A walking tour of Lisbon with Andreia

A tram winds through Alfama.

The first thing I organize for my friends who are visiting is a walking tour of the city. Usually I start in Santa Apolonia by the river and then Alfama, Mouraria, and all the old parts of Lisbon, and then Bairro Alto and Chiado. It’s a long day of walking. Walking up and down. It's seven hills!

There isn’t one neighborhood I like especially. All the old parts of Lisbon are nice. They're very similar. But it’s changing. Many of the old people…well, you know, they’re going. Youngsters are taking over, so it's becoming a more bohemian place. Plus, there are a lot of foreigners coming. It's a good vibe. It’s a very rich mix of people, and there are lots of associations of young people trying to make a difference.

Tasty, garlicky pork, waiting to be made into a bifana.

I usually have a snack with me on my tour. Or I stop at a traditional restaurant and have my traditional steak with fries and an egg. It’s called bitoque. The sandwiches are also good. Bifana is pork meat and prego is steak. They are really good. I would say garlic is one of our biggest assets in the kitchen.

Then if you have the opportunity, take the ferry to Cacilhas, especially at sunset. It's beautiful to see Lisbon at night. You take the ferry from Cais do Sodre, and then you go to the other side of the river. There isn't much to see there. It’s not even really a very nice place to be. But the views are great. Just go have a beer and relax and see the views.

In terms of food and sightseeing, Lisbon has great places. There's a lot of live music for free and low cost. The jazz school here in Lisbon is called Hot Club. It might be free still. It's a bar, and when they have invited bands, you pay 5 to 10 euros, but when it's students it's free and they just jam all night.

What makes Lisbon special?

I think it's the light. If it's a beautiful sunny day and you sit somewhere where you can see the castle… Lisbon has a very good energy because of the light. I I lived abroad for a year and when I came back I spent so much time walking around just looking up at the light. 

Lisbon at dusk, from across the river in Cacilhas.

Illegal Chinese and other favorite things of Micas

I will just tell you all the things I like. 

Tram 28 is very nice. It will take you from Alfama, all the way to the Basilica.

And ginjinha, in a chocolate cup! It’s really cool. Well, the thing is, I don’t like ginja. But I hear the one by Rossio square, there’s a really old one there, is quite good.

Ginjinha, or ginja, in a chocolate cup.

Ginjinha Sem Rival, a more traditional spot to find the Portuguese sour cherry liqueur.

The line spilled out the door at this "Illegal Chinese"--down the stairs of this apartment building in an otherwise un-busy street. A single waitress moved dishes on and off tables while answering the doorbell to bark wait times to groups of 20-somethings trying to snag a table.

I would also go to the Belém for pastries. You take tram 15E there. In Belém, you can also look at the tower and the monastery.

I love the contemporary art museum, but I’m not sure if that’s a must-see.

I also really like the Illegal Chinese. It’s not something very touristic, because you don’t come to Lisbon to eat Chinese food, but we have a lot of Chinese and Pakistani immigrants who live in Mouraria and Alfama, and they are just as part of the city as the Portuguese, so it’s a cool part of the city to see. These restaurants are very good. I’m a smoker, and inside you’re very chill, you smoke, you eat, and the food is amazing. 

Feira da Ladra, the flea market, which is open on Saturday. It’s nearby Santa Apolonia train station. It’s second-hand stuff—books, shampoos, a bit of everything. You just have to see it.

Also eat in Bairro Alto. I like Stasha, which is a very good one. It’s Portuguese food in a very contemporary way. The steak is really good, even if it’s not that traditional. Bitoque might be traditional, but Stasha isn’t a very traditional place. It’s just good food.

Then go listen to fado. I recommend Tasco do Chico. It’s like an old traditional restaurant for wine and beer, and they sing fado, traditional Portuguese music. Very Portuguese. They have two, one in Bairro Alto, but Alfama is the place to go to listen to fado. For live music, it’s either one of the other, they switch days.

You know, the main touristic spots are not everyday spots. But Lisbon is special that way, because our downtown is also an everyday Lisbon spot. It’s touristic, but the locals spend a lot of time here, too. The viewpoints, too. One of the Portuguese things to do is to have a beer, and enjoy the sunsets from a viewpoint.

"The sweetness of the easy life of Lisbon" with Jean-Pierre

I have lived in Lisbon many years.

