It is a short 30 minute journey from Sintra to Lisbon. We stopped to see the magnificent Jeronimos Monastery, built in thanks to the Virgin Mary for Vasco de Gama’s successful voyage to India. If you are into churches and architecture you should definitely visit the monastery, but plan at least half a day for it, as it is massive.
*Travellers tip: if you are tempted to buy an ice-cream in front of the monastery, the white one isn’t a vanilla flavour, it is lemon!
Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, it is
situated at the mouth of the Tagus River and it is spread across steep hillsides. It felt like I was in a city built for giants, everything seemed huge, roads were wide, it felt spacious and empty. Lisbon is also the city of countless traffic lights, there was nearly no traffic on the roads and the number of traffic lights we thought was absurd.
We parked in the city centre and quickly jumped on a pretty bright-yellow old-fashioned tram to go to the top of Lisbon.
The tram was stuffed with tourists, the journey wasn’t as exciting and picturesque as I expected. I loved to see the electric Tuk Tuk’s taking tourists on tours and would love to go on one next time I visit.
*Travellers tip: use the public transport when in Lisbon. A daily travel card costs 6 Euros and is valid for 24 hours starting at the moment you firstly use it and can be used for all sorts of transport including boats. Prices for individual trips: bus 1.8€, tram - 2.85€, metro - 1.40€, train Lisbon-Cascais (or Sintra) - 2.15€.
We got lost several times whilst trying to return the rented car but Molly is a hell of a driver and I am a hell of a navigator. At about 4pm we successfully gave the car back feeling lucky not to be charged for the scratch on the bumper.
The sun was hot and the walk was long. Two hours later we found the guest house
Palacio Vila Flor we were staying in for the night and I finally had a frosty ice-cold bottle of portugese beer in my hand. The girls Katia and Susanna at Palacio Vila Flor were so nice to book us a table at a fado club in Alfama neighbourhood and arrange a vegetarian dinner for me.
We then took the metro (empty just like the streets of Lisbon) and went to see Santa Justa Elevator. This was the biggest mistake I made on this holiday because I got my purse stolen, which had inside all my money and documents.
Santa Justa is a lift that connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo. It is just an old vertical lift with a little platform on the top from where you can see the roofs of Baixa, the historical part of Lisbon.
Whilst queueing for the Elevator my gut was telling me I shouldn’t be doing this, I was in such a bad mood. At 9pm the elevator broke (or something like this) so we gave up and took a taxi to the fado club.
We returned to Santa Justa the following day (which I will tell you about in my next blog post) to find out it was no special view and definitely does not deserve 1-2 hours queueing.
*Travellers tip: You can easily access Santa Justa Lift from the upper level (from Largo do Carmo) where you can enter without queueing at all!
On the way to the fado club in the taxi I discovered my purse was missing. I ordered my omlette at the club on a downer.
Now let me tell you about the fado music. Fado is the soul of Portugal.
Passionate voices of fado singers soar in the night of the old taverns in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon. Soulful and haunting, fado (meaning “fate” in Portuguese) fado songs are often about love and loss. The singer is called “fadista” and is often a woman dressed in black, singing with great drama, accompanied by a Portuguese guitar player and a classical guitarist.
We spent the night in Viela do Fado, a small fado pub that gives you a sense of intimacy. The experience for me was unforgettable and deeply moved me, but unfortunately did not impress especially Molly, who was worn out by climbing the hills of Lisbon and nearly fell asleep on the table.
In conclusion I must say that if I was born in Portugal I no doubt would have become a fado singer. I am planning to learn a fado song and perform it at home to some lucky people ;-) after a few bottles of wine!
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