semaine quinze.

Ola Lisboa!

     As per usual, I had a pretty serious case of insomnia the night before boarding my plane to Lisbon. Such is life, call it excitement I guess? Anywho, after getting all of my things together, I called for an Uber to take me to the airport. The weather had taken a serious turn for the cold, (my bike ride home from Megan and Alex a couple of days prior was seriously numbing,) and snow was a potential that never arrived. Leaving Paris in a freezing, foggy grey. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see the sunshine in Lisbon, and my Uber driver was also jealous and excited for me. It turns out he was half Portuguese and spent the entire ride in our Franglish interaction singing the praises of Lisbon and Portugal making me even more excited to get there.
     Twenty minutes later, I arrived at Orly and headed inside to get checked in. After wandering a bit to find the right counter, I made my way through security just in time to start boarding the plane. I spent the two and a half hour flight reading How To Be Parisian Wherever You Are (definitely accurate, and worth the read!) and next thing I knew it was Au Revoir grey Paris et Ola sunny Lisbon! I was so excited to see the ocean again, hadn't realized I'd even missed it quite that much, and enjoyed my aerial views of Lisbon's version of Golden Gate bridge and Christ the Redeemer statue. Once I landed, I wandered through to the exit and immediately saw the smiling face of Joana and her sister Maria waiting for me. I gave her a big hug and the three of us headed to the garage to her car. They wanted to show me a delicious, traditional Portuguese sandwich shop, so as we drove through downtown we quickly caught up on all of the goings on from the past couple of weeks since she had left Paris and she pointed out different landmarks and such.
     The meal was definitely no let down, I was starving not having eaten yet that day, and the sandwiches, fries and fresh squeezed juices hit the spot. True to form for our reunion, we ordered a dessert post sandwich, and Joana and I split a passion fruit custard parfait type treat. Delicious. I could already tell, I was gonna love Portugal.
     After lunch, we jumped back in the car and drove Maria back to school so that she could meet up with her study group. As we drove I felt like the more of Lisbon I saw, it seemed like a combination of San Francisco and Lima. The buildings and streets were bringing Peruvian flashbacks, while the hilly streets, bridge, and sights all felt very San Fran. It's a winning combination if you ask me. Once we'd dropped off Maria, we headed to Joana's childhood home in Sesimbra. It's a beach town just outside of Portugal, and it was stunning driving through the hills, blasting music, and taking in the sights of the Atlantic. Joana's home is so beautiful, full of art and yet still homey and cozy. It was lovely meeting her parents and seeing more of her life.


Beautiful Sisimbra

     After settling in, we jumped into the car to drive down to the beach so that I could check out what was the tourist-y area in the summer. It was still in the high 50's even as the sun was setting, quite the improvement from the 25 degree weather I had just left, so we had a pleasant walk taking in the sunset and walking by all of the restaurants and such. It was awesome to be back near the water, to walk through the sand (even in my boots) and to hear and smell the ocean. Since it wasn't tourist season, we had a comical moment when an elderly Portuguese man heard Joana and I speaking in English and he kept turning around in confusion with a look that said, "It's December, what are you doing here?" Once the sun set, we trekked back to the car to go back to her place for dinner.
     We started prepping dinner that her lifelong housekeeper (the woman who inspired Joana's love of cooking, a phenomenal and lovely woman,) had already started for us. Maria surprised the family and showed up just in time for the meal, and we all sat down to the table to enjoy the delicious octopus and rice stew together. Joana had to play translator a bit because while she, her sister and father all spoke excellent English, her mother did not. We spoke mostly in facial expressions, gestures, and mixture of Spanglish and Span-tuguese (my now made up word for Spanish and Portuguese, it was the closest language that both of us had in common.) Joana still had to translate and interpret for both of us, but I knew that her mother was a sweetheart and I was thrilled to spend some time with her parents before they headed off to Turkey the next day. After a delicious almond tart and some tea for dessert, Joana took me upstairs to show me her father's Coca-Cola collection.
     She had joked earlier in the day that they would have to move to make more room for the collection as it kept growing, and she was not kidding. The second that I walked up the stairs, I saw plastic tubing forming a wall stacked with cans of Coke, and that was just the start. The walls were filled with memorabilia and collectible items, posters, specialty bottles, all labeled with the country that they were from. Everything was so well organized and displayed, her dad told me that he's been collecting for over 20 years and he's constantly seeking out new things to add to the collection. I was seriously impressed. The irony though, Joana explained in a mock stage whisper, was that her dad preferred the flavor of Pepsi; go figure. Anywho, after sufficiently gawking over the collection, Joana and I got a fire started in the fireplace and settled in to watch a movie with her family. After a lovely and cozy night, I thanked her parents for their hospitality and wished them safe travels to Turkey as we said goodnight. I settled into my guest room for the night and hit the hay. Needless to say, I was already loving my vacation.


