Portugal

​Why you should add Portugal to your travel list
 
Hey, it’s Kris again, bear with me. I know a lot of y’all pretended to read about our past trips on here, but I also wrote the Cabo blog so go check that one out too. But today we’re gonna talk about Portugal…specifically Lisbon, and why you should add this to your travel list. For me, so far this is my favorite country we’ve visited on this trip. It could be that way because the city is very pleasing on the eyes, the people are surprisingly nice…for Europeans, a bottle of wine is 2 euros (or $2.13), or that its like a 5 minute swim from Africa so my ancestors were passing off some weird kinetic energy to me for being so close to the motherland. Idk, lets get down to how you should plan your trip to Portugal.
 
How to get there:
 
Unless you do live that 5-minute swim away from Portugal, its best you fly into the Lisbon Airport. Tickets directly from NY to Lisbon aren’t cheap per se (around $700 round trip) so if you aren’t trying to drop that just to see one country, and cant take 3 months off from work (I know right, who does that), I recommend you take a full 5-6 work days off and fly to London first, then Portugal. If you are lucky like how we were, you’ll have a 20-hour long lay over in Iceland, then you can spend 2-3 days in London, then the other 3-4 days in Lisbon. A flight from NY to London shouldn’t be more then $350...and a flight from London to Lisbon only cost me $100, if you aren’t traveling heavy, cut that price down a bit and just bring a carry on and you’re good. So there you have it…3 countries in 7 days, not bad.
 
Where to stay:
 
The only answer to this is Bairro Alto…unless we have any readers over 40 (Hi Mom). By day, the neighborhood is a pretty quiet area with its typical markets, restaurants, bars etc., but by night every bar and restaurant is filled with people, drinking and having a good time with friends outside. Airbnbs are fairly priced so no worries on spending hella money like you would at a hotel. The neighborhood is perfectly located in the middle of the city so walking distance to many of the main attractions, and the metro.
 
What to do:
 
 
1. Park Bar (literally on top of a parking garage in Bairro Alto…great views)
2. Eat...I'll expand on this because I love food. Portugal is known for seafood and beef, Keya and I made a deal before leaving the US that we would try as much different food as possible even if that meant we had to try a snail or a rabbit. Lucky for us, the weirdest thing that we tried was raw cod. While the food wasn't necessarily trash, lawrys would have worked wonders for 100% of the meals we had (they aren't privy on seasonings yet...the rumors are true). Also if you love hot sauce like me, back your own, they don't do that here either apparently. I've shared pictures on just about everything we ate while in Lisbon so check them out. 
3. Sunset Sailing tour of Lisbon (can’t beat that view)
4. Beaches (we went to Carcavelos, but if you have more time, go to Tamariz, it was rated best beach in the world in 2003)
5. St George Castle, it's basically a Castle on a huge  hill, bring wine. It's the best view you'll get of Lisbon.
6. Explore by foot, walk around and get lost..though it is important to note that Lisbon has hella hills
7. Cais de Sobre (they only paint the street pink once a year though so turn your Google alerts on).
8. Learn Portuguese. Download Duolingo and take a hour out of your day just to learn the basics, even if its just si y no.
 
Thanks for reading. If you hate it or offended by anything I’ve said let me know in the comments below. Cheers….Grammar and spellcheck by Keya