Day Trippers: Lisbon Edition

Prior to arriving in Portugal, Jeremy had made it clear to me that he really wanted to spend time in Lisbon. I’ll be honest. I didn't care much one way or the other. Aside from a few very special towns in Europe, I don’t really notice the unique identifying factors that differentiate Lisbon from Porto from Madrid from Sevilla. I know, shoot me. I love traveling. And I do love each of these places in a slightly different way. But at this point, I am not expecting my heart to stop beating upon spending time in a new European city, save Prague. (I've just heard too many wonderful things!) Anyway, if I didn’t see every corner of Lisbon, I was not about to cry about it.  In contrast, Jeremy was. Really. He was going to cry about it.

And so we boarded a train to Lisbon after our first morning in Cascaish. Lauren had visited Lisbon before, but we didn’t really have much of an itinerary. After exiting the train station in Lisbon, we headed East towards the Baixa / Chaido. The adults had two main goals for the day: to drink alcohol (responsibly) and eat as much seafood as possible. We kicked off the adventure with very large beers, that took forever to arrive. Yes, we reluctantly picked a café in the downtown tourist region because 1) we were super thirsty and 2) it had free wifi and 3) it had an open table. And yet, we sat for about 15 minutes before Lauren transformed from her French, laid back self to her American, assertive self and demanded service that later turned into 3 awesomely large but possibly contaminated beers, plus a tap on the arm – “Sorry, friend” – from our waiter.

Super Bocks for the Besties

Upon finishing our beers and full of liquid strength, we opted not to hop onto the #28  tram for a relaxed time taking in the city. Instead, we marched up the hills of the Alfama district, pushing babies in strollers and/or carrying  babies in our arms  until we reached a castle that we were too cheap / bored/ more interested in another beer to actually visit. Throughout this time traversing up many a mountain to the castle, Parker, who has just recently learned how to wave “Hi”, literally said hello to every tourist in the city of Lisbon. Hilarity ensued. This kid is only happy once everyone with whom he has made some form of eye contact acknowledges his presence and returns his “ Eh” plus waving with “Hola, Ciao, Hello, or Hi.”  I sound like I’m complaining, but really, saying hello to every tourist who finished viewing the Castelo de Sao Jorge might just be my favorite memory of this vacation. I love how much Parker loves to see and be seen by other people.

Parker Waiving to Everyone in Lisbon

We did a lot of wandering around the city and enjoyed a great dinner before heading back to Cascais. Parker enjoyed his food - he again munched on all different kinds of fish that I don't think I had the guts to try until I was at least nineteen years old. However, more than anything, Parker enjoyed climbing the steps up at this restaurant. He ascended up and down at least three or four times before our food came, and another three or four times afterwards. He was so dirty that he required three rounds of scrubbing in the bath to ensure all of Lisbon's dirt was removed from his skin before bed time.

Parker Climbing Another Lisbon Staircase

I'm pretty sure he thought the day was awesome. And I have to say, Lisbon is probably one of my new favorite cities in Europe. So I apologize, Jeremy, for not being more excited about it when we were planning our trip. Glad we have one more day here after the Algarve and before we fly home!

Lisbon Sneak Preview