Fall Break Part 3 — Lisbon!

Last Tuesday night, we left Spain for the final destination of our fall break: Lisbon, Portugal! I really didn't know much about Lisbon before going there and I didn't know anyone who had travelled there, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect when we got there. I was pleasantly surprised and it actually ended up being my favourite city that we visited!

After arriving at the airport, we took a bus to the Marques de Pombal, a big square with a huge statue in the middle. The whole area looked so pretty at night and it was so much warmer than Spain! I had expected Lisbon to be kind of a small city since I had never really heard much about it, but it was huge! After getting dropped off at the bus stop, we managed to find our hostel which was on a cute little side street. It was called the Chillout Hostel, which we thought was funny, but it ended up being awesome! It looked really cool inside and the people who worked there were all students or backpackers themselves. It was also a lot more social than the other hostels and we met lots of people from all over the world. After getting checked in, we got a tour of the hostel and the girl who checked us in told us there was a dinner. It was really good! It was a traditional Portuguese dish with potatoes, cheese, and cod. And we also got some Portuguese beer with the dinner! After eating, we hung out downstairs for a while with some people that we had met in the hostel.

When we first arrived in Lisbon!

The next day was our first day of exploring Lisbon! The hostel had a breakfast in the morning with lots of toast! We were all excited because we hadn't had toast since being in Europe! After breakfast, we walked to the city centre with a guy from LA and a girl from England that we had met in the hostel and then we all took a train to Cascais, a little town right outside of Lisbon. The train went right along the coastline, so we got to see really pretty views of the ocean. Once we got to Cascais, the first thing we saw was a beautiful beach! We walked on the beach for a while and I dipped my feet in the water (it was cool being at the Atlantic Ocean because it felt like home!)

the view from the little patio off of our room in the hostel

walking down the big hill next to our hostel

view from the train on the way to Cascais!

enjoying the beach with Kristina, Virginia, and Juliette!

Next, we walked down some little side streets that had lots of little shops and restaurants. What I thought was cool about Cascais was that it felt so tropical! The streets were white stone and all the buildings were bright-coloured and there were palm trees everywhere you looked! I almost felt like I was in Bermuda! We found a little restaurant on the street we were on and decided to stop for lunch. I got chicken with salad and fries and then split a raspberry cheesecake with Virginia for dessert. It was delicious and so cheap too! Apparently Lisbon is the least expensive of the major cities in Western Europe which I loved! The waiter was really nice too (a nice change from the ones we had in Paris!) I think all of the Portuguese people we met while we were there were so nice and friendly!

the main street in Cascais

After lunch, we explored some more and came across another beach area. There were so many palm trees there too and a lighthouse! We also found a little cove that was so cool! If I lived in Cascais, I would go there all the time to relax. It felt like a little piece of paradise!

After being in Cascais for a while, we took the train back into the city. We headed back to the hostel for a little while and had dinner there again. That night, they had another Portuguese meal, sandwiches with pork and sangria. After dinner, we hung out with some other people from the hostel for a while and blasted some music and played "never have I ever." It was really fun!

The next morning, everyone else in my group wanted to sleep late except for me, so I went out and explored on my own for a little while. I walked through a kind of residential area near our hostel and then headed to the main street and Marques de Pombal. I saw a huge park behind the Marques de Pombal statue that I hadn't noticed when we arrived since it had been dark then. It was up a big hill and it was exhausting walking up to the top but when I got up there, the view was amazing! I could see the Marques de Pombal square below and I could even see the ocean! It was really cool and to make it even better, it was so sunny and hot out!

Marques de Pombal

palm trees everywhere!

the big park behind Marques de Pombal. You can see the water way off in the distance!

After that, I went back to the hostel to meet up with the rest of my group. The first thing we did was get some food. We went to an Indian restaurant where ironically most of us got pizza instead of Indian food! I split a chicken pizza with Virginia. After lunch, we explored the area. We went down a big road that had a cool arch and we saw a little tower that apparently has the only vertical lift in the entire city. We saw lots of street performers: a ton of people who pretended to be statues, some women flamenco dancing, and a guy playing the drums and singing to pop music like Rihanna, "I'm Sexy and I Know It", "Gangnam Style", and "Danza Kuduro." He was awesome! Then we went up to see the castle! I had never been to a medieval castle like that so it was so cool! It was up on a huge hill, so we could see the entire city from up there. We explored it until it closed and they kicked us out!

the oldest church in Lisbon that was built in 1147

in the castle!

the view from the castle

view from the castle

After that, it was dark out, so we headed back to the hostel where we had dinner again. It was another Portuguese meal with these yummy fish pastries, rice, and salad. After dinner, a bunch of went to a restaurant where we saw a fado singer. Fado is the traditional kind of Portuguese music. It's a singer with two guitarists. They were really good and at the restaurant, all of us girls tried the Brazilian version of a mojito that had lemons in it, which was really good! Much better than regular mojitos in my opinion! After seeing the fado singer, we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.

The next day was our last day before we went back to Lyon. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we had the morning to see more of Lisbon. There was still so much we wanted to do and so little time! Kristina and Ben wanted to go to the big monastery and Virginia, Juliette, and I wanted to check out the store Primark, so we split up for a few hours. Me, Virginia, and Juliette took the metro and then a taxi to the big Dolce Vita shopping centre right outside the city where Primark was. Primark is a British store that they don't have in the US, but all of the European girls I met from my program absolutely love it and I had been wanting to check it out! It's kind of like H&M and has cool trendy clothes and accessories that are so cheap! I ended up getting a pretty sweater with rhinestones, some short black boots with studs on them, a new bookbag, and a new wallet (I had been in desperate need of a wallet because ever since my old wallet had gotten stolen, I was carrying around my money and everything in a ziploc bag haha!)  What I like about Primark too is that even though it's cheap, a lot of their things look expensive! The shopping centre was already completely decorated for Christmas too which I thought was funny. And I thought the US started decorating early! They even had a faux Santa already! After going to the shopping centre, I started to get in the Christmas spirit and have been listening to some Christmas music since being back in Lyon!

one of the many Christmas decorations in the Dolce Vita shopping centre

After Primark, we took a taxi back to the hostel. (Even though it probably took about a half hour, the taxi cost us less than 15€! In Lyon, it probably would have been three times that!) We got our luggage and met back up with Kristina and Ben, and then took cabs to the airport since the taxis are so cheap! We thought it would take a lot longer to get to the airport and we had also expected the airport to be crowded since it was a Friday, but it was completely dead and we got through security so quickly and then had about an hour and a half until boarding. So we got some food and chilled for a while. Then our flight ended up getting delayed for about another hour! I seriously hate Easyjet haha!

The break was so much fun and probably one of the best weeks I've ever had. I loved Barcelona and Madrid, but I think my favourite city was Lisbon! I liked how it was the perfect mix of city and tropical and it wasn't as touristy as the other cities. It's definitely an underrated city and I think I could live there if I knew Portuguese! What we found funny was that when we referred to going home after break, home to us is France. Lyon really does feel like a home now and even though break was amazing, I was happy to be back :)