I didn’t know much about Lisbon before coming here from Madeira - I imagined it to be flat with grand buildings - kind of like Sevilla - I was wrong.
Day 1
It was a very rainy day. A quick metro ride from the airport right downtown. I saw a strange victorian elevator on the map right in the center - so that was the first destination.
Elevador de Santa Justa
Don’t do what I did and wait in the rain for a long time to pay money to take this thing up. You can walk up the stairs right down the street to the top.
Still worth it though. Got a glimpse of Lisbon, which is definitely not flat. And definitely not boring.
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Continuing on, I stopped by the Grand Plaza (Praça do Comércio) by the sea, and saw the best thing about Lisbon - the trams.
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It was raining pretty hard at this point, so decided to walk up to the guesthouse early for a break. It was up a hill behind the central castle, in the historic neighborhood of Alfama.
The view just outside (Miradouro da Graça) was so nice, I just hung around there. This is where i discovered that Lisbon also has it’s own massive red suspension bridge, kinda like the one in San Francisco. Come to think of it, with the trams and hills - it’s kind of similar to that place.
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Day 2
The next day it stopped raining, and I went out in search for more views.
Saw a massive park on the other side of town and figured that was a good starting point - the Parque Eduardo VII
The attention to detail in the city was impressive. Everything seemed to be intentional.
The sight-lines were always lined up, everywhere felt nice.
I took a walk to see another park, and on the way found something much better.
Aqueduto das Águas Livres
A massive stone aqueduct, that you can walk across
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Apparently Lisbon has struggled with getting water, so they built this in the 18th century. It survived the great earthquake, which basically destroyed most of Lisbon in 1755.
You can trace the path where the aquaduct used to run all the way back to the city center. On my way there were a few buildings on top of a hill, I figured it would be a good idea to see if I could get on top of one.
Lisbon looking north - the benfica area - looks oddly similar to a South American city. There were lots of tall concrete apartment blocks, seemingly going on forever, brightly colored.
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Looking towards the center, you can make out more remnants of the aquaduct system.
One last viewpoint, the plaza (Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara) was a party - hundreds of people here drinking and dancing.
And this plaza had the most stylish way back down the hill.
Lisbon was great. It was calm, and everything was super aesthetic. It’s staying up there as of the best cities I’ve visited.
The next day was off to Sintra.