Lisboa Day 2

Today we woke up to rain - a lot of rain. After starting our trip with our backpacking gear, we realised quite quickly that the cordura backpacks that we were using were not going to cut the mustard and that we would need better day packs. As the weather was appalling, and we know that there's not much chance of getting some of the things we need in Cuba, we decided to take a trek to a shopping centre and see what we could find to sort out our equipment deficiencies.

After making our way there and buying some of the things we needed, we decided to walk back. We continue to fall deeply in love with Lisbon. The plethora of decorative squares, fountains and other interesting things such as viaducts keep you staring in awe.

The weather made short work of lots of umbrellas today. 

Aquaduct

Small park on the way through the city

These brilliant sailing ships adorned all the street lights in a particular section of Lisbon near the university.

Beautiful entrance to the park near the botanical gardens.

Nikki loved the colours of the buildings here.

Mmmmmmmm...

Beautiful buildings

Nikki perusing the shops on Rua de Rosa

You have to love the old-school trams.

Mayor's building

Estacao Fluvial

Post-modern (cheers Ken) fish eating fish

Port in Portugal seemed quite fitting for a night-cap.

Amazing meal. It might not look like much, but it was absolutley delicious.

With dinner this evening. Fantastic house red!

Pasteis de Nata from local patisserie

We walked home from there, made our way to a small local restaurant, and had some a.mazing food.

After this we decided to grab a port and watch the rest of the local football match at a different place.

Beautiful Lisbon

I came to Lisbon with neither high nor low expectations. More than anything else, it was going to be an excellent chance to recharge the batteries a little after a hectic finish to London, without the stress and hassle of a completely foreign culture (we're quite used to European ways now...).

I think it's probably been one of the biggest surprises of all European cities we've been to - a bit of a dark horse, if you will. If you ever get the opportunity to go to Lisbon, seize it with both hands! What a fabulous place it is. From the stunning tiles that adorn swathes of buildings throughout the city, to the intricate cobblestone designs that festoon the countless plazas in Lisbon, it is a city that always has something to offer. Even though we've visited in the extreme depths of Winter, we were welcomed by a magical Winter sun for most of the day today after the ridiculous storm of last evening!

Tiled exterior of the buildings

After waking up quite late, we meandered downstairs for a nosh-up of scrambled eggs on toast, and chocolate crepes, washed down with pretty good coffee. The hostel we are staying in, Hostel Rossio, won hostel of the year in 2012 or something, and is beautiful. We've got a private double room, and it's bigger and a fair bit nicer than many hotel rooms we've stayed in previously.

Common Area of Hostel Rossio

Our Hostel room

We headed out into the Lisbon squares to see what we could find, and after a short while we concluded that we had been in Portugal for way too long without having sampled the Pasteis de Nata (Portugese Egg Custard tart), so we headed on to try some. They were absolutely delicious, if not a little on the sweet side.

Kristina - we looked for the place you suggested, but we think it might now be a small bar. The ones we found were delicious anyway! :-)  Thanks for the tip though!!!!

Being a little on the exhausted side after an emotional departure from London, we thought it would be a good idea to take it a little easy today, and in the past we have found that the sightseeing bus tours are a good way to get your bearings on a city (while also being quite chilled out giving us a good chance to sit back and relax). We went down to Belem in the old town on the bus tour, and jumped off there and decided to have a bit of a walk around. What a beautiful area this was.

Mosteiro dos Jeronimos

Padrao dos Descobrimentos

Small square with beautiful tile decorations

Museu de Arqueologia

Local artist painting watercolours

After wandering around for a while (and getting quite lost), we ended up finding another bus stop near Alcantara-Mar, which was a very cool train station that had some of the most amazing street art in it.

Street Art in Alcantara-Mar

Back home for the evening, and after consuming a bottle of wine that we bought for €0.99 (it kinda tasted like it was worth that much too...), we've concluded that Lisbon is treating us very well so far.

Dinner! (Thank you Lidl - dining like Kings and Queens...)

The view from our window

We are very much looking forward to the remainder of our time here (and a few more Pasteis de Nata!!!)

Signing off from London Town - Ready for a new Adventure!

So today was the day that we finally said "fare thee well" to London. It's been quite a hectic build-up to it, but we finally packed up our backpacks, finished off cleaning the flat and set off.

All was going very well, and we were pretty much ready to walk out the door with a gigantic bag of rubbish sitting at the top step (balancing precariously). Of course it was only a matter of time until it decided to go downstairs before us, and exploded all the way down 2 flights of stairs with the bag exploding and rubbish strewn everywhere. It was actually quite hilarious.

Our packs all packed up and ready to go (just before rubbish-gate)

Exploding rubbish bags put us a shade behind schedule, as we were planning to head over to London Bridge to go visit the site of our first place where we stayed in London all those years ago. So we briskly walked up to Hammersmith tube station (stopping only for a photo of our Street name...) and made our way over there.

When we first got here we would often eat a Bagel from a place called Bagel Street which used to be located near More London but sadly has closed down these days. However, quite fortuitously, we found a Bagel shop in the London Bridge train station (and obligatory coffee), and took it over to sit on the seats at More London looking out over Tower Bridge as this is one of our favourite London spots.

After this, time was running a bit short, but we had time to walk over to our friend's old house that we first stayed with on Tooley Street and got a photo out the front. All those years ago we got a photo of all our backpacks out the front of her house, and thought we'd do it on our way out of London also.

Hammersmith Tube Station (for the final time)

It was actually a very strange feeling to be leaving. London has been our lives for nearly 8 years, and we have so many amazing experiences, have met some truly fantastic people who will remain our friends for life, and visited some astonishing places. We were both kind of sad, and excited about our coming adventure at the same time. This coupled with an overwhelming numbness - leaving very much doesn't seem real, even though here I am sitting in Lisbon writing this blog from Rossio Hostel.

Nikki leaving our front door for the last time

As we were running a bit behind time, we decided it would be quite fitting to jump in a black taxi for a final time to get to Liverpool Street for our train to the Airport, and as the plane's wheels lifted off, it was slightly odd to realise it was actually going to be a long time before our feet would set foot on that ground again. Something that has been so familiar to us having flown out of London many times over the years strangely felt very unfamiliar.

However, we have finally bid ol' blighty farewell, and were welcomed into Lisbon with what seemed to be a cyclone. Our taxi driver told us that the winds were gusting up to 200kph, and our landing was definitely one of the more interesting ones we've had. So, here we sit in our "Hostel" room - and I use that term very loosely (it's beautiful) - with a sense of excitement of the adventure to come and looking forward to a few days of R&R in Lisbon to recharge the batteries after what was a hectic build up to it.

We've walked past this sign so many times it would be impossible to count up - this was our final time.

Damo's last tube ride (for now)

Lunch and coffee at More London

A replica of one of the first photos we took in London - this was the first place we lived in over here (See original below - unfortunately we didn't have the original for reference at the time...)

The original we took nearly 8 years ago!