Driving through the hills

Cod fish lunch

     When I woke up the next morning, I found Joana and Maria at the dining room table. Joana was planning out our activities for the week making lists of everywhere we needed to go, and Maria was working on school stuff. First on the list was to go to Joana's favorite bakery for some pastries and coffee. We went into the old part of downtown which has ton of character and tiny streets. The S cookies, custard tarts, and coffee hit the spot and pretty soon we were off to drive through the mountains and take in the sights. We spent a couple of hours driving around the winding streets stopping at different view points for photo breaks and taking in the view. After sufficiently enjoying everything the drive had to offer, we headed back to Joana's to enjoy a traditional cod fish lunch casserole with her housekeeper. After yet another amazing meal and some espresso, we grabbed our things and packed the car to head to Lisbon for the rest of the week.


Taking in the city from the tower

     We hit some traffic on our way back into the city (apparently a rare occurrence, I was a bad luck time when it came to traffic, I think I've carried the bad mojo all the way from Seattle somehow, whoops,) but enjoyed blasting music and singing our whole slow crawl across the bridge. Once we got into the city, we dropped our stuff off at Maria's apartment (also lovely) and headed out to check out some more of Lisbon.


Sunset fortress

     We started down by the waterfront to see one of the oldest churches, stunning, and then walked along the boulevard. We climbed the tower to take in the sights from the top which commemorates the discovery period and explorers from Portugal. Next we walked the rest of the boardwalk to take in the beautiful sunset at the fortress Torre de Belem. Seriously amazing. I think I took about 5000 pictures.


Egg tarts!

    Being the dedicated students we are, it was time to take in the most famous of Portuguese pastries, the egg tarts from Pasteis de Belem. We were fortunate enough to find a table and sat enjoying our warm and awesome pastries while people watching and seeing literally carts full of egg tarts motoring from the kitchen to the counter where they were supplying the dozens of customers in the to go line. Another classic Lisbon moment, checked off the to do list, I had the best tour guide ever. After our treats and a quick detour at Starbucks to pick up another city mug for my collection, we drove back to Maria's to change and get ready for the evening. We were going to hit the town with the other Joana.


Dinner time.

     (My) Joana was taking me to one of her favorite haunts, a hole in the wall so to speak with excellent food and a hipster vibe. We metro'd into downtown, and as we walked up the hill to the end of the street, Joana assured me that despite the sketchy look of the alley and entrance, she was not completing the most elaborate rouse to sell me into slavery or some other unsavory demise. Trusting my fellow foodie, I followed her up the stairs and across a basketball court (yes, it was a weird entrance,) into a really cute little café restaurant for our meal. We split an arugula salad starter, some sweet potatoes, and some chicken fritters with some local beer to wash it down. The entire thing cost less than 20 Euros each, I was really starting to dig Lisbon, as was my wallet. As we were winding down our meal, the other Joana arrived ready to join us for our night out.
     We were going to all be in search of some new favorite spots in the city for them since their previous haunts had changed and lost their favorite bartenders and friends since they'd graduated. We found some prospects but mostly just enjoyed each other's company taking in the people watching of the crowded and hilly streets all while enjoying a couple 1 or 2 Euro half liters of beer (again, Paris could learn a thing or two from Lisbon pricing, I was getting spoiled here.) After a couple of hours of people watching and great girl talk, we called it a night, caught a cab, and headed back to Maria's to crash.


Basilica Estrela

     I woke up the next morning to find Joana baking up some scones for our breakfast. Once they were ready, we enjoyed our fresh treats with some coffee and fresh fruit. I was feeling seriously spoiled at this point, and the day was just beginning. We showered and got ready to venture the city. Maria was joining us for the first half of the day, and we hopped on the metro to head over to the part of town Joana wanted to show me. When we got off the train, we enjoyed the sunshine walking through a beautiful park en route to a beautiful church, Basilica da Estrela (Church of Stars). The light was mixed with a beautiful smoky quality from the candles lit everywhere, and some beautiful hymns were being played to add to the majestic mood. The stone work in Lisbon churches was seriously impressive.


Just 1 course from food crawl

     When we stepped back into the sunshine, we walked another 20 minutes or so to our destination for lunch, an indoor market that has tons of counters with all different varieties of cuisine and beverage. For less that 20 Euros each, we were able to have about five or six different things split between the three of us including seafood dip, ham sandwiches, sushi, fresh juices, and traditional savory tarts. Amazing. To continue our impressive food crawl, we walked up to Aloma, which is famous for having the best egg tarts in the city (they win the national contests every year.) They absolutely lived up to the hype. Now sufficiently stuffed, we said goodbye to Maria who had to head back to school and caught the tram to head up to Joana's favorite view point in the city.


