European Christmas Holiday 2017 - Lisbon & Porto, Portugal

8 hours later, I arrived in Lisbon Oriental Station and took the Green Sintra Line to Entrecampos. After checking into the VIP Grand Lisboa, I was on the way searching for dinner. The hotel was well located, near a stop of the very efficient and comprehensive Metro system. At Alameda, I stumbled across a very creative Christmas light show projected upon the the aptly named Illumination Fountain. Failing to find the right restaurant which could accommodate me on a surprisingly busy Thursday night, I ventured onto the 735 bus from Praca do Chile to Santa Apolonia to meet a last minute reservation at Agulha no Palheiro. The bus ride passed throught the Alfama district, down the hills and passing some very old buildings. Very hungry by the time I arrived the restaurant, I had sardines as starters - not just the simple grilled sardines as I thought it was going to be but slightly fancified... still good. The first taste of my Pork Belly mains reminded me of Kau Yoke, a Hakka steamed pork dish. The pork belly I had was not as tender as expected but it was complemented by a mushroom sauce made it really tasty. Then, biting on, there were chestnuts, button mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, dried olives? and asparagus which were hidden under the pork and the darkness. This created a very unique variation from the normal sauces and accompaniments.

The inclines of the Alfama district

After dinner, I walked along the bottom part of the Alfama area, saw the old city gates, and ended up at the Centro Comercial Square. Decided to walk a bit more towards the Baixa-Chiado metro stop, took the blue line to Marques de Pombal to transfer to the yellow line back to Campo Pequeno - this journey is going to be my commute in Lisbon for the next day as well. Once arriving in Campo Pequeno, I was greeted by a very well lit old bullring turned into a shopping centre.

Centro Comercial Square at Christmas time

22nd December Doing the same journey in the opposite direction on Metro, I discovered that Marques do pompal, which my interchage station, is a station named after the first minister who rebuilt Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake. I made it to the 10 o'clock Sandemans free tour of Lisbon where we walked up and down the hills, learning about the history of Lisbon, and also Portuguese neutrality during World War II and her subsequent dictatorships.

After the tour, the tour guide dragged this solo traveller along for lunch at Ne Ne, a local restaurant which has maintained its charm in the tourist centre where an Açorda de Marisco, corn bread with prawns, was ordered for me - it was an excellent choice. Thank you Gui, who was my tour guide in the morning and also in the afternoon for the tour to Belem. I chose this tour as it involved a little bit more on the colonial history of Portugal and featured Alfonso de Albuquerque, a character I met long time ago when learning Malaysian history in high school - how could I pass this opportunity!

Belem Tower at Dusk

We took a train to Belem and walked around Belem, learning a lot about the history of the Portuguese conquests and also lots on Albuquerque, who was the admiral who succesfully conquered Goa and and also Malacca, along with other "Portuguese Possessions" during the colonial era. The tour ended with a beautiful sunset along the Tagus River. Gui then pointed us to the pattiserie that sold the original Pastis de Belem (Portuguest Egg Tart). He even waited for some of us around to make sure we knew where to go and what to do. With the tarts in my hands in a well packed box and with extra cinnamon packets, I headed back to the supermarket to get beers and chocolate as dessert after some Brazilian food for dinner. It was beers and Pastis de Belem for late night snacks in the hotel!

23rd December 2017 Woke up at a decent time, packed, got the hotel to print out my Ryanair boarding pass, checked out, but was 1 hour early for the train. Walked around the area around the station for a bit in a very foggy morning but there was not much to see; therefore, I Netflixed in the cold platform for half an hour. I got into the train, heading to the tourist class carriage but forgot that I had booked myself on the comfort class. After finding my seat, I saw old ladies struggle with seats and luggage while I made myself comfortable with a charging dock, chocolates, and water. I did not realise there were complimentary coffee, juice, water, Portuguese newspaper and magazines as well on Comfort Class - a small win!

Arriving in Porto Campagnha, I bought an Andante 24 hour ticket after struggling to figure out what zone the airport is at (hopefully its Zone 4) and then took the train to Porto Sao Bento. From there, I took the 500 bus directly to the front of the hotel. Hotel Vincci Porto. This hotel would better fit the description of contemporary and modern than the one in Lisbon which was standard Business hotel. After checking in, headed back out, walked along the river a bit but then caught the 500 bus again to get to Placa do Libertade for the free Porto Walk tour. Compared to the previous tour in Lisbon, there was a slightly different focus on.this tour - instead of too much history, it focused on the the development of the city - how the city centre collapsed but then redeveloped again due to tourism. This has also led to the reurbanisation of the city centre, which is good to see. Locals are now coming back to the city centre. Not sure whether the word gentrification works here but it is revitalising the old buildings and bringing back more life to the old city centre. Even McDonalds is trying to catch on the trend as the Porto McDonalds is apparently the most beautiful McD in the world as it maintained the decor of an old restaurant. In addition, the tour also revealed that Porto was an important city for the Harry Potter series. JK Rowling taught English here and said to get a lot of her inspiration from her time here such as the Bookshop in Diagon Alley and Sirius Blacks house. There were in fact similar buildings in Porto as portrayed in the book and film. One question left unanswered from the tour for me is why so many people moved out of the city in the first place.

Note the door in the middle of the two different churches - is it 12 Grimmauld Place?

After the tour, I then walked on the bridge to get to the other city across the river, Gaia Nova, to checkout the view of Porto from across the river. There were also lots of wineries for Port wine but I will leave this for the next trip and I don't really like Port wine anyway. After getting back to Porto, took the 500 back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice chill dinner at the hotel. I was thinking of venturing further to the beachside and have the seafood there but was a bit tired after all the walking. I did not miss out on the Portuguese wine as I had thier house wine, Burmester, which I did walk pass earlier at Gaia. The restaurant also gave a complimentary pre starter egg with some meat mousse and cheese. Then, I moved on to a leek soup with really fresh prawns that was grilled perfectly. Then came the main course, the sea bass with tastes of the sea.... I know... it sounds weird... but its so apt.... the saltiness of the sea wrapped the accompanying vegetables... and hidden under the vegetables, in the bottom of the sea if you may, is a huge mussel!!! The sea bass was again perfectly grilled.... if I have a complain, it tasted too much like the sea.

24th December 2017

It was unfortunately the last day of my European Christmas adventure. I packed up, had Nespresso from the machine in the room. After checking out, I caught the 500 bus once again but this time heading all the way to Sao Bento to catch the yellow metro to get to Trinidade to catch the purple metro to the airport. This was the testing time to see whether I got the right andante card! All was good but still unsure whats the logic in having so many different designations of zones and subzones. At the airport, I also did my last minute Christmas shopping. Then finally had a Framcesinha... such an awesome sandwich with gravy, cheese, beef, ham, sausage - everything you need in a sandwich. And a beer of course! Tagus this time which tastes like Tiger.