Brittany and me in front of a statue in Lisbon

The day I finished school, May 31, my friend Brittany and I rented a car and drove to Lisbon, which is only about 3.5 hours from Huelva. The bulk of our drive was up one toll road in Portugal. We had no idea how much it would cost and joked about pulling up to the window and the guy telling us it was 20 euros. Turns out we weren’t far off: the toll for driving from the start of the highway where we got on to Lisbon was 18 euros. Ouch! But we had amazing luck otherwise and without a GPS and only sub-par GoogleMaps directions we navigated our way into the center of Lisbon without getting lost or hit by the crazy drivers.

The first night we were pretty tired and didn’t have energy for much more than eating. We randomly picked a cafe on a touristy strip near our hostel and enjoyed some tasty hamburgers. But what we definitely did not enjoy was the creepy waiter who shamelessly ogled Brittany for 5-second clips at a time and at one point rested his hand on hers. Men in Spain have a reputation for staring and whistling at women, but we found the men in Lisbon to be wayyyyyy worse than any we had encountered in Spain. The next day a younger guy hissed at us we walked by like that was supposed to be some sort of mating call.

trolley in Lisbon

Despite the sketchy men we met a lot of nice people in the city and had a really good time exploring. We had a map of the city but a few of the neighborhoods were full of tiny, windy streets so it was nearly impossible to follow where you were on the map. At one point we followed a nice old man to get to the castle. He didn’t speak any English but just motioned us to come with him (okay now that I write this it sounds a little sketchy itself, but he was a pretty old guy, seemed nice enough).

We finally found where we were trying to go (and were sweeaattyy after walking uphill for what felt like 2 hours) and rejoiced a bit when we made it. First we ambled through a flea market. There was A LOT of random junk, but we found one nice jewelry stall and a really cool t-shirt stall where the guy designs and prints all the shirts himself (he has an online store if you want to peruse ). Those were both handy for a little souvenir shopping.

me in front of beautiful Lisbon

From there we ascended a little bit further to the castle for some magnificent views of the city. It was such a gorgeous day the views were absolutely incredible. After a late lunch and a little bit of shopping (there was an H&M, the one store we don’t have in Huelva—how could we resist?) we changed and headed to the Elevator tower to get a drink and more nice views of the city. Except the top floor of the Elevator ended up being closed so we got up to see some views of the city, but couldn’t get a drink.

We decided to just walk around and find another nice place to sit outside and get a drink. We ended up at a restaurant with long tables that sat you next random people when it gets crowded. Of course we ended up with two chatty German men who were funny for a little while then just got annoying because we knew they were just listening to everything we were saying. When we told them we were leaving to go get our own dinner (at a restaurant that had been recommended to us by the guy at the hostel) they said we should stay there and talk to them while they ate. “It’s evolution … women talk, men listen,” was their line. Ha, okay buddy. We high-tailed it out of there shortly after that comment. As we were leaving the table they asked where we were eating and said they were going to come visit us but I just pretended not to hear and walked away.

cute outdoor cafe in Lisbon with a nice view of the castle

We did enjoy a delicious meal of Portuguese meats, as well as cod fritters, octopus salad (good flavor, terrible texture), and vinho verde (“green wine” from Portugal). After that we hit the town. Even though it was a Tuesday night the bar scene in Barrio Alto was happening. We met tons of friendly people and almost all of them spoke perfect English. (In Portugal they don’t dub over English TV shows and movies like they do in Spain so people in Portugal hear much more English than people in Spain.) The night ended around 3:30am, not quite as late as we stay out in Spain, but a good effort for a Tuesday night anyways.

Wednesday morning we didn’t do much other than eat breakfast and pack up before hitting the road again. I wish we could have stayed longer (this was the best arrangement that worked for both of our schedules), but we definitely made the most out of our 1.5 days there. I absolutely loved Lisbon, would put it at the top of my list of places visited this year, and could definitely see myself living there in the future (assuming I can’t make it back to Spain )