two backpacks and a diaper bag

Friday, June 1st. Lisboa. This place reminds me so much of San Francisco, except the streets are much smaller. Smaller than Florence. I would think a small alleyway would be pedestrian-only, but it wasn’t. We took uber cars to various places and I couldn’t believe the cars went through those streets.

Lisbon also feels like a less-touristy San Francisco. And more approachable. I could totally live here.

Yesterday, we had a full day of walking around the city. After returning the car at the airport, which was only about 10km away, we went back to the apartment and started our adventure from there. We walked down Rua de Santa Marta and stopped by the small local antique shops along the way. Sean, Arthur, and I went to go return the car while Illona was getting ready at home. By the time we returned back at the apartment, she was already at a coffee shop down the street. We slowly made our way to Illona after these shop visits.

The coffee shop had a lot of character. It reminded me of Berkeley shops. Kind of hippy, urban, and warm. Sean had a lemonade coffee. We stayed here for a while, talking, feeding Arthur, playing with Arthur. We didn’t mind the time at all.

When we were finally ready to head out, we made our way to the main square. We could have taken the Main Street to the square, but the side streets felt more local. There were shops along the way, colorful restaurants, musicians busking. Pretty cool scene.

We were kind of underwhelmed by the square. I think I expected a more grandeur place since it is the capital city. Unfortunately, it looked kind of run down. I looked to Illona and Sean and asked if they felt the pavement was sticky. I thought it might have been my shoes, but no, it was the pavement. It was interesting to me that nowhere else in the city had sticky pavement. It was just there around the square.

Passing through the square, we made our way to the convent. The elevator to the convent was aalso a tourist attraction, but since the line was so long, we decided to walk up there instead. We walked one long steep street that was a pedestrian-only street with shops along the side, and then another street that was not pedestrian only.

When we got to the convent, we stumbled upon a restaurant that had an awesome view of the city. Arthur was asleep and we were hungry, so we decided to make the restaurant to be our pit stop.

Good food, laid-back vibe, great sunlight, amazing view. I felt so relaxed and… happy. I told Sean and Illona that I wished I knew how to write better so I could describe what I was feeling at the time. I wanted to put what I was experiencing into words.

In one word, what I felt was contentment. Arthur was sleeping right next to me in the stroller. Sean was sitting across from me, Illona next to me. In the background was the red rooftops of the houses in the city. The light blue sky was gleaming. The wind blew gently every now and then. Temperature was perfect. Company was pleasant. My heart felt so free and joyful. I didn’t want anything else. I was exactly where I wanted to be. No concerns. No worries. It was pure enjoyment. This was a different feeling compared to a week ago. I think the past few days in Portugal have been quite different. Maybe it was because the places we’ve been to reminded me of California, and maybe I had missed Cali. I am trying to find an explanation to what I was feeling, but I couldn’t. Should I? Or would it be better if I just bask in the moment? Regardless, I was in a good place. Even if this moment ends, I would still be happy.

Of course, we couldn’t sit there forever. After the meal, we took some pictures of the view.

From here, we decided to head to the water.

Before we reached the water, we passed by a pop-up market by the building with beautiful arches.

It just so happened I was standing next to a stall with hand-painted bowls. They quickly said “no picture” to me. I was taken back. I told them I was taking a picture of the arches and the market, not their bowl. They still asked me to move away. Too bad. I was going to look at the bowls because I was looking to purchase some, but since they asked me to move away, I might as well.

I continued on walking with Sean. Illona had stopped a couple of steps behind us. About a minute later, she joined us and she shared her experience with the ladies at the stall with hand-painted bowls. She said they asked her to move away as she had her phone out to look at the map of where we were. She also was put off by their request. She showed them that she was looking at the maps to convince them that she wasn’t taking pictures. They asked her to move away anyway. She, too, was interested in looking at the bowls, but after that encounter, she was no longer interested. I shared with her my story. The both of us couldn’t understand why they were so adamant and sensitive about phones. But, whatever.

We walked further down the market. There was a man working on tile painting. We stopped to look. He stopped what he was doing, and for the next 15 minutes, he explained to us the various patterns for the tiles. He tried to mimic the tile paintings around Lisbon. Each one of those patterns had a story, he said. He told us a couple of them. We were fascinated. In each of those stories he mentioned the earthquake that shook Lisbon. It was in 1755. Later, Illona made a conjecture that it seems Portugal never really came back from the earthquake. There was the age of discovery and the Portuguese were exploring the world. But then, in the more modern history, we don’t hear about Portugal as much. I would like to know more about Portugal history. I find it intriguing.

We put Arthur to sleep at the end of that stretch. Then we made our way towards the water. And, of course, Sean wanted some ice cream. So we got some.

At the end of that hallway, there was a sign for the sexiest WC in the world. I asked Sean to go in and let us know what he thought.

It turned out to be just a marketing ploy. It was nothing much, he said. He even took a video to show us.

Then we got to the water. We took some pictures, finished our ice cream, and called an uber to take us to the castle on top of the hill.

The drive up was an experience. Small streets that have to be shared with pedestrians.

Since today was a holiday in Lisbon (Corpus Christi), some of the streets were closed. The uber driver got us as close as possible to our destination. We had to walk about 1km to get to the castle. It was a pretty cool walk. Arthur was still asleep and the small cobblestone streets didn’t seem to bother him.

For the next hour or so, we walked around the castle. Good view from the top.

After the castle, we decided to head home. We went to the bottom of the hill to call an uber. Traffic apparently was really bad. It was supposed to take the uber driver 6 minutes to get to us. Unfortunately, 20 minutes and 7 empty taxis went by before the uber driver arrived in the vicinity. Even then, we had to walk 3 blocks to meet him because he couldn’t get to us.

Anyway, we got home safely and we got dinner ready. It was a pasta and salad dinner. After dinner, Illona and Sean watched Kubo. I tried to watch too while I tried to repack my backpack, but it was hard to multitask.

This morning, we had a late start. We took an uber to Belém Tower. Then we walked around the area.

We had lunch right by the water at a cafe. Food was all right. It was the closest thing we could find along the way.

After lunch, we continued on walking to the monument and towards the monastery.

Then we bought some paintings.

And the best part… egg tarts. The line to the store was sooooo long.

Was it worth it? Yeah. It was good. Would I go back for it? No. It was part of the experience, I guess.

We walked to the park from here, and toyed with the idea of sitting down on the grass after we put Arthur to sleep. But then we decided to go home instead.

After the uber dropped us off, we walked to the supermarket to grab things to cook for dinner. Then we went home, did laundry, started packing, cooked, and ate dinner while watching The Greatest Showman.

It was our last night in Lisbon, and our last night traveling. I didn’t feel sad. It felt like any other night before we moved to another place. It felt like we were going on a new adventure. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow when we’re at the airport, or on the plane.