My Time In Portugal -The Greatness of Europe's West Coast

For a very long time I had wanted to visit Portugal and had been on the number one spot for countries I want to visit in Europe. As I speak Portuguese, it had only made me more curious to go and I had seen Lisbon in pictures, but it is more amazing seeing it first hand. Lisbon has steep streets, old-style streetcars and a big red suspension bridge. It's like the San Francisco on the west coast of Europe. As soon as I left my bag in the hostel, I booted out to go explore the city and the first spot I found was the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, which is near the Rua Augusta Arch, the main square in Lisbon which is the centre of the city. From the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcantâra, it's atop a very steep hill but you can pay two euros to ride the funicular. Once you get off the tram, you can see some great views of Alfama and the Castelo de São Jorge which was the next place I'd go to. 

One thing to note while walking through Lisbon is that the central area of the city has a lot of men trying to push drugs, it gets annoying and I found myself saying não a lot. On my way to the castle, I stopped by at a bakery to have my first pastel de nata and a can of Guaraná, my favourite soft drink. A pastel de nata is a Portuguese staple, it is a custard tart that you can get anywhere in Lisbon and they are absolutely delicious. The Castelo de São Jorge is worth a visit in Lisbon, it is an old style castle and has some incredible 360 views of the city. However, it is hard to get a picture with a good view of the bridge because of the sun. 

  

Next up, I was hungry, so I made my way over to the TimeOut market, a typical food market for some excellent food, both Portuguese and global cuisines are put on show here. It is a bit of a touristy place, but the food is definitely worth it, I went to one stall and had a random thing on the menu that looked appetising enough to eat and it was glorious. I washed it down with my first Portuguese Super Bock beer. I highly recommend coming here at least once on a visit to Lisbon. 

After that, I called it a day as I had woken up at 5AM to catch my flight, the next morning I took a bus to go over to Belém, first place to see is the Torre de Belém, a well kept historical building which was a lookout tower for Portugal. What you should know about going into the tower is that you have to wait in line, thankfully it was low season so I only waited about 20 minutes. It's interesting to go inside, the stairway is a bit claustrophobic and once you get to the top you can get a pretty cool view where you can see the bridge and the Jesus statue. Nearby to the Torre de Belém is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a monument dedicated to the Portuguese explorers and it even looks Soviet in a way. 

A short walk from the Padrão dos Descobrimentos is the Jerónimos Monastery, this is something that you can't miss out on visiting, the neighbouring church is a bit dull, but this place is remarkable and mind blowing to think that it was all built by hand. Definitely worth the price of admission and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. Further up is the Belém palace, which is where the president of Portugal lives, you can't actually go up close, but there is a museum about the republic of Portugal, it's ok, but it doesn't have much to it. 

I walked for a bit to see the incredible well-kept architecture that the area has and then I took an Uber to go across the 25 de Abril bridge and went to the national sanctuary of christ the king. The statue isn't too remarkable up close and it is fairly difficult to get to. The view of the city is really good though, but it is very windy, I also tried a can of Sagres and I can only say that I prefer Super Bock. To get back to Lisbon I had to take the tram and then a bit across the river. 

I then walked over through the Alfama district, I spotted Cristiano Ronaldo's hotel which is pretty cool and through walking into any random lane of the Alfama district, you can get lost in the incredibly picturesque streets and can find views to watch the sunset. Then I had some Portuguese cod and later headed off to a pub to watch the champions league. 

If you are planning a trip to Lisbon, I highly recommend that you should have a day trip to Sintra, it is a 40 minute train away which costs 2 euros and it is not to be missed. Sintra is home to the national palace, the former residence of the Portuguese monarchy it is very well kept, looking like how it would have hundreds of years ago, the palace is very grand which has been elaborately decorated and even has a chapel. 

