La La La La Lisbon

My funky single room at The Chillout Hostel in Lisbon

Yup – it is taking me awhile to blog about my trip.  So many other things to do – NOT!  I think sometimes lack of things to do breed inertia, and with inertia, things that need to get done can build up and you just put them off until you do something else to distract yourself and then you get into paralysis of sorts.

One of the narrow steep streets heading to the main drag, from my hostel

Anyway, I did spend a couple of days in Lisbon after my friend left.  So it was a bitter sweet visit.  Partly because it would have been more fun to experience Lisbon for the first time with a friend, but sweet still because I was pleasantly surprised by Lisbon.  It is a beautiful city.  Very interesting.  And quite hilly.

From near the top looking all the way down the main centre of Lisbon to the ocean

Unfortunately, this amazing looking park that was under a giant wicker awning, filled with exotic trees, was closed for the time being as it was having major upgrades done to it to make it safer.  I would have really liked to have wondered in there.  Nature is always good for the soul.

A glimpse of the park I could not get into - it looked really cool

It was really hot when I was there and I managed to get a single room at the Chillout Hostel for only 25 euro a night which was a great deal.  It was a good hostel in a great location.  I highly recommend it.  Filled mostly with younger people but that has never been a issue for me.  People from all over too.  Even another Canadian.

A grand square and part of the main strip

So Lisbon is this really hilly city.  I think it has 7 main hills that it is built on.  I didn’t explore the whole place too intensely as I was not in the mood and I knew I would return too.  Like I have found everywhere in Portugal so far, the city is peppered with the small little mercados that the older Portuguese like to go to, to do their shopping.  I had one main mission and that was that I wanted to find a big enough supermarket where I could buy some good ol’ British tea for my neighbour Jess since he is always making me a cuppa.  It was not until I found the El Cortes Ingles that mission was accomplished.  This massive department store is like a Harrods.  It was nice to duck in to avoid the heat.

Some of the neat features as you wander down the treelined main street

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 547,631. The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million making it the 9th most populous urban area in the European Union. About 2,831,000 people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (which represents approximately 27% of the population of the country). Lisbon is the westernmost large city located in Europe, as well as its westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast.

This actually a person - really well done with Mozart playing loudly

Apparently Lisbon is the 25th most livable city in the world and is the 7th most visited in Southern Europe.  It is a centre of finance, media, entertainment, arts, education and tourism.  And it was bustling with all sorts of people.  The main drag is lined with all of the most expensive and well-known fashion stores.  And at every major intersection is a lovely statue.

One amazing statue

What I found interesting is that Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, predating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris and Rome by hundreds of years.

Some of the amazing details

And some more

So I will have to return to Lisbon to better investigate some of its nuances.  On this trip, as I was only semi-inspired, I only really checked out the main street, the ocean front and walked along the boardwalk.  There is still castles and towers and other historical sites worth investigating.  So next time …

Down at the waterfront - beautiful. The arch leads to the pedestrian street