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Sorry, Lisbon

Fado, Azulejos, Pasteis de Nata: it could be all as simple as that if I wanted.

After turning 30 years old (and I’m much beyond that age now) it becomes difficult to have frequent gatherings with best friends: diverse lifestyles, often different places. Traveling together becomes even more complicated. Nonetheless, around three years ago, my best friends and I managed to plan a short trip together… And I’m still waiting for another chance.

We booked a winter weekend to Lisbon!

I’ve always been fascinated by Portugal. Everybody going there came back very enthusiastic. And so we were. We just had a weekend available and we flew from different cities. So, the effective time together was very short. Why do I insist on this point? I do it because with this post I want to make a late apology to my best friends. Since I’m the most expert about traveling among us, I “won” the responsibility of planning… I did quite a mess. Trying to make everybody happy, I ended up not making anybody fully satisfied.

It actually started quite well. One of the first photos I have of the trip reminds us who we really were: three idiots + 2 normal wives. I say this because the first thing we noticed was the elevator for disabled people in our hotel, which in Portuguese is called “Elevador de deficientes”. For Italian people, that word can easily be mistaken, as the Italian word “deficiente” in common speaking means idiot. We didn’t take it of course, but for an instant, we thought the device was purposely made for us.

So, these three “idiots” (accompanied by the two poor girls) went to have dinner in a quite happy mood. And we picked a restaurant in the Alfama area. It was nice to be welcomed by its embracing street art. Food and wine and everything went ok for that night. We’re boring nice guys, so we went to sleep quite early, even on a Friday night, ready to discover the city during the next day.

And Saturday started in a good way too. Looking at the photos of the early morning, it probably had rained during the night. But the new day was quite sunny and warm for being winter. So, we started the typical itinerary from Rossio square to the other main attractions. Why only the main ones? Cause I had planned something else for the following (and last) day outside Lisbon. That was my first mistake, but I didn’t realize it in the beginning.

Walking in the early morning, with not many people around (as everybody is not as boring as us and went to sleep late), was perfect to plunge in the day. We took it slowly as a holiday should be and everything seemed to go in harmony. We climbed the stairs to look at the panorama, had a pleasant stroll till the Praça do Comércio, facing directly the sea. I’ve no idea why I have so many black and white photos of that holiday. I Imagine my wife really wanted to capture the moment forever as if she felt these opportunities for us would not recur often. She was right: one of my friends had the bliss of becoming a father soon after. And so we will have to wait for a while to travel together again.

And it’s exactly there that I thought It was a moment of sheer happiness. Sun started to shine brightly in the morning and the temperature raised. My winter jacket was too much for a Lisbon sunny day, as the city wanted to remind me: “Please, stop protecting yourself so much. I’m not going to harm you and your friends.” And we chatted, making fun of ourselves, sitting on the wall by the sea. I should have frozen that moment and tell my friends: “We’re going to stay here now, till the sun sets down.”

But I didn’t, I kept dragging them around the city, going up to the Castelo de S. George. The view, the feeling was still okay, but the mood started to show a rift. Someone wanted to walk, someone wanted to take public transportation: I tried to make everybody happy, but it didn’t work. And Lisbon gave me a first warning as the sky darkened and became threatening. “We prefer to walk.” “No, we’ve been walking until now. Let’s take a tram or a bus.” “Ok, choose the way you wish, just let’s see again at Rossio square in a while.” That’s how things went. And some way we met again there and had a quick late lunch. But I didn’t realize I should have swerved the day, my travel FOMO (fear of missing out) prevailed, so I brought them to the Eastern part of the city, where the Monastero dos Jerónimos, museums and the Torre de Belém are located. All outstanding, if you are in the right mood.

And then, the rain came. Lisbon eventually decided to punish me, affecting us all. We found an escape inside a museum that I didn’t even intend to visit and spent some time inside. But my friends were tired, the joyful attitude of the morning completely disappeared. Bad weather wasn’t my fault of course, but I felt guilty for not having planned in a way that would be suitable for all of them.

The last effort to get to the Torre de Belém and rain increasing its intensity was too much for one of my friends: he suddenly walked away and told us we would meet back at the hotel. We didn’t abandon him and went back with him. Separating ourselves back in our rooms surprisingly worked. Dinner and after dinner hours set everything back to zero. I didn’t have the gut to recap the day while drinking our beers, so I didn’t explicitly apologize. I do it now, but at that time I knew they had already forgiven me.

As we’re just three old good friends, three old good idiots, waiting for the next chance to travel together and probably arguing again while doing it. Or maybe summer beach next time would be better, guys?

Interesting places around Lisbon

Besides Lisbon, which has many interesting attractions, there are many places which can easily be reached by trains or buses. The most famous ones are:

- Sintra, which has many interesting sights and it’s a world heritage site

- Cascais, a nice beach city approximately 35Km far from Lisbon

- Cabo da Roca, a beautiful cape which is the westernmost point in continental Europe