lisbon, portugal

Lisbon.

Lisboa.

My hometown, yet sometimes i feel i don’t know it anymore… so i get to experience it all over again as a tourist!

Since its been too long since i lived in Portugal, i always end up doing some kind of tourism when i’m back. Either to walk around Baixa and Chiado, or to visit Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. These things have been there for centuries, so its safe to say i can still give you a proper tourism guide.

The best way to split a tour through Lisbon is by areas, since you actually have more than “one center” of town.

 

Avenida da Liberdade and Baixa:

Luxury shopping district, and one of the main centers of the city.

– Avenida da Liberdade (full of expensive and gorgeous shops, many of them located in old palaces)

– Praça do Rossio & Rossio Station (gorgeous!)

(From Terreiro do Paço you can walk towards Cais do Sodré through the new pathways)

– Praça da Figueira

– Rua Augusta

– Museu do Design

– Terreiro do Paço (with gorgeous views of the river, and full of fantastic restaurants in a huge piazza).

Chiado and Bairro Alto:

Gorgeous houses, old churches, palaces, shops and still one of the most hip areas in Lisbon.

– Praça Camões, and above that there Bairro Alto (a lot of very cool small streets with some really cool small shops)

– Largo do Carmo & Convento do Carmo

– Elevator de Santa Justa

– Palácio Chiado (+- in front there’s an amazing view of the city!! In a Miradouro)

– Then just continue up to Principe Real, and make sure to stop in the Embaixada, a new retail area, inside one of the most beautiful buildings in the area.

Alfama and Castelo:

One of the oldest areas in Lisbon, and with some of the most typical tiny streets, narrow alleys, and very high stairs.

– Casa dos Bicos

– then walk up to Sé de Lisboa

– all the way up to Castelo de São Jorge (Saint Jorge’s Castle)

– you will pass through a few “Miradouros” with awesome views

– Panteão Nacional

– if you are there in a weekend you could go to Feira da Ladra, nearby, an interesting cool flee market

– on the way to the Castle, theres a lot of very cool streets, so you must get lost here and just walk around!

Belém:

One of the oldest areas in Lisbon, that houses some of the most iconic buildings in town.

– Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

– Pastéis de Belém (the most well know portuguese egg tarts shop in the world!)

– Torre de Belém

– CCB (museum/exhibition centre, check whats on in september!)

– MAAT (the new super cool museum of art, architecture and technology)

– Museum da Electricidade (even if its jut for the building itself, next to MAAT)

Expo:

This is a relatively new area of the city, built for the Expo’98, and then revamped as a business and residential area.

– Oceanario de Lisboa, Aquarium

– Pavilhão do Conhecimento and Ciência Viva, both Science Museums

– Just walk around the river, with gorgeous sceneries of Ponte Vasco da Gama (the longest bridge in Europe)

 

And there are several other areas in Lisbon, some more residential, others less, just rent a car and drive around town, its better a Smart so you can have more luck for parking.

A bit further drive South to Tróia and Comporta for fantastic beaches.

Or Northwest to Cascais and Sintra, that is absolutely gorgeous, and will eventually have its own Post.. but you can check a preview below to see what you are missing!

istanbul, turkey

Once again a “stop over”, i decided to stay 2 nights in Istanbul on my way to Lisbon, and my only regret is that i didn’t do it sooner.
I landed in the airport SUPER early – 5.30am, which made it impossible to check-in in my hotel. So i just dropped my luggage, and walked up to Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque, and i have to say that these were the most amazing photos i took, the colors of the sky during sunrise were just gorgeous. Of course you cant go inside until 8.30am, but totally worth walking around. I ended up having breakfast in the only place nearby that was opened at 6.30am, and ended up going there everyday. Just great Turkish breakfast!

Once it was a normal time to do some tourism, i started my proper visit,
1. Topkapi Palace

2. Hagia Irene
3. Hagia Sophia
4. Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque): just gorgeous,
5. Basilica Cistern: this place has this mysterious feel that makes it a must go to.
6. Grand Bazaar: just amazing, i got some awesome kilim cushions for a great price. Cotton and Bamboo scarves, trows and towels are also a must buy in Istanbul, and at great prices.
7. Theodosius Cistern (Serefiye Sarnici): gorgeous, and newly restored, with a modern glazed building around it.

8. Spice Bazaar: just fantastic experience, you can definitely find great things here, but i would say don’t buy inside the bazaar, the prices are multiplied by 4, check it, see what you like, and then go to the outside part of the bazaar, for 25% of the price (the peanuts with honey and seeds was my absolute favorite!).
9. Süleymaniye Mosque: one of my favorite spots, just gorgeous mosque, and great views over Galata.

