Day Seven – What a View

Day Seven – What a View (Except for the Dense Fog) (January 2, 2011)

Having survived a night of the meat sweats, we awoke feeling slightly sluggish. We opened the electric blackout blind to see what kind of day was waiting for us outside and were met with a dramatic view of....nothing. Dense fog was apparently sitting on Lisbon much like a very fat man on a small bicycle seat – absolutely nothing was visible, and this was very disturbing. Either that or someone had frosted our windows in the night for reasons unexplained.

This, of course, was to be expected, as we’d planning taking a trip to the sea-side to enjoy the views of the ocean and all for the day. Undaunted, we packed up and headed out into the misty and deserted streets (Sunday morning in Lisbon is only slightly more active than New Year’s day). As our first mission, we found a pasta cafe around the corner and had the requisite coffee and tasty treat before descending into the metro station to charge our Via Viagem passes for the day’s travel. Planning ahead, we’d brought enough change to cover the new fees for the new year, which was clever, even for us.

Back up the surface streets for a bus to Cais do Sodré and from there to the train to Estoril. The trip was uneventful, although it was interesting to watch the wall of fog obscure all but the buildings closest to the tracks. Not sure why anyone would want to live backing onto a rail line, but there you have it. I’m sure the view on a non-foggy day must be spectacular.

We arrived in Estoril and walked to the beach. As expected, there was nothing to see as nothing could be seen. We walked on the sand for a bit and I managed to spend more than ten minutes next to the water without getting drenched by an unexpected wave – possibly a first for me. We walked down the seawall past Monte Estoril, almost getting to Cascais before deciding that it might be time for lunch, and definitely time for a jug of Sangria.

We found a conveniently located bar and ordered just that. We ate and drank our lunch and watched the massive waves break on the sea wall, entertainingly drenching a few unsuspecting people who should have known better. There must have been a massive storm somewhere offshore, as the waves were truly tremendous. Massive walls of water were repeatedly crashing against the walls in a highly interesting and photogenic manner, which was much appreciated.

We spent quite a bit of time trying to capture the perfect image of the water breaking over the pavement, and possibly splashing people who weren’t paying as much attention as they should have been. Eventually we grew tired of this, and after walking back towards Estoril, turned our attentions to the clearly insane surfers who were bobbing around in what must have been nut-shrinkingly freezing water. Some of them were pretty crap, but a few carved enough nice lines on the waves to make some interesting photos, so I was quite pleased.

We continued along the seawall past Estoril until we became parched yet again and found another conveniently located cafe to sit at. We spent another hour enjoying a relatively nice and relatively expensive bottle of wine (odd how the price of wine is directly proportional to the quality of the view). The sun went down in a rather dramatic manner, making the remains of the fog glow most scenically, and then it got cold. As I was just wearing a jumper, and we were out of wine, we decided to walk back to Estoril, get back on the train and go back to Lisbon for dinner.

Dinner was a quick bus ride to Restauradores and then a tram ride up the hill to Bairro Alto. I’d read about a restaurant we’d passed a few times in a magazine (they’d probably paid to be in it, but whatever) so we decided to try it out. It turned out to have expensive wine, really good tapas (which is weird for Lisbon), and not very good pizza (which is normal for Lisbon I think). They were very friendly, but it wasn’t great and I wouldn’t go back.

After dinner we felt that a final beverage was in order before coming back to the hotel so we found our favourite wine bar in the Bairro Alto – Artis. We found a seat and ordered two glasses of wine and sat back to enjoy or last full evening in Lisbon. It’s been a surprising city. I don’t think either of us expected to like as much as we both have. I don’t know that I’d want to spend another full week here, but I’d definitely come back for a long weekend here and there. While much of it is very run down and more than a few buildings are abandoned and crumbling, there’s a vibrancy and excitement to the city that is thrilling. The food, while not fantastic, is cheap and mostly tasty, the wine is fantastic and cheap, and the people are friendly. I think a trip in better weather is going to be in order.