In my previous article I wrote about our travels to and stay in Porto. We arrived in Porto on Monday morning. Our train to Lisbon departed at 8:45am on Wednesday. We opted to use the rail system for distance travel on this trip. Why? Because if you don’t already know it, the public transportation system in Europe is top notch! We could’ve caught a flight to Lisbon from Porto which would have been about an hour flight. If that. When Jill and I travel we like to immerse ourselves as much as we can in the culture and environment. Taking a flight would’ve meant we’d miss seeing the countryside. We wanted to take the train.
The train ride would last roughly 3 hours; with a few stops enroute. We’d get to see what the backcountry looks like in Portugal. The biggest perk to taking the train is budget. If memory serves, I believe both of our tickets to ride in first class ran about $45 per person. Not to mention that I, personally, enjoy learning to navigate through the train stations, reading the boards, and actually getting on a train. We don’t have those here in Missouri. Except for Silver Dollar City. It’s fun to watch your train pull in, the people get off, then get on and find your seat. The kicker is the short time to unload and load the train. You have about 5 minutes, so you’d better get after it!
On Wednesday morning we woke up ready to go. We ate a quick breakfast then called our “Bolt” rideshare to come snatch us up and take us to the station, Porto Campanhã. We got there early enough to strike up a conversation with a couple ladies from Australia who had just hiked the Santiago de Camino trail. So we listened to the stories of their journey. Pretty cool! As soon as our train arrived I double checked the “carriage” we were to ride in and we boarded Carriage 11. The seats were comfortable and we settled in for our journey, storing our luggage above our heads. I really enjoy “people watching” and listening to conversations in my immediate listening area. Most were in Portuguese and a few in English. Off we went.
During the ride we traversed the countryside. Not really much to see as we glided on the rails along the coastline. There were a few stops to let people on and off, other than that the trip was pretty uneventful. I think I watched a movie and occasionally looked out the window at the barren and brown landscape. It was kinda cool to pull into Lisbon. New place, new adventure. It’s like turning from the last page in a chapter to a new chapter. It wasn’t really much to look at as we rolled over the bridge spanning the River Trancão. The Lisboa Oriente station is in a more industrialized part of town, so it was a pretty busy place. One thing I felt immediately was the vibe. My “Spidey Senses” were waking up, reminding me to keep my head on a swivel. The place just felt a bit…off. Anyhow, I summoned a Bolt to pick us up and take us to our hotel, Esqina Cosmopolitan Lodge, roughly 20 minutes from the station. Lisbon wasn’t much to look at during our drive as we passed the seaports and weaved through tight streets.
The Esqina Cosmopolitan Lodge is a decent little hotel right in the heart of the action for the tourist area of Lisbon. Just about everything we did was within walking distance. Since it was around noon, our room was not ready for us yet so we checked in and left our bags with the front desk to secure for us. After a quick hydration break we decided to venture out and see what’s what. The first place on our itinerary to see was the Praça do Comércio. It’s a large open public area with historic buildings and the shopping area. Also, lots of pick pockets and vendors walking around trying to sell you things. I had opted to wear my glasses instead of my contacts and since all the buildings were white, I looked like an Asian squinting my eyes and could barely see. A vendor noticed that and made a beeline for me to sell me clip-on shades for my glasses. Those were exactly what I needed but not for the 30 Euro he offered them for. I told him I’d give him 10. He laughed and did the whole, “Mistah, I can’t do that. How about 25”. I told him 10 or pound pavement. Then he said, “What about 20”. “Nope!”, I said, then repeated, “Ten. Or I’ll get them somewhere else. It’s 10 Euro you don’t have but could have. Yes or no?”. I’m sure my wife was rolling her eyes but I stood my ground. He offered 15 and I said, “You’re getting close. Just 5 more to go”. He eventually said OK, took my 10 Euro then pouted off. At least one of us was satisfied.
We needed some lunch and made our way to Time Out Market Lisboa. That was an experience! After we chose what to eat, we grabbed some pastries for dessert, energy calories, logged a few kilometres on our shoes, then headed back to the hotel to settle in our room. The pindrops I had planned in our itinerary for Lisbon were: Pasteis de Belem, Time Out Market, Praca de Comercio, Miradouro das Portas do Sol, Miradouro do Recolhimento, Castelo de St. Jorge and Praca Dom Pedro IV fountain. A couple we added were Maria Catita Restaurante and the U.S. Embassy. Yeah, the embassy was not planned at all.
As I was posting pics of our trip to my social media an old high school friend had message me to inform me that one of my old highschool buddies worked at the embassy in Lisbon. So I reached out to him and we were able to connect with him at the embassy the following morning. Which was pretty awesome, since I hadn’t seen him in roughly 20 years.
It’s worth mentioning that we had chosen for only spend one night in Lisbon. Prior to the trip, while conducting my intel gathering, I had learned that Lisbon is not as great as many would think. Turns out, they were right. One day was plenty for us. Our train for Faro/Vilamoura was scheduled to depart the next day at 2pm. I had read about the increasing immigration issue and rise in petty crimes in Lisbon. Which turned out to be solid intel. The evening of our stay we had been walking around the shopping area near Praca de Comercio when it happened. We were walking slowly in a busy area when we came upon a picturesque scene of some buildings. I grabbed a happy snap on my phone but Jill wanted a more solid picture. As is standard protocol, as Jill was engaged in her photo taking I was watching her six. Right as she’s about to take her picture, a Middle Eastern fella (I can say that after spending 15 years in the Middle East) with long hair wearing a flat cap, slides up next to me and says near my ear, “Marijuana, weed, cocaine my friend”. Spidey senses pinged and I looked at Jill. I noticed another fella standing right behind her as she was raising her phone to take the pic. I reached over and grabbed her arm and pulled her to me and began to walk away. She got a little twisted because I kinda messed up her shot and I explained in her ear that he was about to steal her phone out of her hands. She didn’t argue, because she knows and trusts me, as we walked on. After making a couple stair step turns over the next couple blocks we converged on the two men again. I stopped, made eye contact with “Flat Cap McGee”, and watched them as they entered a hookah bar. At that moment I decided that this area of town was a target.
We went to dinner at Maria Catita Restaurante after making a stop at the hotel for a dinner recommendation. He said that’s the place he sends his family when they come to town. While waiting for our table, roughly 30 minutes, we took a short walk down the street. There’s a Michelin restaurant a couple doors down so we stopped to look in the window and watch people eat their $400 per person dinner. As we were walking another Middle Eastern fella started to approach us and began to speak to me. As he did I said, “Nein, nein!” as we continued walking. He mumbled something and kept walking. We were ready to get out of Lisbon.
The next morning we stopped by the embassy to see my buddy, hit up Pastéis de Belém for some delicious pastries, checked out Jerónimos Monastery from the outside cause the line was really long, then headed back to the hotel to pack and prep for our journey to Faro and Vilamoura.
One thing I haven’t mentioned and HIGHLY recommend is using Claude AI to help you plan your travels. I uploaded all our tickets, reservations, wishes and questions about sightseeing to Claude. It planned everything for us down to the minute. Completely negating the need for a travel agent. Pretty amazing! Stay tuned for the Faro/Vilamoura piece!