The national palace isn't even the main attraction, the Palacio da Pena is beyond words, to get their I walked up the hill. I do not recommend walking as it was a tough walk which took a bit of time, you can take the bus or even take a tuk tuk for low prices. Once I finally got to the palace I was blown away, it is genuinely a great place to visit and visually astonishing. A steep walk away is the Castelo dos Mouros, an Moorish castle which has been around since the 8th century, it has some great views and the castle feels very much historically authentic. I have to say as well that it involves a lot of walking, but it is worth it for what you can see. After I had seen them both, I took a tuk tuk back down and because of the steep hills, it felt like a rollercoaster.

  

When I took the train back to Lisbon, I went to the Centro Vasco da Gama it is a pretty average shopping centre and from there you can see the Vasco da Gama bridge which is one of the longest bridges in the world, however the 25 de Abril bridge is much more impressive. For dinner I had some monkfish, rice and prawns and it was some good Portuguese cuisine.

Another place I recommend visiting in Lisbon is the national pantheon, a former church which is now a building dedicated to the memorial of many Portuguese heroes, including Eusébio and Vasco da Gama, what makes this place worth visiting is that you can go upstairs and see from the top, how big this place is and the view of Lisbon is great from here. 

I took the metro from the national pantheon to get to the Estádio Sport Lisboa e Benfica, I actually wanted to go to a Benfica match during my time in Portugal, but I missed the chance due to the fact that the first leg of the tie with Shakhtar Donetsk was in Ukraine, the next best thing was to go on the stadium tour. Before I started the tour, I saw the statue of Eusébio, who is considered one of the greatest Portuguese players of all time. 

The stadium tour was nothing short of excellent, my guide, Diogo was friendly and passionate for Benfica. The tour allowed me to have a look at the away locker room, press conference room and inside of the stadium. I was genuinely interested in the history of the team and as part of the tour I got to visit the Benfica museum which has a state of the art exhibition on the history of the Portuguese champions. You can see that they have won loads of stuff as the team with the most trophies in Portugal and even two European cups. While I was looking through the museum, I was approached by the social media manager of the museum and he asked me if I could be featured on their Instagram story because I was a Hearts fan who had came all the from Scotland, I felt very honoured as I was even told that I was the first person to visit the museum wearing a Hearts shirt. I'd love to come back to this stadium on a European night after this experience and I recommend the stadium tour if you're interested in the history.

I went back to the to the city centre and came across the Carmo Convent, the ruins of a church which was destroyed in the earthquake and it is worth a visit as it doesn't take too much time, it's cool how it's been kept as it is and is right in the centre of Lisbon. 

I went to explore the Alfama district for a second time because it was just such a nice place to walk around and it's cool to think that people actually live in those old style houses. I went to the Miradouro da graça to see it in the sun and chill out with a pint of Super Bock. 

After finishing my pint, I walked up to the Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, which is one of the highest points of the city and is a great place to have a chilled out atmosphere and watch the sun go down. After that, I headed back down to Rua Augusta to find a place to eat and for desert I had some ice cream. The ice cream in Portugal in some places is as fantastic as it is in Italy, but the best snack Portugal has to offer is the pastel de nata, I scoffed at least one every day. 

The next morning, I had to wake up early to catch a train to go to Faro, because my flight was going from Faro to Edinburgh, I have to say I'd recommend going on a trip to both Lisbon and the Algarve and taking the train. The trains are much better than what we have in the UK and you can buy a ticket from Lisbon to Faro on the same day for just 23 euros. When I boarded the train I thought I had accidentally stumbled into first class but it was actually just how good it is to take the train in Portugal as the seat was comfortable and had plenty of legroom. I have to say that Faro is fairly disappointing, it's only where the airport is, there's nothing to do there and no beaches to relax myself. When people go to the Algarve, they go to neighbouring Albufeira which looks amazing and I missed my chance to go there instead. 

In conclusion, I'd say that Portugal is a fantastic place to visit, there's so much more I want to see in Portugal, such as Porto and the Algarve. Lisbon is a sensational city which has so much to do, there were even things I missed out on in Lisbon and I'd say it's probably within my top 5 favourite cities in Europe. It's much cheaper than its Spanish counterparts being Madrid and Barcelona. Almost everyone can speak perfect English and it is fairly safe.