Spend 2 (and 1/2!) days in Lisbon with me.

Spend Saturday and Sunday with me in Lisbon-- let's see how far a year of Portuguese study will get me. 😉

Bom dia from Portugal! This letter is very image heavy and won’t load properly in your email. Click here to view in browser.

I wasn’t going to include Friday in this “weekend in the life,” but then I had such a unique evening that I simply had to add it— forgive me for it’s heavy on words and light on pictures! But Friday is the “half” in our 2 and a half days in Lisbon.

A half (Friday!)

We get to Lisbon on Friday evening after a long but very pleasant drive from my fiancé’s mom’s home up in Northern Portugal. It was one of those nights where we accidentally walked 16,000 steps and spent 2 hours inside the world’s second largest Zara and then realized we were beyond hangry.

After trying and striking out at 3 different restaurants, João finally is able to finagle a table for us at a tasca near our hotel in Alfama— but then as soon as we get to the table he changes his mind and makes us leave. I’m shocked, confused, and the kind of hangry where I’m pretty much about to cook him.

Where I was when the hanger gripped me with both its hands.

We pop into a fifth place around the corner (A Tasca do Chico) and manage to get a table after a group missed their reservation. The waitress is a character and she just starts setting down plates. We’re so hungry we eat without thinking much of it— though at some point it becomes clear that you don’t order from a menu at this restaurant. It’s all home cooking, and every restaurant patron gets served the same dish at the same time— family style. We’re crammed in at a tiny wooden table and bench that is definitely far from comfortable, but two jugs of the house white dull that ache.

Halfway through our fish, they turn the lights off and light a bunch of pewter candelabras… and then, surprise, the music begins! The restaurant ceases to operate as the staff goes outside for sangria and a cigarette. Fado is a traditional Portuguese music that’s accompanied by guitar— the neighborhood we like to stay in in Lisbon is all Fado joints and Fado museums. And yet… this is my first time ever listening to any of it live!

There’s another course, then we end up sitting with the singer’s father— who then joins him to sing!— and then another singer and his 95 year old mother. Then the owner steps out to sing a song… and then our waitress! The whole thing was live music and a five course meal for €35 each, and we’d never have found it (or honestly probably signed up for it) if we hadn’t wandered aimlessly looking for dinner in Lisbon without any cell reception.

Saturday

Busy morning! There are a lot of “Saturday-only” things that have to be done today if we hope to do them at all on our trip. I get dressed for a scorching day— J.Crew boxy tee I waxed poetic about here and tailored boxer shorts. I get to wear the necklace I made with the beads from my Etsy plug and stack with some old J.Crew and Safsafu necklaces my best friend got me a few years ago. On my feet: my Lilly Sisto x Viani boat shoe espadrilles with paracord… and we’re off!

First we head to Casa São Miguel, a bakery we’ve never tried before— I heard that these were some of the best, and it’s a really cute spot. They have all kinds of baked goods that are less common and my only regret is that we never made it back to try more! From there, we hop into an Uber to Belém— all the way across town— where I’m dragging João to a jewelry store that we haven’t managed to get to the last two times we were in Lisbon, Julianna Bezerra.

Natas and Julianna Bezerra's flagship in Belém.

I had high hopes but I walk away empty handed and feeling bad for planning our day around shlepping all the way to Belém for one store! We make the most of it by walking around the residential parts of Belém, getting a grilled chicken and crusty baguette sandwich with aioli at Pão Pão Queijo Queijo and then picking up some of my favorite natas in Lisbon from Pasteis de Belém. (Always go to the non-historic takeout counter, there is never a line.)

Pasteis de Belém natas and this butter yellow beauty in Belém.

Then we Uber back to Alfama to hit Feira da Ladra, Lisbon’s big flea market. We’d never been and I was curious what treasures we’d find— truthfully, I’d recommend going only if you are mentally prepared to dig around in the scorching heat. Like fanny pack, hand sanitizer, bottle of water, IKEA bag to carry stuff home in… that vibe.

Feira da Ladra.

We were already exhausted and had arrived in Lisbon with an empty tank, so it was mostly overwhelming. I walked away with a gift for a friend and a little painted tile with João’s last name on it.

Look #2.

After this it’s to the hotel for showers and a rest in our matching hotel robes. (Necessary!) Then, after a quick change (my 100% linen Doen-y gingham tank that is really Gap Body clearance) we head to a Quiosque for a glass of wine before our dinner reservation at Gancho.

Our favorite Quiosque and delicious profiteroles at Gancho.

Sunday

Starting the day with an espresso and a nata from Belém in bed with my Kindle is pretty excellent. But there’s not much time to relax today, we have shopping to do!

I am extremely low on clean clothes so I grab that same gingham tank from last night and pull on a pair of classic Levi’s. I am sort of counting on my Lilly Sisto x Viani shoes to carry this whole outfit.

On our walk to the shops I hit Comoba, which is allegedly one of the best matchas in Lisbon. It’s good, but rubs me weird in that way where a lot of things in Lisbon exist for expats who never bother to learn Portuguese— I am maybe particularly sensitive to this because I have gotten to experience Portugal with my very Portuguese fiancé who eschews any “trendy” recommendation on TikTok or restaurant where the patrons are all speaking French or English instead of Portuguese.

