I took somewhere in the ballpark of 500 photos while I was in Portugal (yeah, I’m that guy). Obviously, they’re not all worthy of their own post, but I figured I’d share a few noteworthy ones before officially moving on to the next country in this journey (spoiler alert: it’s Spain).
Maybe it’s because I’ve been going to the place since I was a kid, and thus have fuzzy childhood memories, but I like McDonald’s. I don’t eat there a whole lot, but every time they add something new to the menu, I feel compelled to check it out.
I’ve eaten at restaurants with a nice view before, but I’m pretty confident that this one takes the cake.
I was walking back to the Airbnb the other day, and I passed a storefront that was just three vending machines in a small space — two were pretty standard (drinks, chips, etc.), and the third had a variety of hot sandwiches like fried chicken, burgers, and the one I tried, kebab.
Two thoughts immediately crossed my mind:
The Time Out Market in Lisbon is one of those places that you’re pretty much obligated to visit as a tourist; it’s a gourmet food hall curated by a group of journalists, with the idea being that all of the few dozen or so stalls are offering above-average food.
You know what’s better than eating one bifana? Eating two bifanas. And you know what’s even better than that? Eating three.
Need proof? There’s a novelty store in downtown Lisbon that looks like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — and they only sell colourful cans of sardines with various years printed on them.
Remember that market where I bought the delicious sausage sandwich? I also bought an awe-inspiringly good coconut tart that was so good I figured that it deserved its own post.
So, here’s a fact: Lisbon is an extremely hilly city. Here’s another fact: those hills are jerks.
At first it’s like, “wow cool, look at all of that interesting hilly architecture! It really gives the city character! I wonder how they build everything on a slant like that!” Then you walk up your fifth or six ultra-steep incline of the day with the scorchingly hot Portuguese sun being as unforgiving as always and it’s more like “Hey hill? You’re a stupid jerk and you have a stupid jerk face and I hope you die.”
I spoke the other day about the joys of random discovery; you can add this to the supporting documentation for that argument.