Showing Lisbon

One really enjoyable part about exchange is when you get to show your city to people who come for a visit. It is the time you realize that you have actually gotten to know your new home quite well and have found unique things you want to show others. I had my first visitor here from last Wednesday until Monday when my boyfriend came to Lisbon. He is also doing his Master's exchange at the moment in Rome (you can follow his AS Roma-filled exchange blog "Tutto Totti" here) and we made a deal to visit each other's exchange cities. My turn to travel to Rome is in exactly one month.

The artist at Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcantara, close to my home here. I will  have to buy one of his works before the end of exchange.

During the days we spent in Lisbon together, we did some very touristy sightseeing around town. We went to a few new places but mainly revisited things that I had already experienced and knew were worth seeing. Before hand I had made big plans for us to visit Belem and make a day trip to Cascais, but as we only had a few days to spend in Lisbon it was much nicer to have a relaxed time around the city (I'll have to make sure to visit those places later on though). The week before my boyfriend arrived, Lisbon had been gloomy, foggy and rainy, so we were lucky that it was practically sunny all throughout his stay. The only time it rained was when we were checking out Bairro Alto - instead of bar hopping we were stuck at the door of a crowded place for over an hour waiting for the pouring rain to stop, so that experience fell a bit short. 

One of the places we revisited was Castelo de São Jorge where we managed to stay until sunset. Despite some interfering clouds it was quite amazing to watch the sun descend over Lisbon and see the city's lights turn on slowly. Other than sightseeing around Lisbon we just enjoyed coffees at miradouros, ate out and had drinks on terraces at sunset time. As it turns out that is pretty much my favorite time of the day, and for some reason sunsets feel especially lovely in Lisbon. Sitting outside in summer clothes in October and enjoying the day light turn into night is really quite exceptional and something I haven't gotten to do that much before.

PS. The reason why we only had a few days to spend in Lisbon was because we headed down to Algarve for a two day road trip. That little vacation deserves its own post so I will get back to it later.