Hi again!

We’ve been in Italy for the last few weeks and it’s quite the challenge to get good (or even working) internet in some places around here! Yes, Italy is indeed beautiful but I haven’t even written about our 2 weeks in Portugal!

So let’s talk Portugal first!

First stop: LISBON

I know this has nothing to do with Lisbon itself but I just have to tell all of you that we have been renting apartments in every city so far and to do so, we have been using a website called www.airbnb.com. This website allows you to search a city, a region or a country for apartments, rooms or even shared rooms. We rent out complete apartments but depending on your budget, you can rent a penthouse in central NYC or a shared bedroom in the south of France.

Genius idea!

Karl would want me to tell you that this website is not the first of it’s kind and that there’s a bunch of similar websites all over the world but we found this one to have the most options for us.

Why are we renting out apartments instead of hotel rooms?

Easy! I get to cook for one, but we also get to live where the real people of the city live! It’s the best way to really absorb the culture!

Anyways, I just thought I would share this with you in case you are planning a trip in the near future!

Enough blabbing! Back to Lisbon!

Karl and I were really excited to go to Portugal. I had been dreaming to go for a while and when we decided to go on this trip; we both knew that we had to go to Portugal!

We flew in from Spain and arrived in Lisbon.

Karl and I are not so bad in Spanish so when we read a bit in Portuguese, it was quite similar so we thought we weren’t going to be so bad in Portuguese after all!

Boy, how wrong we were!

We got to Lisbon and we were completely clueless when people would talk to us. It was pretty funny actually!

Despite the fact that we understood nothing of what everyone was saying, we found Lisbon to be a great city!!

We also had a great apartment (Here’s a picture of half of our kitchen! Pretty sweet and big for Europe!)

And here’s a picture of the view we had from the kitchen:

One of my favourite things; the colours of the buildings, so bright and colourful!

A major plus is this!!! It was about 14c when we went but imagine how nice it would be in the summer!

I would have to say that our favourite spot was the view from the Castello Sao Jorge.

I mean, look at the view!!! Imagine having a nice glass of wine and relaxing while watching this beautiful scenery! That’s what I call living the life!

Now you’re probably wondering about food!

We went to this typical Portuguese restaurant called Cantinho Lusitano and had an amazing meal. The server was actually the owner, along with her husband, which is the chef. The place was small and homy. The dishes were simple but very flavourful. We had a bottle of wine and enough food to roll out of there for $40!!! (I will be writing a post about this restaurant in the near future).

Definitely a must if you ever go to Lisbon!

So if you don’t mind making a fool out of you trying to speak Portuguese, Lisbon is a go!

Enjoy!

Alex

xo