I finally decided. I decided to go on vacation to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal in September. Of course the Great Thinker is coming with me.As you might know I'm a city traveler. Last year I spent one week in London and had a series of posts about my adventures there. The year before I went to Paris and did a post about Paris for Book Lovers and Gourmands, which is still the most read post I have ever done.
What can I say, I don't care much for mountains or beaches, although this time I will have the city, the mountains (or hills) and the beaches at the Atlantic coast. Lisbon has it all. And for a special treat it has my friend Anna. Anna lives in Lisbon now, with her boyfriend Tiago. I hope they will show us all the great places one has to go, whether it is for culture, nightlife or shopping.
But of course I won't leave it all to them. I love planning ahead, deciding what to visit. It's what I do, the Great Thinker leaves it all to me.
First of all I rely on the most handy and beautiful notebook I can think of. The Moleskine City Planner Lisboa. It provides space for personal notes, places to visit and addresses. A map of the city and the metro is included as well. I have one for Paris and London, too. It helps to keep track of my adventures during the stay and give away the most precise recommendations, when I am back.Second most important thing, a travel guide. But of course not any travel guide. I have a fancy for the National Geographic city guides. It's a German series and I own one for Paris and London as well. They never disappointed me. I like their concept because it's neat. The city is divided in the most important neighborhoods and includes recommendations on what to see in one day in the particular neighborhood as well as trips to the surroundings of the city. I hope the Lisbon guide will stand up to the standard I already experienced in the other two.
As always I would be delighted to hear your opinion! Have you ever been to Lisbon? Would you want to go? What is a must do? Do you want more posts in preparation for the trip, like where am I going to stay, or is it easy to learn the language (Because I try and nope, they don't speak Spanish.)?
I quite enjoyed Lisbon when I went there although it has one of the most difficult public transport systems I have encountered. I think it's because all the maps had bus, train and tram routes all rolled into one and there were so many lines going everywhere it was impossible to decipher. I was only there for a weekend and I got on the wrong tram/bus 3 times!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite thing to eat in Portugal were Pastel de Nata (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata). They are seriously so good. The most famous place to get them in Lisbon is at Pasteis De Belem (http://www.pasteisdebelem.pt) but be prepared to queue. They are worth it though!
I speak a bit of Spanish so I thought it would be easy enough to learn a bit of Portugese too but it is quite different. Although when written it looks quite similar as they have some of the same words the pronunciation is completely different.
The main one to learn is Abrigada (Thank you) as they really don't like it when you accidentally say Gracias :) I love trying to learn the language when I travel, it's one of the best parts!