Lisbon Pt. 2

Tara Larkai
May 10, 2015
3 min read

Our first night on the town, we had decided to go to the Baixa neighborhood to explore their nightlife but we did not exactly have a venue in mind. Upon arrival, it looked sort of "dead" so our Uber driver offered to take us to another part of town that we were sure to enjoy. He took us to Pink road in Bairro Alto. We found a hidden gem, Povo. As soon as we walked in, we were told that it was poetry night themed "star trek" and that all the poems would be in Portuguese. We didn't mind because after all we were in Portugal and did not expect anything less. The place was packed. A very small sized restaurant with a tiny stage set up with a mic, drums and a some other instruments (very basic stuff) .The ambience was very romantic and nice. The lights were dimmed and it appeared as if majority of the people there were on dates. We were showed to the last table left which was close to the stage. We were lucky to have had a table because on nights like those, they only accept reservations. Poetry night was nothing but interesting with some strange soundtracks to go along with the poems and to our surprise majority of them were spoken in English. I gotta tell you that was the strangest poetry night we had ever experienced. But the food! Oh my! DELICIOUS! The tapas were very good and reasonably priced. Even though it was not the nightlife we were looking for, we really enjoyed their romantic relaxed vibe and even asked about upcoming events. lol

The next day was dedicated to Belem and Baixo-Chiado. Belem is one of the most historical parishes in Lisbon and is home to the Tower of Belem, Monastery, Belem Palace and the famous pasteis de Belem.

Pateis de Belem has the most delicious pastries ever, pastel de nata. One of the best things I have ever had. This place is a major tourist attraction. The line going in is ridiculously long and apparently they are this busy every day. This is actually the main attraction in Belem.

We did a lot of walking in Belem. We walked around to see all the sites, went under a bridge to get to the opposite side of the water, ate some food then walked some more. We used the Uber service to get to Baixa-Chiado. Baixa-Chaido is quite different from Belem. It has more of a downtown vibe with plenty of shops, restaurants, bars etc. We saw a lot of high end shops like Gucci, Burberry, Hermes etc. It has 18th century architecture and broad squares with pattern pavements. I think this was my favorite place in Lisbon. It just felt familiar and new at the same time.

We ended that night at our favorite spot, Povo for Fado. Fado is the soul music of Portugal. We got all dressed up to have our first experience with Fado.

We were feeling very grown and sexy and enjoyed the Fado performances. Thinking that was our last night in Lisbon just made me feel so sad. I was completely in love with Lisbon. It is always the underplayed places that end up being hidden gems. Hands down, Lisbon is in my top 5 favorite places.