Exploring Lisbon with my little brother

Having already spent some time in Lisbon, Kevin and I were fully prepared to show Tyler all the best sites and scenes.

Obviously, this included copious amounts of eating and walking.

Tyler arrived in Lisbon in the morning, and despite getting minimal sleep, he kept going with us all day. The next day, we were once again up bright and early, and we set off on all kinds of adventures. Rather than go into wild detail about every darn thing that we did, here’s a list of the places we saw and adventures we got into:

• Exploring the streets and vistas of Lisbon: You’ll note that there are tons of pictures of us just walking around and looking at things. A worthwhile adventure, but not an easy one. Lisbon is a city built on 7 hills, which makes for great views and great exercise. Fortunately the city is small enough that you can cover most of it’s beautiful neighbourhoods on foot, and that’s just what we did.
• Lunch at Sea Me: Tyler’s food game started off strong at this popular sea food restaurant in Lisbon. We had tuna steak, seaweed salad, fresh fish, tiger prawns, and of course, green wine.
• Drinking Sangria at a kiosk just outside of the Convento do Carmo: This is Kevin’s favourite square in Lisbon. It’s quieter than most (though not that day, due to construction), tucked away just in front of the famous ruins of the Convento do Carmo. The convent, built in the 1400s, was mostly destroyed during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The ruins of the gothic church were left standing as a type of memorial.
• Drinks & Pool at Pavilhao Chines: Kevin and I went to this wacky place for the first time a few weeks prior, and we decided to return with Tyler. He and Kevin played a game of pool in the back room, on what must been the worst pool table in existence. When even Kevin can’t make a shot, you know it’s more than just the player’s fault.
• The most horrible dinner we’ve ever had, at a “fancy” burger place called Guilty. I won’t even go into details. But suffice to say that Kevin and I were quite disappointed.
• Coffee! Cafe!: People make jokes about there being a Tim Hortons or Starbucks on every corner in Canada, but in Lisbon, you’re hard pressed to walk 5 minutes in any direction without passing some type of cafe. Every park has kiosks that serve espressos (and beer!), and every block has a small cafe that serves snacks, coffee (espressos), and beer. So throughout this entire trip, we drank insane amounts of espresso. Walked 5 blocks? Time for a cafe break.
• Evening drinks at Pensao Amor: This is one of our favourite places in Lisbon. It’s a former brothel, now decorated as a vintage burlesque bar. It’s a great setting, always lively, with good music and drinks.
• Lunch at the Nun’s Canteen: This was probably the most interesting place that we ate while in Lisbon. Looking for a unique lunch spot, I came across this Guardian UK article about best lunch spots in Lisbon. It mentioned a canteen/cafeteria run by nuns where one can grab a cheap lunch with a great view. I marked the spot on the map, and the 3 of us set off on an adventure. 5 minutes in a cab, and we were in Lisbon’s Chiado neighbourhood. We went up a set of stairs to a house in an alleyway. The door was open, and we headed up the third floor. Once there, we found exactly what we’d been promised. A well-priced traditional Portuguese lunch, which we enjoyed on their back patio, overlooking the Tagus River and the Chiado neighbourhood below us. It’s a spot frequented by locals on lunch hour, but we did our best not to stand out as tourists in this authentically Lisbon experience.
• Belem: Next, we headed to Lisbon’s Belem neighbourhood, where we enjoyed the following: Pasteis de Natas (which were apparently invented at the Pasteis de Belem cafe, and certainly they make the tastiest version); The Church at the Monastery of Jeronimos; Padrao dos Descombrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries); and the Torre de Belem, an ancient fortification.
• Dinner (and later, drinks) with our friend Soledad: We went to Mercado da Ribeira, which is basically a high-end food court, featuring small outposts of all the top restaurants in the city.

After all that adventuring, we headed home to get some sleep before starting our roadtrip in the morning! Lots of photos below, with descriptions to properly explain all the things we saw. Check ’em out:

view of Lisbon from above – we took the famous streetcar from one end of the city to the other. This was the final view!

siblings at the top of the city

getting fancy with panoramic views

at the gates to Lisbon, right at the waterfront. Not behaving

And then, behaving. Kevin made us take a nice one for our parents.

at a central cable car junction, on our way to lunch

lunch appetizers at Sea Me!

At the top of another Lisbon hill

Tyler capturing the beauty of Lisbon 😉

the view of the street from our AirBnB

get to the gym, Tyler! (PS: my wardrobe change took place when we took Tyler back to the AirBnB and I unpackaged the Lululemon clothes I made him pick up in Canada for me)

just another beautiful Lisbon streeet

sibings and hills and streetcar tracks.

Tyler really couldn’t get enough of the beautiful streets (I was the same when I first came to Europe)

Praying pre-Sangria outside the Convento do Carmo

world’s sketchiest pool table. May very well have been 50+ years old, sans maintenance

Enjoying a cafe kiosk, 30 steps from our apartment

Just another gorgeous building we spotted on the way to lunch

view from the Nun’s canteen!

inside at the canteen

the welcoming door

Info about lunch, for those interested

with a cable car in the background. Same style that we took a ride on the day before

siblings in Lisbon

just a random beautiful street, no big deal

seriously! a random sidewalk!

siblings taking in the squares of Lisbon

Kevin really put his photo skills to work on this trip. Always wanting to capture good shots for the family!

Enjoying the view at the shores of the Tagus river. At least one of us is paying attention to the view.

our cab to Belem was a shark! Also was driven by a woman who MADE us put on our seatbelts.

Tyler getting artistic at Pasteis de Belem

our Pasteis de Nata

where/how they’re made

SO many pasteis de nata!

Outside of the Monastery of Jeronimos

this building is bananas

Inside the church – gotta keep quiet!

Upstairs at the church. Couldn’t figure out how to get there and also couldn’t deal with not talking, so we left.

A massive fountain in Belem. First time seeing it active!

Tyler in front of the 25 of April Bridge. Just like his trip to San Francisco a few weeks prior!

The massive Monument to the Discoveries. Built to commemorate Portuguese exploration.

It. is. so. big.

We went to the top of the Monument and caught a pretty stellar view.

That’s the Torre de Belem in the distance

It’s too damn hot and sunny up here!

view of the Monastery of Jeronimos

Overhead view of the rose compass, donated to Portugal by South Africa. The map in the centre shows all the places that Portuguese explorers went.

oh hey coolio!

There was an exhibit in the basement of the monument, where we saw some cool posters

Was feeling the heat, but Kevin solved that with water and gelato.

siblings at the Torre de Belem

Nice bag!

#selfie at the torre de belem

and again

wtf?

having dessert with Soledad!

look at these kids!

having fun?