Loures Municipality

After spending a good few days with Nina and a few other people from the hostel, I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed to the bus stop. The two people I became closest with, Nina and Matt, would be coming to Lisbon tomorrow, so there is a chance we link once they're there. I am considering the option of seeing a benfica game tomorrow while in Lisbon. Whether this will materialise is difficult to say. It may be hard to get to the stadium, and it may be expensive. But it would be an amazing experience.

After a long bus trip, followed by another long bus trip, I arrived in Lisbon at about 6 pm. Given that it was still quite bright, I dropped my bag off and headed to town to see what's around. I only have one full day in Lisbon, and I am likely to spend part of it in Sintra. As a result, I should not waste too much time in Lisbon itself. I walked for a few hours and kind of fell in love with Lisbon. It is so cool and interesting and insanely beautiful. It is very lively, and everywhere I went, I wanted to sit and chill for a bit and watch the world go by. One thing that frustrated me was the number of people trying to sell you drugs. It's happened to me all across Europe. Even when in large groups, these guys who just stand at corners single me out to try to sell me drugs. Although it has basically happened in every city, it may only happen once or twice. Lisbon was different, though. I had a 5 minute walk to my accommodation, and while I was maybe halfway, 5 different guys had tried to stop me to sell me drugs. Not only is this annoying, but these guys are much more persistent. No matter what you say, they just follow you and pull out bags of drugs and try to hand it to you, and it's very strange. This continued all night. Basically, every corner I turned, there was someone else trying to talk to me. Even earphones and ignoring them didn't deter these guys. They just follow you. They're nice but annoying and I couldn't tell them to get fucked enough. Shits me to tears. But a part from this the city is amazing. I wandered across a market that looked and smelled like it had amazing food, but it was quite expensive, so I couldn't afford to eat there. I was also very hungry and had to find a proper meal. Although Lisbon is supposed to be quite cheap, I think they raise the prices for dinner time because everything was 12-13 euro. Which is standard but I was hoping for something cheaper. I am not complaining as I eventually made my way to the Praça do Comércio, a plaza along the water which had some beautiful views of the sunsetting over the water, with the silhouette of the bridge being created. Not long after this, I decided I would just head toward the hostel and go anywhere that sold food. I found a relatively cheap bakery place that specialises in Pastel de Nata. Although I had a great one in Lagos, this would be the real test how good it really was. I had a baguette to go with it. The result, the Lagos Pastel de Nata was blown out the water. This must be how they are really supposed to taste. They are slightly salty on the pastry part, that when mixed with the custards, takes the sweetness out a little bit and makes it a much more well-balanced dessert. They provide cinnamon to sprinkle on top, and this also added a whole new element of the pastry and just melts in your mouth. It was incredible. After this, I went to bed and tried to get an early night for an early morning and a day trip to Sintra.Read more