LISBOA: Airplanes, Soup& Jelly! BIG TIMES!

Whenever you go to a new place, you have certain expectations, right?!
My expectations of Portugal and Lisbon were:

"Great, finally holiday!"

So in many respect my expectations were covered by the reality!

SUN SUN SUN

WARM WARM WARM (Average daily temperature in April 25 degree!)

What I didn't know about Portugal though...is a whole lot more.

First of all: I didn't know that the city is located on a HILL! This is not mentioned on wikipedia and nobody warned me before I came here! And it is hell of important. For one thing: you are strongly advised to NOT wear high heels at any times! Not even when you go out at night! Not only because of the pavement made of little stones (which were probably there since Roman times)...but also because everybody here is quite short, so you will stand out of the crowd quite clearly

...which is why the wise Portuguese have invented many ways to avoid climbing streets, such as this tram which only takes you up and down this specific street...

or this elevator...which takes you from lower street level to an upper street

...but well, I could clearly feel the hill-thing:
after a
day of walking my legs were all sore...which again is very healthy and covers with my expectations of walking and relaxing and enjoying the nature! The city is very green and has plenty of amazing parks and gardens!

Basílica da Estrela

and the park around it

And what I find truly fascinating is that (and I think it is because of the up-down-orientation) you can hardly get lost here, because once you know if the place you were going to is rather "up" or "down" you just follow that et voila! It's really easy!
I think Lisbon is the only city on Earth I never got lost in!

Second of all: I didn't know that Lisbon doesn't lie directly on the Atlantic Ocean, but on the Tagus River

...which basically means that there is NO beach directly in town, but an hour away drive.

Now, what surprised me the most was the possibility to GET A SOUP EVERYWHERE!

HEAVEN-ON-EARTH!!!

For everyone who knows me is aware that i LOVE SOUPS!

In evry small old-man-bar/restaurant kind of place (what most of them are) you can order SOPA DE DIA and it will cost you between 1 and 2 euro! I know, in Germany, or any other "fancy" developed country, you can't even buy a coffee for that money...

So: carrot, carrot-spinach, vegetable soup in every fast food or cafe place in the shopping malls as well.. You can even have a soup at MCDONALD'S!!! That's right, McDonald's in Portugal sells soups! Carrot soup (Sopa cenoura) is the most common one though!

And I mean: C'mon! McDonald's food variety is the best place to measure cultural differences anyway! If a small country of 10 million population especially and exclusively puts soups on the McDonalds menu...THEN SOUPS ARE A BIG THING!

Another thing you wouldn't have necessarily listed in your expectations of Portuguese food, or at least i didn't have in mine is: JELLY!!!!

I know it is a weird thing to notice, but jelly in different flavors is a very common dessert! And when was the last time you had jelly? I didn't have any since I was 5!

I miss chocolate though. There are different kind of pastries, which are yummy as well, such as PASTEL DE NATA but.... CHoooocooooolaaaaaate!

Whatever the question, the answer is chocolate! I came to the realization that chocolate is an addiction. AS well as that they never have anything with chocolate at shootings or shows over here, so it apparently is a cultural thing as well. It is easier to resist on buying some chocolate, since it is not all around you, in contrast to those egg pudding things (pastel de nata) which can be found EVERYWHERE!

As to the airplanes!
Here we should really pretend that they are shooting stars!(as B.O.B says...or sings)

Otherwise I would have killed myself after day ONE!

They fly over my roof 100 times a day/night! And they are so so huge that every time I see one I pray it won't fall down over my roof! The first night I couldn't sleep AT ALL, since my bed was shaking every time one of those airplanes were passing over...Funny how after 2 weeks you don't really pay attention to the noise anymore...

Whenever you watch TV or listen to music though, and and airplane is passing over: YOU literally CANNOT HEAR anything at all!!! That could be really annoying! I don't know if it happens that I live in a bad area, but it is very central so I guess I am not the only one suffering from that! Good thing is: cheapest airport fare ever! TAXI DRIVE TO costs you 10euros...

Another thing I'd normally never pay attention to elsewhere (but I did here) are the graffiti all over the place. I wouldn't call it vandalism but rather STREET ART!

I caught myself stopping and watching at some graffiti stuff a few times...I've never done that before.

I found it truly fascinating as an expression of the young and the new, in "one of the oldest cities in the world"! (quote from wikipedia!)

Maybe it is just this: the mingling of the OLD and the NEW!

Like all those abandoned houses EVERY-F....ING-WHERE! In the middle of the city, in the "Champs Elysee" of Lisbon (Avenida Liberdade) there are a bunch of them...Not to speak of everywhere else around the city.

So every time I saw some old- left-alone-building I stopped and stared and exclaimed:
"WOW, this house is really old!"...

...or "Wow, this house is so beautiful!"

And I wondered: WHY WHY WHY. Why doesn't anybody live there, why aren't there offices of banks, insurance companies or whatever...why don't they breathe new life into those beautiful anyway:it's none of my business...but it's also shame for those building to be "drying out" under the sun of Lisbon!

Maybe they have some UNESCO-protective-issues...I don't know..I'm just saying that I LIKE THEM! (but I also feel sorry for them)

At night LISBON is truly beautiful! The small streets in Bairro Alto...suddenly get full of people...

...and each house turns into a bar..













SO the whole picture of Lisboa by night includes:

...the lights, the old, the young...

... the street art,

...the steep streets...

...and the best MOJITOS I have ever had in my life! SO fresh!

As to the tourist sights: YOU'VE GOT PLENTY OF THOSE.

Castelo de São Jorge

...surrounded by gardens

and because there is not much to see than a bunch on stones, they've put some fancy birds to attract the tourists' attention...and justify the entrance fee

Similar to the Wine Museum in Porto, a free entry thanks to my cousin who lives here (free for residents)...saved me another 7 euros...

But for all those who paid: I guess the birds were really the most interesting part...

The Tower of Belem

it looks big and..WOW...but actually once you see it it's quite small and...bunch of stones as well...much nicer on pictures and postcards!

Jerónimos Monastery

And some other views from Lisboa, products of my "mobile phone" photography :p

Rossio train station

some street












the square of commerce...












...some arch on some other street












street...














the coast














sunset on my street













a park with nice view over the whole town














something...(i think roman bridge or so in the background)











a reflection of a street in a restaurant window









And some weird stuff going on around...

Such as the floating man!
This is really amazing! Once you see that guy you can't get eyes of of him..because you are like: Wait, how does he do that?! Am I blind? Where is the trick...So eventually you'd stop and stare until you get some sort of an explanation for yourself...Mines was: magnetic field and huge magnet underneath him and opposite pole in his shoes...

...white men running around and screaming something...

I don't know what the hell they were...but I got their flyer...

A cow looking out of a shop window :)
(Yeah, this shop was cool)

As well as this other store called MOOD. I once had a shooting inside...

...a car damage handled the "Portuguese way"...

...and some guys cleaning shoes on the street...haven't seen that since I was a child...

All in all: If you have some spare time and wish to visit a city almost untouched by franchising and the aggressiveness of our modern reality experienced in most European capitals;
if you want to eat in old-school old-men-bar-restaurants', where owners cook their own soup of the day, rather than getting it delivered and popping it in the microwave when you order one...
if you want to escape the transition of winter to spring and land directly into the summer in April and shop for some sandals;
if you feel like walking behind people who walk slowly as if they enjoyed every step they make, where nothing starts before 10am and stops between 13-15h...where everybody and everything is late...and it doesn't really matter because

TIME IN LISBON HAS STOPPED! And this is a good thing! Can't wait to go back there after Easter!