Soggy Lisbon

We left a wet Sintra just after 11 am. We had booked an UBER as I was over schlepping luggage on and off trains plus I had bought a couple of things and my bad was getting heavier. Our driver, Wagner dropped us off at our Lisbon apartment about 12.30 pm and luckily we were able to get early access (thanks Marta & Maria).

Our apartment was lovely and so centrally located, very close to the main square Praça do Comércio. After unpacking and getting settled into our new home for the next five days, we headed out for lunch. It was a very rainy day so we decided to head to the Time Out Market. It was very crowded, but it was to be expected as the rain just kept getting heavier. The market has food and drink stalls around the outside and large communal tables in the middle, but space was at a premium.

We ordered some food (empanadas and fried squid) and wine and then looked for a place to prop. A guy was leaving a seat at a table, so we grabbed it and we were able to at least have a spot to put our food. There were another two couples sitting with us and we started chatting to them. One couple, Jackson and Courtney, were from Ontario and the other couple, Christina and Alphar, were from Germany. They were very friendly and up for a yarn. We had a wonderful afternoon chatting with them and having a few drinks.

We finally had to say goodbye and, before leaving, had a warm pastel de nata with a pingado (small) coffee. We then headed out and it was bucketing down. My little cheap umbrella was not cutting it - as well as pelting down the wind was getting stronger - so we stopped at a store and bought me a new umbrella, which at least kept the top half of me fairly dry. On our way home we made a detour to a supermarket to pick up some supplies.

Today the city was full of chanting and happy Basque football fans, conspicuous in their blue and white jumpers, as the San Sebastián team (Real Sociedad) was playing a local Lisbon team (Benfica) in the European champions league. They were out and about everywhere and packing the bars. There were also a lot of police around, some with riot shields and machine guns, presumably just in case the crazy Basques got out of control. On our way home we ran into some Basque fans drinking at a bar who we had a quick chat to before heading back to the apartment to get out of our wet clothes. The Basque team won and, to our great surprise, the city was very quiet at night.

In the evening we had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant, QOSQO, which we had been to twice in 2019. As expected, the food was delicious.Read more