Lisbon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ln1GO31-1g

Lisbon, commonly known as the city of seven hills, isn’t somewhere you should consider visiting if you don’t like steady inclines…

ONLY JOKING! But if you’re like me (Jo), you’ll need to mentally prepare yourself for seemingly never-ending uphill strolls. I mean, it’s not that bad, and the views at the top make the little struggle so, so worth it!

We chose Portugal for one main thing – the beaches. More specifically, the water and the waves to be found there. If you’ve started to read our posts, you’ll see that we have a new found love of surfing. We’re still beginners, so we needed somewhere easy enough to surf, whilst still being able to improve, and after a few Google searches, we were pointed in the direction of the beautiful Lisbon.

Well, Carcavelos to be precise, just down the coast – a sleepy seaside town, with a beach that really gets going at night, and is the perfect surf for newbies like us during the day. You can find loads of different surf schools there, with reasonable prices too – we took our newly bought wetsuits and headed early morning to the beach twice during our time there, renting boards from Carcavelos Surf Rentals and hitting the waves as soon as the sun was up, and the surf shacks were open.

To be honest, the waves weren’t the best we’ve seen during our (very small) surfing careers – but, we had a lot of fun, despite the ABSOLUTELY FREEZING water.

Our second reason to visit Lisbon was the amount of recommendations we’d had from various friends and family. Lisbon is one of the art and culture capitals of Europe, and we weren’t disappointed. With winding alleys, beautiful street art and buskers playing sweet, soulful music around almost every corner, we could really see why people visit this extraordinary city.

Of course getting around can be an issue – particularly if you hate hills, as I mentioned earlier –  so I did everything in my power to avoid walking up the steepest hills, which was a problem, as some of the most beautiful sights meant hauling yourself skyward. So, to combat this, we found two options; a Segway and a tuk tuk tour!

Both were absolutely hilarious and so informative. We learnt all about the recent history in Lisbon, the earthquake that levelled the city in the 18th century, and why it has similar characteristics to San Francisco in the USA. The tours weren’t the cheapest options – the segway was 25 Euros each with Boost Tours, while we got a deal with our tuk-tuk to take us around the city for 40 Euros for an hour – but they gave us a unique, fun, perspective of the city that we wouldn’t have got elsewhere.

Our final activity of the weekend was our day trip to Cascais, which is about an hour from the centre of Lisbon by train. A beautiful town, nestled between a rocky coast and stunning countryside, it’s a must-visit if you have time during your visit to Lisbon.

We rented bikes, and cycled through the town, along the coast to Praia do Guincho. The journey was supposed to take one hour.. but the famous Atlantic winds had other ideas, and it took us nearly two hours as we tried to fight through the ridiculously strong winds uphill towards the beach (you can imagine my issues with this incline!). The beach itself is famous for wind gliding, so if that’s your thing, you could spend all afternoon watching the pro’s over there, tackling the extreme winds and surf, having what looked like an amazing time. Needless to say, with the wind behind us on the way back, we made it to the station in about 30 minutes on our return!

Lisbon is a lovely city to visit, with so much to do and see in the city, and the surrounding areas too. Also, if you’re a vegan and are scared that the land of the custard tart won’t have anything for you – fear not! We ate extremely well, with vegan restaurants left, right and centre! You can even get a vegan custard tart from Princesa do Castelo, so no need to feel you’re missing out!

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