Normally I don't tell people to go to a specific place. I say you only have to walk, in the center of the city. Walking the old parts--Alfama, Mouraria, Bairro Alto, Bica.

Because that's one of the pleasures of Lisbon. Having no destination. The sweetness of the easy life of Lisbon is that. It's really that. Suddenly, you turn a corner and see a very nice view. There's a nice terrace and you just want to sit.

Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara

Sunset on the Rio Tejo.

Miradouro da Graca, or technically, Miraodouro de Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Do you have a favorite view?

Let me think. It may be something obvious—a view with the river. Well, it depends, I mean, maybe you could look north. 

Ah. Some time before my birthday, around the end of May or beginning of June, you have two or three streets in the city with jacaranda. The tree that flowers before it leaves. When they fall down its slippery. It's quite dangerous, actually, on the streets. One street is Avenida Dom Carlos, which begins at the parliament. At the end of Rua de São Bento, until the river. You have another one by the university, Duque de Ávila. 

It’s not purple. It's light purple. It's lilac. It's not natural. Something pops. It comes from Brazil. It's talking with the rain. Here, you are still in Europe, but always maybe with one foot or one finger in the tropics. This color is really not common. It's something painted. It's something like 15 days that they are flowering, so it's very uncommon. It's always for my birthday! I arrived in Lisbon, and said, it’s for me. 

What was your first impression when you moved to Lisbon?

I'm from Paris. I wasn't wrong, with my first impression. Because I was rapidly seeing that it was my city. A city for me. A city good for life. Sometimes it's hard to put into words. It's a question of feeling. It's a question of reason. A question of life.

Maybe it was obvious for me, because Paris was a very crowded city. Lots of people, lots of activity. This is a middle sized city. For me, I just arrived, and said it’s the city for me. The size of the city was for me.

Here, be careful. We always imagine Lisbon is a Mediterranean city. True. But with a more oceanic influence, so it's more like San Francisco. A lot of fog, a lot of rain. You don't have so many seasons. You have summer, but all the rest of the year, you never know. You can have cold, warm. In four days you could have four seasons.

And for me the big problem of Lisbon...because every nice place has problems. It's maybe not the weather itself, but how the city was built. Everything is built for summer. It's as if it doesn't rain here. But it does. And it's ugly when it rains. We don't have gutters, so when it rains, everything goes everywhere. So you just want to stay at home. And sometimes you have like one week, you wake up and it's raining, and you go to bed, and it’s raining. You wake up in the middle of the night, it's raining. For one week. 

Everything is nice, aesthetically, but nothing practical for the rain. And even when it's dry, you can easily slip. You have no place to stop when you're falling down the hill. You have to have someone in your way to stop you.

How many years have you lived here?

Many. I forget the number. How long are you here?

Maybe a month.

Good. So many come for a few days or even one week, and they think they know the city. I'm quite fed up with the tourists who imagine they can understand this place in two or three days. Maybe they have the impression that it's an easy city. But it's a very complicated city. And since the crisis, it has changed, in the last few, maybe three, years. There has been a wave of tourists from Northern Europe. Many of the apartments around here are now rented to tourists by the week. I know so many locals who have sold their apartments recently.

People here love to speak. And maybe you feel this is one of the good things about Lisbon...well, every good thing has an opposite side. Sometimes, you understand, they don't even have a conversation. Only a "versation."

And the notion of time here is not really Northern European time. It's very south European time, very Mediterranean. There are lots of things to say about time here. There's no word for if you have a meeting with someone and he doesn't arrive. There's no word. It's not a problem.

Mouraria's tasca-crawl with June

I recommend to walk the district of Mouraria. There is a route called Rota das Tascas da Mouraria. It is a very old district that is not very touristic, but is one of my favorites. It is on the bottom of the castle. 

You can find the Rota das Tascas online. "Tasco" is bar. So you don't have to go to every single bar, but I recommend taking a ginjinha in one of them, and seeing the atmosphere of the district. It's authentic! It's like an old town, with children playing in the streets and dogs running around. It's like the old home of your grandmother. The architecture is very old because, like Alfama, this district survived the earthquake. They were the only ones,  so the structure is quite peculiar, like many of the buildings are a little sideways, because of the earthquake.

There is one tasco called Os Amigos da Severa. It's in a street where fado was born--like, people started singing fado there. The wall of the street had pictures in wood in the wall of famous fado singers. There is also a vegetarian restaurant I love, The Food Temple. It's in a very small square—I love that square. Go in there for a tea or a piece of cake or dinner. One of the cooks is from Thailand, so it's different. 

