After a very early morning and a flight back to Madrid,
Charlie and I parted ways. I took the metro back into Madrid and, after
stashing my bag at a local hostel for 2 Euro and a free breakfast (Thank you “The
Hat” hostel) at which I met some friends for the day, we roved around the city.
Traveling with a friend is wonderful, but being on my own, making new friends
was also refreshing. We saw the rose garden, the Prado Museum, visited a market,
and that evening, I attended a bull fight. It was gruesome and I won’t go into
any detail. After three stomach turning rounds, I left to retrieve my bag and
took the night train to Lisbon. Over the course of the next 10 hours, I drank
Super Bock (a pretty refreshing, but low alcohol beer that is everywhere in
Portugal) with some other Euro-trippers and got some sleep.
We arrived early in the morning, and I checked into my hostel,
having a simple breakfast of fried eggs, fruit, Portuguese bread, which were
like deflated orbs, crispy on the outside, and fluffy dough on the inside, they
too were ubiquitous at every bakery and sandwich shop. I made some new friends
as I went on one of the free walking tours around the city. We had lunch at a
local café where we ordered the three “fish of the day” plates along with a
bottle of crisp vino verde, sharing everything. There was a charming old man at
the table next to us, sipping glasses of port, with each refill, the waiter
made a notation to his running bill etched on the paper cover of the table.
Lisbon is a port town, so the fish, as expected, was quite fresh. Not quite
sure what we ordered, what arrived was salmon, skin on and simply grilled, a
fried cod, the batter thin and mild,
preserving the taste of the fish, and a char broiled catfish (or at least, that’s
the best translation we could get). The fish was almost burned crunchy at the
ends, and sat in a white wine and butter sauce, covered in young garlic chunks.
While perhaps too dark for some, I like a bit of char, so I ate it with revel.
For dessert, we stopped for ice cream. At almost any shop,
the same variety of popsicles are available, but what pulled my attention was
the mojito popsicle, with real muddled mint and rum inside. The exterior was
icy and hard, but the core was chewy and the alcohol flavor, though mild, came
through. On the way back to the hostel, we saw a large crowd of locals gathered
around a small, quite literally, hole in the wall shop. For 1.40 Euro, they
were buying small plastic cups of ginja, a sour cherry liquor, with cherries
floating in the cup. This afternoon aperitif was to be sipped, both sweet and
spiritus, it was a great way to cap off a late afternoon lunch.
The next day, I met another friend from the walking tour to
visit the Saturday flea market. It was expansive with vendors selling everything
from second hand goods, cloth, antiques, electronics, and more. After perusing
their wares, we wandered the old town, whose walkways careen this way and that,
finding a small restaurant spilling into the narrow street. We sat under the
shade of a Super Bock umbrella and ordered one of the signature dishes of
Lisbon, grilled sardines. About 6-7 inches long, each order came with four of
the charred, whole fish. Sardines can have a metallic flavor, their flesh is
slightly firm, but we left only the head and the spine, sipping sangria all the
while.
It is worth it to mention that every tour in Lisbon will
tell you to go to Belem for their pastelle de nata, or custard tarts. The famed
shop has long since become a pastry factory, producing thousands of them a day.
The tarts are ubiquitous in the city, but if you want the real thing, follow
your nose through the old town, find the smallest bakery with the oldest
grandma, and pay 1 euro for flaky, gooey, creamy goodness.
My final day was spent in Sintra, a quaint town a 40 minute
train ride away from Lisbon. The city at the base of the mountain is for
tourists, offering samples of port and ginja in chocolate cups. The weather was
beautiful and the hiking even more so, a great way to tire myself out for the
48 hours of transit I was to face getting home.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Each city has its own
vibe, its own dialect, food, and feel. Despite being geographically to close,
Lisbon and Spain are very different countries, both of which have now been
crossed off my bucket list.
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