Free coffee in bed and then a 7 euro matcha at Comoba... go figure.

I am inclined to agree with him and I roll my eyes pretty hard at the Americans of Lisbon who can’t be arsed to learn how to order in Portuguese— or visitors who only spend their time at places like Gancho or Comoba and never actually have real Portuguese food at a tasca… but stop me now or this letter will become about all that! And you are here for a fun and flirty “day in the life”! (Though this stuff is part of my life actually, lol.)

We hit Massimo Dutti (João has some incredible luck and I’m drooling over so much and ultimately buy nothing—SAD!! Why am I so good at self restraint???) and have a bifana (Portuguese pork sandwich) inside of a mall.

Portugal is not like America in a lot of ways but one really great way is that food from gas stations and mall food courts is actually good. You can’t judge a book by its cover here and I end up liking this bifana more than the “viral” ones there’s a long line for at As Bifanas do Afonso. (I know this for sure because I wait in a long line one again on Monday and it has nothing on the mall bifana.)

Some ugly but amazing shoes at Massimo Dutti and João's second bifana at the mall food court, lol.

After lunch we go to Portugal Jewels, which just got a write up in the New York Times four days ago. I’ve heard a lot about it and was super excited— but like Julianna Bezerra I leave a little empty handed and let down. Gah!! It is a really cool spot in an old barber shop though, and they’re super dedicated to preserving traditional Portuguese jewelry motifs. None of those motifs were calling my name, is all. Afterwards we hit Castro for what is undeniably my favorite nata in Portugal. YUM.

Portugal Jewels, which is worth a trip, and Castro, which is SOOOOOOO worth a trip!

From there, we hit shops like Nossa Concept Store (I love how everything in Europe is called a Concept Store) and a few others. We end up walking into a tile shop that we thought sold new tiles (like many other shops and the flea market did) but it turns out that D’Orey Tiles is a wonderland dedicated to antique tiles dating as far back as the 1100s. THE 1100S… Can you even imagine!?!?

More Castro natas and the first of MANY photos in my camera roll from D'Orey.

We are beyond in love with D’Orey. It’s really stunning and we can’t wait until we have a home here that we can put one of their larger tile installations in. As far as fine art and antiques go, it’s actually insane to me that you can buy a 10 foot long tiled fresco from the 1200s for like $3,000. (I’m not saying I have spent that much on art, but if I were going to, it’d definitely be on this.)

I love how the best parts of travel are not the places you plan to go but the things that you have no idea you'll stumble into along the way.

After shopping around the area and peering aggressively in the windows of an antique map and cartography shop (if only it were open on Sundays!) we make our way back to the mothership, which is the world’s second largest Zara. This is our second trip to the world’s second largest Zara in 36 hours. I know you’re thinking that this is such a hard pivot from local commerce and my commentary about authenticity in tourism, but I have to let the beauty of this Zara speak for itself…

This is a Zara.

Anyways, I don’t even like Zara and this Zara is my favorite store ever. (Besides the tile store, duh.) But we balance out the Zara by heading to a thrift shop in a neighborhood we don’t spend much time in, Amor Fati. It’s got a good selection and good prices (unlike NYC vintage) and I walk out with a pair of cute sunglasses.

A new favorite vintage store and the magic of a clean top and a little Rhode lip liner.

After that it’s time to head home for a quick rest and change. I pull on this old cotton J.Crew top, apply a little bit of the Rhode lip liner and their new lemontini lip gloss and I feel brand new. We stop for a drink outside again on our walk to dinner and try to read our books while we relax, but its impossible to not eavesdrop on the tourists next to us.

Somewhere not far from Mosteiro de São Vicente de Fora.

Then we make it to what is easily the most unique restaurant we’ve visited— Sant’Avo. The concept is that you’re dining in your Portuguese grandmother’s home, no Portuguese grandmother of your own required! I heartily recommend this one for tourists, though the owner certainly has a strong preference for folks who at least try to speak Portuguese. (I don’t blame her one bit.)

There were crochet doilies everywhere and every menu was hand transcribed in the front page of an old book.

After a delicious dinner that does indeed taste like someone’s grandma made it— one of the stews tasted like my Iranian grandma might have made it— we chit chatted with the proprietress. Emboldened by the full bottle of wine that I had consumed I spoke some Portuguese of my own and she had giggles and then sent us teacups full of moscatel on the house. It was extremely cute and lovely.

This "installation" in the bathroom telling guests that there is a lid for every pot made me cry... maybe it was the wine.

A great end to our last night in Lisbon! That said, I’m much more at ease now that we’ve left the city and are back on the coast. Something has happened to me in the last year or two and I no longer feel completely at ease or at home in a loud, dirty, noisy city— instead of feeling exciting, it just stresses me out. If this happened to anyone else in their early 30s, please let me know, lol.

Should I do another one of these next weekend in Ericeira, a town where I spend more time and is a bit more my speed? 🫶