Day 5: Alfama

Day 5 started quite late. We tried to find a  breakfast place, I quite fancied a cup of cappuccino and a chocolate croissant, my usual morning routine here as it seems. Near our hotel all the restaurant look the same- few tables outside, a waiter quite aggressively tries to 'invite you' to sit in and shows the menu with photos of the offered food. Most of the menus look pretty much exactly identical, have quite weird combination of ingredients (they seem to love putting an egg on a steak here) and I suspect are not gourmet quality... Since when did I become so picky with my food?😂 The problem arises if you want to add something in or take out of the offered meal option. C doesn't eat cheese, which I think is quite bizarre but Portuguese waiters found quite shocking.😃 Nonetheless, it is possible to find really good food in Portugal, we really enjoyed another visit to Time Out Market and a pizzeria Dama E Vagabond (near Praca do Rossio) but definitely you'll be in heaven if you a seafood amateur (which we, sadly, are not fans of).🐙🍤

We manage to eat something, then we decided to go to Alfama, one of the most recommended Losbon's districts, full of little streets, beautiful tiled buildings (azulejos), local crafts and arts and charming electronic taxi cars, running everywhere where there are tourists. We decided to take the famous tram no.28 to access the castle and other tourist areas, but it was extremely packed! (In fairness the guide book had warned us). So we walked back to the previous stop  hoping it would be less busy...and we went back 3 stops in total! No luck! Eventually we decided to take a taxi to the first stop on the line... About 20 other people had the same idea, in fact a taxi dropping people showed up at least 3 times since we arrived🚖... And we waited and waited for the famous tram🚃... After about 30 minutes we gave up and took a taxi directly to the castle! I have probably taken more taxis during my stay in Portugal then during the rest of my life combined 😅. In retrospect I think what happened is some trams went to the final stop where we waited, but quite a few finished their run in Estrela, a few stations before. I just realised when we passed a few trams with Estrela sign on them, contrary to what the schedule suggested... 

Ride to the castle was something else- Lisbon's streets are very narrow and steep, quite scary to walk around, not mentioning driving! Our driver must have been really experienced, since he managed to overcome traffic, turn in apparently prohibited streets and speed up the hills, all while talking on the phone!

The castle(Castelo de Sao Jorge) was truly impressive- it was built over a thousand years ago and during its history  was conquered multiple times...at this stage only the walls of this monumental building are left but even now it seems unbelievable that someone would be able to conquer it, particularly before the times  of powder guns and cannons! 💣 The view of the city is breathtaking, and it's really worth visiting, especially because they accept student cards😉

After the castle we walked to Sé Cathedral, and wandered down the streets of picturesque Alfama. 

I even managed to get something from my 'cosmetic shopping list'- we found Kiko and Sephora😍

And at night time we went for our last 'Lisbon by night' excursion and we found an amazing ice cream place- Amorino- you could pick as many flavours of the ice cream as you wanted and they made a rose out of it. Ours consisted mainly of chocolate😃 It was delish! 🍦