Lisbon | Honeymoon Part 3

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As the capital and largest city, Lisbon is generally lauded as the must-visit city of Portugal. But rather unexpectedly, we actually enjoyed Porto more. Of course this was very skewed for various reasons, not least of which is Alex got food poisoning and was sidelined for two days. Plus, we arrived in Lisbon on a weekend when the crowds were everywhere, and we were immediately left longing for the quieter wander-able streets of Porto. But all of that said, we still had a lovely time in Lisbon and would absolutely visit again, as I’m sure we would have a whole new experience on another trip. 

Getting our first looks at Alfama, the historic old town of Lisbon where we stayed at the Memo Alfama Hotel.

We made the ill-fated mistake of deciding to try canned fish at this cute little tin fish restaurant Miss Can as we waited to be able to check into our room… Alex would soon start feeling very sick. Strangely, I ate the same meal and felt fine though.

Still happy as we begin our wanderings.

Spotted some Asian/Taiwanese gems about town.

The oldest operating bookstore in the world, Livraria Bertrand. With a cute street market outside.

A Vida Portuguesa, full of cute home goods.

We were there at the end of November, so many things were decked out for the holidays and yet they don’t actually light the lights until December, so it was all just hanging there but unlit. Also, came upon this puzzling gathering of teenagers with capes over their arms collecting other kids into groups… like a wizard convocation. More likely theater kids in front of this theater?? Perhaps we’ll never know.

This is when Alex started feeling strange, so we tried to stop for a bubble tea break before continuing on our way.

Cable cars. They’re just like us here in San Francisco! Actually they not only have cute yellow trams, they also have a wannabe Golden Gate Bridge painted the same color. You’ll see it later.

My favorite candid capture of the trip.

A very serendipitous discovery, as we visited this shop called Kintu Studio, filled with local art. I started looking around everything and then noticed some Chinese characters on a pile of prints…

Hualien… Taiwan??? Are these from a Taiwanese artist?

Such specific details in each of these Taiwan-themed prints!

It turns out they were all made by a French artist Henriette Arcelin who once spent one month in Taiwan and then decided to make a whole series of prints about Taiwan when she was offered a solo show in Portugal where she now lives. WILD. I took home a different colored version of this Daan papaya print below.

Ok, as I was getting very excited about the Taiwanese prints and deciding between them, Alex was feeling worse and worse. So we ditched the shopping and went back to the hotel.

I optimistically ordered a full dinner for both of us via room service, but then I ended up eating alone. Alas. Alex was out of commission from eating from the next day or two.

I visited the breakfast buffet and got my daily mini pastel de nata though.

And enjoyed the views from our terrace-side hotel.

We didn’t try to do too too much the next day, but we did ride around on the trams. We lived right on the popular tourist tram the E28, but it’s a very roundabout route if you’re actually trying to get from point A to B.

The northern terminus of the route brings you to Martim Moniz, which seems like a section of the city that’s filled with immigrants. There was an Asian grocery store and food court that we ended up visiting more than once on the trip!

We also took the tram out west to visit the popular Time Out Market, filled with different food vendors within a big historic market space.

Then it was back into the tram so we could go watch a soccer game! Or futbol, as it were. One of Alex’s sporting bucket list experiences– a European football match.

This one was kind of a funny match, as Sporting CP is basically the #2 team of Lisbon. Their claim to fame was being the team that launched Cristiano Ronaldo’s career, but they have otherwise always been runner-up to Benfica and trade with Porto for second and third place in Portugal. This particular game was an early round for the all-Portugal tournament, so Sporting was playing one of the no-name teams Dumiense. It was almost like watching a pro team play a high school team (sorry Dumiense).

We walked in as they were just about to begin, and the whole stadium was singing the team song which is a Portuguese take on “My Way,” haha. So fun! Everyone had their scarves and flags out. Definitely a different experience than American sports.

We also asked for the best seats available, and they were still only $25. Here’s the Dumiense goalie (in yellow) looking extremely sad while Sporting celebrates their sixth or seventh goal… the final score: Sporting- 8! Dumiense – zero!

Afterwards, back to the Asian food court, as Alex was feeling up for a nice bowl of pho.

Hotel breakfast with a view!

Together this time!

Back on a tram, this time the 15E out to the neighboring town of Belém.

The famous bakery, Pasteis de Belem. It’s very popular and has clearly expanded a ton over the years, because they now have multiple huge dining areas. We got a pastel de Belem, their take on the nata (of course), but I also really liked the chocolate walnut cake we tried.

The very elaborate Jerónimos Monastery just down the street.

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a monument to the Portuguese Age of Discovery… and a good reminder of this country’s wealth built on the colonization and exploitation of other lands. 

And just down the way, their Golden Gate Bridge lookalike!

The Tower of Belem

LX Factory, a section of former warehouses converted into artists studios and shops.

Picked up our second record of the trip!

Back in Alfama, we enjoyed a lovely dinner and performance at Casa de Linhares, where an entire cast of musicians performed some really beautiful Fado music. Fado is the historic Lisbon-born musical genre that is all about storytelling and generally sad songs of longing.

Laundry day! We really should’ve just opted for a paid laundry service, but instead we decided to schlep our belongings to a local laundromat. It took the entire day waiting for the couple of machines to open up.

Visiting the flea market, or “thieves’ market,” Fiera da Ladra, nearby. 

Oh yes, the weather was also rather rainy for half our time in Lisbon. But Alex wanted to trek out for the famous Bifana (pork) sandwich. 

Then we visited the Boavista Social Club, a cozy little bar and restaurant playing vinyls. Just our kind of thing.

And back at the Memmo Alfama Hotel, a free night of fado in the lobby. Originally it was supposed to be out on the terrace, but it was raining!

A very lovely way to close out our stay here.

Then it was time for us to fly on to our next destination (the Canary Islands), but we would be back in Lisbon for one more night!

En route back to America, we booked a one-night layover back in a different part of Lisbon for our return. This time we stayed at Hotel Hotel, a Design Hotel inAvenida da Liberdade.

A nice modern contrast to the Memmo Alfama. And welcomed with pasteis de nata.

We could definitely spend more time exploring this neighborhood in the future.

A nice little gastropub dining experience to close out the whole trip!

And since it was December now, we quickly visited two different Christmas markets in the rain.

One final subway ride, and one last hotel breakfast buffet to close it out.

Thanks for a very interesting time, Lisbon. Stay tuned for the last part of our honeymoon travels, coming soon!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.


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