Lisbon, Portugal

It wasn’t that long ago that people thought the world ended at Cape Sagres. It seems both a privilege and an abomination of modern times that I can wake up with the sunrise in Wenatchee, and have dinner in the Alfama in Portugal. The journey in between is long: a drive from Wenatchee to the SEA airport, 3.5 hours. Flight from SEA to Heathrow London, 9 hours. Flight to Lisbon, Portugal, 2.5 hours. And many, many hours of waiting for connections and delays. I walked out of the airport in my Wenatchee-appropriate wool layers and down vest, and was nearly blinded by the Portuguese sun on an unseasonably warm day.

Lisbon is a city of 500,000, situated on the mouth of the River Tagus. Most of downtown, where our hotel was, is on the flat lands called the Baixa neighborhood. Two hills rise up on either side of the Baixa, Bairro Alto on one side, and the Alfama neighborhood on the other. There are many other neighborhoods that make up the city, and you could spend days meandering the blue-tiled alleyways, hiking up steep cobblestone streets, riding the Industrial Age elevators and the photogenic yellow trams, and soaking in the ambience of this ancient city.

We only had one night in Lisbon, and chose to take an Uber to the Sao Jorge Castle perched on the hill of the Alfama. The Alfama is an ancient fisherman neighborhood and one of the few parts of the city that survived the devastating earthquake of 1755. The narrow streets (balconies can only be 1.5 hands wide, to allow for air flow), endless cobblestone steps, and timeworn buildings periodically open up to panoramic views to the River Tagus and the rest of the city below. We arrived at sunset, and while I explored the nooks and crannies, Won found a centuries-old public urinal and made his contribution to the history of humanity that passed through here (no photos).

Dinner was in an atmospheric alleyway, on wobbly wooden stools perched on cobblestone, at a small restaurant we found randomly while exploring. As night fell, and while trying to keep balance on the stools to avoid an undignified tumble down the steep hill, we had the best damned grilled sardines ever. Rounded out the meal with garlic chili shrimp and bracalhau a bras (cod potato, a classic Portuguese dish).

October 15, 2023