On the other side of the Golden Horn:
– Dolmabahçe Palace
– Gataca Tower: for great views of the city, make sure to take your time, and don’t look only through your camera lenses. Be prepared to queue quite a bit for it though, early morning is the ideal time. The buildings and streets around the Galata Tower are worth taking a couple of strolls around, they have that Mediterranean port city feel. Nearby there is a great cheese and wine place – Sensus Wine Boutique Galata, great local cold cuts and cheese, and of course, local wine. You can ask them to make a platter with different types, so you can try different stuff.

kotor, montenegro

half a day tour in Kotor

One of the great things about my job is the traveling. And in the past few years I got to travel a bit, and to some places that didn’t originally belong to my “go-to-list” and should’ve!

The last of them was Montenegro.

I had to travel there for a two day meeting, so just added an extra day to the trip so I could take a quick look at Kotor.

Montenegro is an off-the-beaten-track country for most Europeans, but it’s becoming more and more well known, and the Bay of Kotor is becoming specially interesting for summer holidays, not only because of the “beaches”, and Mediterranean feel along the lake, but also due to the gorgeous sites specially of the old town of Kotor.

We took a gorgeous route all the way to our meeting, passing by lots of mountains, coast, the beautiful Sveti Stefan, and all around the amazing Bay of Kotor, that feels like some sort of fjord rather than ‘just’ a bay.

Even though I only stopped for a quick photo, Sveti Stefan is a fisherman’s village turned into luxurious apartments in the 50s by a group of architects and artists. In the 70s was popular to celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and Kirk Douglas.

In 2007 Aman Resorts leased Sveti Stefan for the next 30 years, and now operates the island as a private resort. Proud to say that the renovation project and design, was designed by the office I work for now!

In the Bay of Kotor there are several picturesque towns, one of the most amazing is Kotor itself, as well as two very small islands in the middle of the Bay – Our Lady of the Rocks. This whole area has been part of UNESCO World Heritage, for its unique history and richness of architecture.

As for Kotor, I was first drawn to it because of the fortifications along the mountains, our driver told us that we can climbed steps of several old fortresses all the way to the top, researching a bit in the hotel, I decided this is what I was going to visit in my last 8 hours in Montenegro!

I was a bit jet lagged, which was actually perfect, because I woke up at 6AM, and by 9AM I was already in Kotor to start my tour! I dropped my luggage in the train station, they have a small room in the station, and for 2euros they kept my bags the whole day.

I walked through Kotor’s Old Town, a beautiful medieval town, with stone wall buildings and pathways, with surprises in every corner, including the Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, built in 1166.

To start the 1350 steps steep climb you have to pay a small sum, and then you can go all the way up till San Giovanni’s Fortress. Kotor’s fortifications are since 1979 an UNESCO World Heritage site, where you can see beautiful architecture with styles varying from Illyricum, Byzantium, Venice and Austria. Which include ramparts, towers, citadels, gates, bastions, forts, cisterns and a castle.

Needless to say it was freezing, this was October 2016, and I have been living in Malaysia for more than 4 years, so any temperature under 24°C is enough for me to start complaining. I had 4 layers of shirts, cardigans and a trench coat, which were progressively striped out, because with all the climbing and the bright sunlight, it was enough to keep me warm!

I won’t explain much more, or show too much, because no photo will make justice to the fabulous views throughout the climb, just two words: WORTH IT!!

Once I reached back to Old Town, I was starving and had an amazing lunch at Luna Rossa, that has the cutest terrace ever.

After lunch, I didn’t have much more time, so it was a matter of grabbing my luggage, hailing a cab, and driving to the strange Tvrđava Goražde, or Fort Gorazda, an Austro-Hungarian fortification near Kotor. A newer structure was built between 1884–86, replacing an older building.

The fort was used not only in the First World War by the Austrians, but also by the Yugoslav army until early 90’s. Now its abandoned, although I did see some kind of very minor renovation works going on inside.

In the roof you can also see an odd looking feature, a 100-ton Gruson rotating turret, that was used for the last remaining example of its type – for a war ignorant like me, this is basically a big rotating gun (image below!).

Rotating Turrent section from: https://www.911metallurgist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Cross-Section-of-Turret.png

So if you can, wonder around, and climb up to the roof to see this weird looking piece, and for an amazing view of the whole Bay of Kotor and the Adriatic Sea.

After this, it was time to drive back to the Airport for another long flight back to Southeast Asia.

Not bad for 8hours in Montenegro!