that it’s awesome. We found this one on our walk back from the World Cup match at the square. There is nothing notable about the outside or inside really, but the atmosphere was warm and welcoming, and we felt like we were part of the family. The woman who ran the place spoke little English but was full of an energy and had a full contagious laugh. The menu is fairly expansive, inexpensive and authentic. And also the house wine clocks in at $6 for a liter. This was a first real meal in Lisbon, so after a few weeks of tosta mistas (grilled ham and cheese) and bifanas, this meal was heaven. I ordered a fish risotto and Stephen got chicken curry.  This was one of our favorite meals of the trip so far.
  

  Dessert time at Santa Rita.

• Restaurante A Parreirinha Do Paraiso
  We had a traditional Portuguese lunch of grilled fish, boiled potatoes and wine at this hole-in-the-wall place in Alfama. The wine comes on tap and is served in a water glass. The fish is whole and I’m getting a little better at cleaning for maximum meat and minimum bones.
• Faz Figura
  We didn’t actually eat at this place but did have drinks one afternoon while I used their wifi to finish up some website work. It has a fantastic view of the river. We were the only people there the entire afternoon, which was fine with me.
  

  The view of the water from Fez Figura.

• The Mill
  An Aussie-Portuguese brunch cafe near Bairro Alto. This was an adorable place for coffee and a breakfast sandwich or scramble. Recommend.
• Pistola y Corazon Taqueria
  This was one of two or three Mexican restaurants in all of Lisbon. After we tried to go to this place (which is located in Cais do Sodré district, south of Bairro Alto) once and found it was too crowded to get a table, my heart was kind of set on it. We return on another night and still wait for over an hour. For me, margaritas and spicy tacos were a necessary change of pace. The Mexican food was definitely authentic, but I’m not sure if it was worth the wait.
•  Arco da Velha
  This restaurant truly looked like someone’s grandma’s living room, complete with the cat curled up in a chair by the door. It was charming. We had a nice chat with the German couple we shared a table with, and it turns out the woman’s best friend was a high school exchange student in Kansas City in the 80s. Unfortunately, she hated it, was completely miserable and won’t even visit the United States ever again.
• O Eurico
  This place is another great, inexpensive place for traditional Portuguese food. It’s located in the area by Sao Jorge Castle. The menu was simple and we really liked the local feel. Plus all of the cooks here were women, which is pretty badass.
  
  

  It was so good, we forgot to take a picture of our food at O Eurico.

Other Lisbon highlights

• Lisbon is the first city where we decide to extend our stay. It was tough to find an Airbnb at the last minute so we book our second hostel of our trip. It was nice to change location and we found ourselves on the other side of the flat, downtown area, just south of the Barrio Alto district. Overall it was comfortable, and it gave us an opportunity to interact with some other humans. There was a common room and a nice patio area where people hung out in the evenings. We each had a bed in an eight person mixed dorm, which of means we end up in bunkbeds like the good old days.
  

  The common room at Oasis Hostel in Lisbon. They made breakfast at the hostel for a good price, so we would eat here before heading out for the day.

  

  Oasis Hostel.

• We met some friends –  Jess from Australia and Laura and Ben from Montreal – who we walked down to the square and watched another World Cup game with (a loss, and unfortunately for the Ronaldo fans, elimination).
• We visit the neighborhood of Belém, which is a short train ride from Lisbon. This neighborhood is dedicated to the Portuguese explorers from the Golden Age, as it is home to the port from where many of the ships left. There is a large monument dedicated to the explorers. The monetary holds the tomb of Vasco da Gama, who was the first European to reach India by sea. We also waited in line at Pastéis de Belém which sells the most famous Portuguese custard pastry called Pastel de Nata.
  

  Monument to explorers in Belém, called Padrão dos Descobrimentos. Of course, if it’s not juxtaposed with sticker art/graffiti, is it even Lisbon?

  

  Belém Tower.

Sintra

The only time we really left Lisbon was to take a day trip to Sintra. Sintra is a small town near the coast that used to be the summer residence of Portuguese royalty. It’s mountainous and forested and everything was green (including my outfit for the day. If you follow Stephen on snapchat, you probably aren’t surprised. I accidentally brought a lot of green on this trip). I did a little research ahead of time and purchased tickets to the two sites there were most recommended – Park and Palace of Pena and the Moorish Castle.

We walk from the train station up up up to the Pena Palace (again, 30 minute rule). There are two things to do at the park – explore the gardens and tour the palace. The “garden” is a misnomer if you ask me. It’s actually the massive forest that surrounds the castle for miles. There are fountains and monuments and points of interest tucked away in the hills and trees of the property. It’s all heavily forested and although there were lots of people there, our hike felt pretty secluded. The paths were well marked and paved, and we followed a map through a long route that included the highest point of the property, several grottos and viewpoints, a valley with hundreds of tropical ferns, small churches, and gazebos. The entire place was stunning, and in the time we had we were only able to explore half of the park. Other points of interest included lakes, farms and garden gardens.

The Pena Palace gardens had so many shades of green, I blended right in!

Trying to find our way around the “gardens.”

This was one of my favorite fountains in the gardens.

All the doors and tunnels made the whole property feel like The Secret Garden.

Even though we decided not to purchase palace tickets, you can still go into the courtyard and walk along the battlements. The original structure is a monestary. This part of the palace is painted orange. The rest of the palace was added to the building by King Ferdinand II in the late 19th century. All additions to the monastery are yellow. The whole thing is really eclectic with diverse tiling, carvings and statues. It’s fun to try to search for the quarks and I really enjoyed our visit here.

The Pena Palace.

Our next tour was the Moorish castle. The castle is no longer standing, so the visit itself consisted of hiking up to the ruins and walking the battlement perimeter. This hike provided some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.

Battlement walls of the Moorish Castle.

View of Pena Palace from the Moorish Castle.

After we finish our hike along the battlement, we follow a trail through the woods from the Moorish castle to the town center of Sintra. This was my favorite part of the day. We had most of the hike to ourselves, and came across a completely secluded courtyard of a beautiful villa called Vila Sassetti, complete with fountains, courtyards that were completely deserted of people, and gorgeous flowers and greenery. We had spent the whole day hiking our faces off and I could have sat in the courtyard for hours, but you know… food.

The QUEEN of Vila Sassetti.

Still ruling Vila Sassetti.

We were so hungry that we sat down at the first restaurant we found with a view, a tapas place called Sintra Terrace, that didn’t actually serve tapas. So we had burgers, and they were delicious.

Overall, Lisbon was good to us. The food was incredible and affordable. The vibe of the city reminded me in some ways of Kansas City, the way organic revitalization and growth creates pride and excitement. This feeling was apparent all over Lisbon, but especially in the restaurants. This undercurrent makes me certain we’ll be back soon.