Of course, with so little time to spend, I arrived right in the middle of bad weather. Well, bad for Lisbon. When I landed, it was 16 degrees Celsius, cloudy off and on, raining now and then, with a gusty wind. The locals were all bundled up as if a blizzard was on its way, telling me I'd missed the normal (hot, sunny) weather by a day. Given that I've lived my whole life in places where clouds, rain, and wind are the standard, my general attitude was shrug, at least it's warm.
The weather wasn't the only less than welcoming moment I had Tuesday night. Fresh off the plane, I approached the woman at passport control in the airport with a smile and a 'hello.' She didn't respond or even look at me, just scanned and stamped my passport without saying a word... to me... she was busy chatting on the phone the whole time. Then later, when I got to the hotel, there were two guys working the front desk; one helped me, while the other checked in an older Englishman who'd arrived before me. During this process, the Brit said something that I didn't hear, but which I gathered was something inappropriate about me, because his desk clerk glanced at me and chuckled in that awkward you're terrible but I have to be nice to the customer sort of way, and my desk clerk gave the Brit the side eye. After Mr Creepy had gone off to his room, the guy checking me in gave me my key and said, "You'll be staying away from the gentleman, in room 405." I joined him and his colleague in a little relieved laugh, and wished I'd heard the questionable comment that started it all.
I can't say it enough these days: I am so fed up with straight middle-aged (and older) white dudes, and all their bullshit. Over. It.
Anyway. Back in Lisbon. After an entire day of travel, I did nothing but sleep Tuesday night, and set out to see everything I could on Wednesday. It didn't quite turn out to be as much as I'd hoped, but I think it was enough to catch the spirit of the place.
Most of the things I found interesting in my guidebook were close to each other, in an area pretty much straight down the main road from my hotel. For my money, the weather was perfect for a wander -- sunny, few clouds, warm but not hot -- so I walked the 25 minutes or so to my first destination, the Museum of Design and Fashion. Which was closed for renovations.
No matter, I kept walking past it, through the very picturesque Arco da Rua Agusta and down along the water in the vast open space of the Praço do Comércio. When I'd soaked up enough of that, I took a walk over to the impressive Ingreja de Santo Antonio da Sé. I love a Cathedral, and stopped to photograph a couple others in my wanderings, but the Sé was by far the most impressive. It was originally built in 1150, so it very much looks of its time, but has been restored and improved over the years. Despite the belief of many that I'll burst into flames upon crossing the threshold of Jesus' house, I checked out the inside and came out unscathed. With photos, even!
After my foray into the realm of the holy, I decided it was time to head back into the shopping area for wine and lunch (in that order). Right as I was considering how perfect the weather was for all my walking, a cloud broke open and bucketed down for about 10 minutes, then went back to sunshine as quickly as the rain started. The local solution seemed to be to find an awning and wait it out, but I just put up my umbrella and kept moving, not sure where I would end up. As it turned out, right as the rain stopped, I found myself at the Elevador de Santa Justa, which I marvelled at but didn't visit, and then a circus-themed sardine shop, which I marched straight into.
By the time I finished the uphill hike back to the hotel, I'd walked over 5 miles already, and the rain was coming more than going, so I wasn't too keen on doing any more sightseeing. My only further excursion was to get something to eat later in the evening, then early to bed for my morning flight.
My general impression of Lisbon is that it's exactly the right time to visit for people like me: who like visiting cities that make it easy for you, but hate the flash and price gouging of places where tourists are their primary cash flow. Portugal is still an up and comer in the tourism game, which means that businesses have made adaptations like adding English translations to menus or selling a few souvenir trinkets. But they haven't gotten to the point of making every run down store front into a tourist attraction or hassling you on the street to buy something you don't really want for twice what it's worth. Lisbon's very inexpensive to visit, relative to other Western European cities, with plenty of amenities and gorgeous scenery to take in. In short, go. Go now, before it gets ruined.
And if you don't dig cities, I was told by a local that the beaches outside Lisbon can't be beat. Just don't go there in summer, he told me, unless you love a crowd.
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