Until this trip, I had never travelled alone for an extended period of time. Two and a half weeks discovering Portugal by myself were absolutely incredible, and a great introduction to solo travelling. I spent time with so many wonderful people, and even though we may have only hung out for an hour or a day, they made my trip that much better.
I flew from Tel Aviv to Lisbon on Monday, August 8th. I had booked a hostel in advance for that night since I was getting in late, but I had planned on just booking all of my other accomodation just the day before so that I could make plans on a whim. Bad plan – turns out that August is prime tourist season in Portugal (duh) and literally every other hostel in Lisbon was booked for the rest of the week. Luckily, there were some dormitory rooms posted on AirBNB, so I picked the cheapest one (backpacker budget) that was conveniently located in the city center.
My first experience with budget travel was…interesting. I arrived at an unmarked apartment building, walked in, and climbed four flights of stairs lit only by flickering florescent lights with my heavy backpack on my back, without seeing any signs for a hostel or AirBNB. Luckily, a girl walked up the stairs who turned out to be staying in the dorm, so she brought me in and introduced me to the apartment owner, Wilson. Wilson’s apartment must have been at least a hundred years old, and never renovated. The dorm slept eight people (he squeezed an extra in one night), plus there were three private rooms, a “living room” – if you can call some filthy cushions on the floor with a broken coffee table a living room, two bathrooms and a kitchen. On the plus side, there was plenty of ice in the freezer and the laundry was free!
Despite how weird/crowded/dirty the apartment was, I had a great time there and ended up staying six nights. The other guests were mostly solo travelers who were rolling through Lisbon for one reason or another.
I won’t go through everything I did in Lisbon, though looking back I’m pretty sure I spent 99% of my time sweating my butt off trudging up hills, but I do have two favorite memories from my time there, both involving Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point in Europe.
The first was my first day in Lisbon, when I was a little freaked out by my accomodations and still unsure of hostel ettiquette. Is everyone else trying to make friends? Is it weird if I paint my toenails in the living room/kitchen? Is it at least less weird than the Italian guests smoking cigarettes in the living room/kitchen? Is the flat owner creepy, or just Brazilian?
Luckily just a few minutes after I arrived, Alexandra, the girl who had saved me on the stairs, invited me to come on a day trip with her to Cabo de Roca. Yay friends! Alexandra is a flight attendant for SwissAir, and she works full time for half the year and then travels for half the year. Quite the seasoned solo female traveler, and I was happy to be under her wing.
We navigated the metro to the regional train, but a few stops later, we decided that we only really needed to be at Cabo de Roca to watch the sunset over the Atlantic (it’s jsut a cliff…), and that we should spend the afternoon at the beach instead. We got to the beach, and realized that neither of us had packed bathingsuits or towels. As it turns out, my handy dandy bandana that I carry around when I travel also makes a great bikini top!
Eventually we did make it to Cabo de Roca, where we again realized that we failed miserably in the planning department. As most cliffs above oceans are, Cabo de Roca was EXTREMELY windy. Like “why did I wear my cute little yellow sundress instead of my Northface parka?” windy. Eventually I gave up on the dress and became a Birkenstock-clad Marilyn Monroe.
Alexandra and I passed the time until sunset doing photoshoots of eachother (see yellow-dress-clad insta posts) and huddling together for warmth, cracking up over how unprepared we were.
Finally the bus to take us back to the train to take us back to the other train came, and it looked like the other passengers were as freezing and relieved as we were. It was 10 PM and we were absolutely exhausted and starving, and somehow during our trek home we managed to order pizza from an Indian restaurant (the only place that would deliver) to our hostel. We got home, showered, and stuffed our faces with something that would not be labeled as pizza in the US.
The other very memorable night was when Amanda and Kristen, friends from the US, were in town. We had had a perfect day exlploring the murals in the Alfama neighborhood, watching Fado (traditional Portuguese singing accompanied by a guitar), and of course eating amazing food. We went out to one of the many streets in Lisbon where the custom is to buy your drink in a bar lining the street, but then drink it outside in the massive crowd. Of course we found two fellow Americans there, one of whom was now living in Lisbon. Before I knew it, we were picking up our friend’s car from his apartment (he was sober, I promise) and driving 30 minutes out to Cabo De Roca at 2 AM. We got there, bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets that he conveniently had in his trunk – maybe he does this a lot?- and started making the climb in the pitch black down to the ocean. I may or may not have been in the half of the crew who gave up halfway down and sat down on a blanket to wait for everyone else to come back up. In my defense, I was dressed for drinking, not hiking.
We got back in the car, and on the way back to Lisbon, our friend brought us to this abandoned resort building from the 1950’s. It was build on a hill outside of the city but with a perfect view of Lisbon, and is now just a monsterous, empty, seven-story congrete giant covered in graffiti and litered with broken beer bottles. Surprisingly, this was not the creepiest abandoned building I hung out in in Portugal. The building had an amazing view of Lisbon at night that unfortunately couldn’t be captured in a picture. We wanted to stay for sunrise, but we had to bring Amanda and Kristin back to Lisbon so that they could catch their flights!
Lisbon Highlights:
– Cabo de Roca (both times)
– Learning the many uses of my bandana
– Turning a corner in Lisbon and finding yourself at the top of a hill with a breathtaking view of the city
– Photoshoots in front of the tiled walls with Amanda and Kristen
Lowlights:
– Adjusting to being by myself and spending too much time with my thoughts
– The tiny shower in the Airbnb flat that leaked water all over the floor
– No fan in the dorm at night
– Being constantly exhausted from walking up and down all the hills
– Bread and fried fish gets really old after a few days
Food I ate:
– Bacalhau (codfish) is a Portuguese specialty. I had it in many forms, but my favorites were fritters and Balcalhau á bras – shredded codfish sautéd with onions, leeks, peppers and potatoes.
– Pasteis de nata, another Portuguese specialty. These are like little tarts filled with custard, and covered in cinamon sugar.
– Sea bass ceviche. This is on my top ten list of foods I’ve ever eaten, so don’t mind me for how much detail I’m about to go into. The bottom of the bowl was lined with mashed avocado, with a thin layer of olive oil and a bit of cilantro. Next came the sea bass ceviche, which was mixed with a salsa of mango and red onion. The dish was finished with a scoop of salmon roe. Bye, I’m dead.
– God bread. I can’t remember the name in Portuguese, but that’s what it translates to. It’s basically a fluffy sweetbread with a sugary coconut layer on top. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on God bread, and it was bomb.
Lessons learned:
– Use trip advisor
– Get a map
– Save money by accepting all free food offered to you by other hostel guests
– Save money by stopping to buy fruit in every fruteria you see
– Always carry a wine opener
– Don’t expect your hostel to have a fan or air conditioning
– Don’t be overly considerate of your other dorm mates in your hostel. If you accidentally wake them up at 9 AM, it’s not your fault they don’t have ear plus and an eyemask and really strong sleeping pills. Also, it’s 9 AM. They can deal.