Our epic tram selfie. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

     The tram ride was awesome, a wonderful way to see the city and another great typical Lisbon moment. The tram climbed the hills expertly, and as we reached the top I realized why Joana wanted to bring me here. We walked to the view point that was Joana's favorite view of the city and spent a really pleasant half hour quietly enjoying the sunshine and the city, where Joana pointed out all of the places we'd already been. After seizing our photo ops, we began our descent towards the waterfront again, but made sure to take in the sights on the hill on our way down. We toured the oldest church in the city that's a popular wedding destination on their independence day every year, stopped for photo ops at more amazing view points (the light at sunset and twilight in Lisbon is insanely hard to beat, it really can't even be described in words) and I took a billion pictures everywhere of the sights and beautifully tiled facades of all of the buildings. When we got back down to the waterfront, there was an odd festival thing happening at the square right on the water, and we weaved through the crowds to take in the sunset right on the water. Tired from our epic day of sightseeing, we grabbed the metro and headed back to the apartment. We ordered some pizza and enjoyed a quite night in watching movies.


Another amazing sunset.

     On Sunday we woke up, had some breakfast, and got ready for another day of sight seeing. We started in an area called LX Factory, which is a street and market area that is super hipster but also kitschy and fun. After miraculously finding parking, we wandered the main drag that had a bunch of street vendors out for the day selling clothing and jewelry and such. We poked around some shops and enjoyed wandering and then stepped into a bookstore at the end of the street. The place was ginormous, and despite my inability to read Portuguese, it was awesome to be surrounded by so much awesome literature. We made our way to the top floor which we realized was a small museum of sorts, and boy did we luck out!


Book heaven.

     We had arrived just in time to find a little old man who's an inventor and engineer of sorts who was giving a tour and description of his installations and pieces on display in the shop. Joana did her best to play interpreter and translator when she could, but mostly I just admired his pieces and the amount of care, work, and inventiveness that went into all of his work. He had a back story for each piece, and I could only admire this man and his incredible skill and creativity. My favorite story was for a large installation that connected the book shelves to the top of the annex where the rest of his work was on display. It was a white silhouette of a man on a unicycle that moved up and down on the wire in pursuit of reaching the moon because the man was a dreamer. He than joked that if he eventually did reach the moon, he would no longer be just a dreamer, but an American. I loved this man. After our 30 minute tour through his pieces, we thanked him for his time and headed back out into the street, our lives just a little richer just by meeting him and seeing his work.


Worth the wait?

      Right across the street was an adorable restaurant with an impressive, affordable, and delicious sounding menu so we decided it was as good a place as any to stop for lunch. Our food, when it eventually arrived, was delicious, but there was some sort of mix up in the kitchen with our ticket, so it took over an hour and a half for them to actually get us our meal. They gave us some free juice to pass the time, and we were patient since working in the hospitality industry we understood, but it was slightly irritating. At the end of our meal, the main quickly asked if we wanted dessert, and as we were saying no, I realized that he had mentioned the words on us...too late. We were mad at ourselves for our misfortune of turning down the free dessert, but decided to head out in pursuit of ice cream from Joana's favorite place instead.


We all scream for ice cream

Funny sign from our café dinner.

     We hopped back in the car and drove up to more of the shopping district in the city. After parking in the garage, we wandered a few shops, did some window shopping, and eventually landed at the ice cream shop. Winter-shminter, the treats were delicious and worth it. After another long day of adventures, we headed back to the apartment, picked up Maria, and decided it was time for some coffee and a snack. We went to this excellent café with quite the wait, but the fresh veggie sandwich and delicious latte were worth the wait. After enjoying our light dinner, we headed back to the apartment for another quiet night in where we hung out with the other Joana watching Disney movies and friends and staying up talking until 2am. The next day was my last since my flight left in the evening, so we finally said our goodbyes and headed for bed.


Last meal in Lisbon.

     After sleeping in a bit, we got ready and headed back up to the hills again on the tram from a couple days prior to have brunch at Joana's favorite café in the summertime. Once again, it took a bit for our meals and coffee to arrive, but it was a small kitchen and we didn't mind since we were enjoying the afternoon and people watching. The other Joana arrived, with egg tarts in hand (she lives right near the infamous bakery from my first day in town) so after we finished our burgers and coffee, we wandered the streets while enjoying my last egg tart before departing.


Bonjour Paris!

     We got back to Maria's apartment just in time for me to pack my things and hop in the car to head to the airport. I said my goodbyes, and after realizing I was at the wrong terminal, grabbed the bus to the other section of the airport. After the bit of confusion, I made it through security and to my gate just in time to board. Lucky girl! I was already missing my friend and was so grateful for my phenomenal few days in Portugal, but I was pleasantly surprised by the excitement I felt at hearing the familiarity of French aboard the flight. I was heading home just in time to welcome my family for their visit.
     I spent all day today unpacking, cleaning, shopping, and running errands in preparation for the fam (finding an air mattress is trickier than you would think!) but finally have the apartment fully stocked and ready for the parentals and Grammy who arrive early tomorrow morning. Looking forward to showing all of them a little of my Paris!