Lisbon Story

I’ve realized it’s been 3 months since my visit to Lisbon, so it’s high time to upload some photos from the trip 🙂

While I have very fond memories from the trip (thanks to the awesome people I’ve met there), the city itself has been a big let down for me. When I was circling around it during my final approach to the airport, it looked so picturesque… However, from ground level it showed a different face. The streets were in poor condition and many buildings were showing their age. Every corner offering some sort of protection from weather was “occupied” by a homeless person (or had the signs of such occupants). But most importantly, I did not feel safe in the city. If you stuck to the “touristy” districts it wasn’t that bad, but venture away from them and you felt like a intruder.

Don’t get me wrong – the city is full of beautiful sights:

Portugal’s symbol

Some decorations were… unorthodox

A trip back in time

Lisbon is full of streets like this – but in various states of decay…

It’s choke-full of narrow streets, that go up and down constantly. It’s famous for its yellow trams (of which I only took one, lousy, picture – as I didn’t find them that interesting). However, it all feels very chaotic – a mix of old and new, renovated and crumbling to pieces, poor and rich.

A very interesting building (a theatre, I think) – the numerous staircases are very intriguing.

I’m not sure what was happening here – I think there was a soccer match starting soon. Thankfully, I was travelling in the opposite direction.

I’ve been able to taste quite a wide spectrum of food offered there – and while Amsterdam’s offering was better, Lisbon was not too shabby. It was the first time I’ve tried a pizza topped with truffles (yummmmy!) and a wide selection of seafood (not a fan – I have no idea what people see in it:/).

You were given a raw steak, a searing-hot stone and you could prepare it however you like.

Had to try some fish in Lisbon!

I don’t like to abuse my food with a hammer 😦

I like shrimps, but these were too much.

Of course, I’ve visited some of the usual tourist spots – one of them was São Jorge Castle. It’s looking over the whole city, offering great panoramas, while not looking too bad inside too:

Nothing to see here, move along.

If you follow my blog, you probably noticed I’m fond of botanical gardens – so I could not pass up a chance to visit one in Lisbon! It was a very pleasant surprise – it’s a completely different type of botanical garden then the one in Wrocław. It’s probably older and looks more like an overgrown, mysterious garden than its well-kept and organized counterpart in Wrocław. But that’s its greatest appeal – and it’s full of amazing plants. While visiting this garden though, I realized how little green there is in Lisbon overall 😦

A peek into some luxurious residence in the back of the botanical garden.

Another residence, another peek.

I swear I did not arrange those chairs like that.

It’s like someone prepared subjects for the most hipster photos.

Those are… roots. Apparently, they missed the memo they should be underground.

A decaying building at the back of the garden.

Don’t trip near this nest of thorns…

The palm trees there were really high – I’m not accustomed to them, so maybe that’s normal, but to me they were quite a sight. I had to do vertical a panorama to properly capture some of them.

See the little people on the path beneath the tree? Yeah…

The garden also had a special cage for viewing… butterflies. It wasn’t too big, 15-20 meters across, but I had fun wondering around it looking for subjects to photograph – I got lucky a few times:

Did you notice the ninja butterfly hiding in this photo?

Here’s my take on another tourist spot: Cais das Colunas (aka Columns pier). I’m experimenting with long exposures during daytime – it’s especially effective when it comes to moving water. I wish I had taken some more pictures there, but it was really windy and chilly and I’ve been suffering from not-so-mild cold ;/

All in all, I’m really grateful I got the chance to visit and experience Lisbon. It offers a view into its glorious past and lots of fresh food (fishes, seafood, etc.). However, it’s not a city that I’d feel comfortable in – but everyone should experience it themselves 🙂