What do you love about Lisbon?

People is what I love. I'm not originally from Lisbon, I'm from Spain. The first time I came here it was a surprise. Everyone in Lisbon is open and so warm. I was standing in the square waiting for someone, reading a book, and an old woman walked up to me and was like, are you lost? Can I help you? And that would never happen in Spain, but it happens here in Lisbon.

So for me that's the best, the people. And I like that it is small, a lot happening, a lot of free live music. Small coffees and restaurants, and I like the variety. You can find the more sophisticated, bohemian, hippie, rockabilly.

The Secret Lisbon is the best Lisbon guide ever. It's not like, "In 19blahblahblah the king blah." It's a really nice book. It's not a novel, so read it in parts. It’s divided in districts, and it changes how you walk to the small districts, the small details. It's my favorite book about Lisbon. 

You know where you should go, is Estrela da Bica. It's not traditional Portuguese, but Portuguese people go there. You have to go early--like at 8. Otherwise it will fill up completely. I've gone many times around 8:30 and they are already booked for the first night. It's very very good. Maybe go up the funicular, have a tea and look around, and then drop by early to book a table.

Illegal Chinese is very cool. In Mouraria, there are three. There's one that is really good. There is one that is horrible, it's awful, it’s so bad. Everything tastes the same because they just cook everything in the same sauce. But it's cheap, I guess. But when I went there I was like, I'm never coming back.

Which one is the bad one? 

I don't know, they don't have names! They're just houses. You walk in and they have tables in the living room, the dining room, all the rooms. The last time, I went with four people, and there was just one little table for us in like, a tiny room.

The must-sees with Miguel

In Lisbon, you have to see the monuments in Belém, the castle, and the ancient—well not ancient, but typical—neighborhoods. 

Padrão dos Descobrimentos, or the Monument of the Discoveries, on the Tagus River in Belem.

The monuments are not quite in the center of the city, but in Belém. It was from there that in the really old days, they left for conquering the world. That’s what the monuments are celebrating. There are also gardens and museums in Belém.

The castle is important to see. Not just the neighborhood, but the castle, which is one of the most typical points in Lisbon.

The view from Castelo de Sao George, overlooking the city.

The neighborhoods to see are Alfama, Bairro Alto, and Mouraria. What’s special about them is the streets, basically. There are lots of different types of streets that go up and down, very skinny streets with lots of things to do and see. Like, hidden gardens. The best thing to do is just get lost in the neighborhoods, because every time you climb a street and turn around, you can see the river and the little buildings--everything. And Bairro Alto, at night, it’s the place to get some booze. Drink a bottle of wine, beer, hang out with friends. Cais do Sodré, also.

Then we have some really nice restaurants in the area. It depends on your wallet, really. My favorite place...Well, yesterday I went to a place with really nice hot dogs at Frankie Hot Dogs. I spent 15 euros and had 3 hot dogs with chips and bacon. So good. It’s near the university, so it’s cheap and all the students go there at lunch. And if you like fish, it’s not low budget but it’s really good, a place called Sea Me. 

Also, you have the restaurant Trevo. It’s at the beginning of Praça de Camões, which is a very important meeting point in the night when you go out with friends. In Trevo, you can have bifana, a pork slice on bread with sauce, and a beer. In Lisbon, we call it an "imperial."

Two more. Nearby, there’s a store that sells wine, ham, cheese, and olive oil, called Baco Alto. God of the Wine. There’s a shop downtown called Pollux. If you go to the top floor there, you have a view from one side of the city to the other side. You can also see a good view of the city from Park. It’s a parking lot where on the top floor, there’s a bar. And finally, just to check it out, the Elevator of Santa Justa. Then you’ll have a nice scene of the city.

Then by car or train, you can visit the village of Cascais. Really nice, really quiet. You can find some beaches, and it’s nice for a warm sunny day like this. Today it’s the 9th of November? On the 11th of November, it’s called…I don’t know. We eat chestnuts, and we drink wine. We call it the summer of San Martinho and say that the weather will be good, at least until the 11th.

One way to manage the hills of Lisbon: Elevators. After the many stairs that go up and down the city, they were the obvious next step. Elevador de Santa Justa dates from 1901.

Chestnuts sold in the streets of Lisbon in November, before St. Martin's Day on Nov. 11.