Lisbon - In which I eat a lot of pastry and am moved to tears by marine biology

This past weekend a couple of friends and I took our long weekend to go visit our next door neighbor, Portugal. Lisbon was never on my list of places that I wanted to go, but with the fervent assurance of a friend that this city was highly underrated, I packed my bags, hopped a night bus, and hoped for the best. Despite my complete lack ignorance of all things Portuguese, this city was an incredibly pleasant surprise.

The great thing about Lisbon is that it is a port city with a ton of history. The monument of Prince Henry the Navigator leading the explorers of Portugal onward was actually pretty moving, and the water, albeit water from a river, adds a wonderful ambience to this city.

That's actually kind of what this city is all about: ambience. Lisbon has a sort of decrepit elegance to it. One friend equated it to a college version of Paris: you can tell that it is elegant and beautiful, but it's also slightly overused and worn down, but in a there is tons of energy surging everywhere kind of way. Old beautiful buildings have broken windows and weeds growing out of the roofs, and still other buildings are covered in beautifully manicured tiles, mostly blue, that I have not had the pleasure of seeing anywhere else.

Graffiti covers a lot of the walls through Lisbon, and although workers come and paint over it pretty frequently (I personally witnessed the wall below getting cleaned up) it just adds to some of the life of the city rather than seeming like a blight on an otherwise perfectly manicured European painting.

In fact, some of the things painted on the walls made me chuckle. Here you can clearly see the tourist with his large camera in front, completely unaware of the beautiful woman with her hands in his backpack. Apparently in Lisbon, pickpockets are most often women dressed as tourists themselves who turn out to be just a bit too friendly.

This hopeless romantic wanted to let their sweetheart know that they write on walls for them.

But although Lisbon can border on the grungy side, as cool as that ambience is, it also has some absolutely breathtaking parts of the city that murmur European elegance. The trams are a cool way to get around town, and the buildings by the river are elegant and grand.

The people of Lisbon do have a tongue in cheek sense of humor. They credit a lot of their language and culture to the 20 year French occupation of Portugal, an invasion that was led by, who else, Napoleon. The king of Portugal apparently hightailed it out, so when they erected a statue to him, they made his horse face the ocean as if the king is abandoning Portugal, just as he did years ago.

No trip to Portugal is complete without a taste of this famous pastry, pastel de nata. This is basically puff pastry filled with custard. I was skeptical at first, but by the end of the weekend I was a very enthusiastic convert. Insider's tip: though you usually get them plain, they are absolutely fantastic with cinnamon and powdered sugar on top, and the best ones are in Belem, where they were first created.

While visiting the birthplace of pastel de nata, we also stopped in to Jerónimo's Monastery. Though we didn't go into the cloisters, the church was an absolutely breathtaking gothic cathedral. After being saturated by baroque cathedrals in Spain, this was a pleasant change, and a nice break from the blinding glare of gold leaf.

This is also the resting place of Vasco da Gama, the first European who sailed across the ocean to reach India rather than crossing over the continent.

Just a ways down the road was the Tower of Belem, which looks a lot like Cair Paravel, from the Chronicles of Narnia. One thing I can't recommend Lisbon for: the weather. This was the only bit of sun we had when we were actually in the city, but when the sun comes out the city practically sings.

I also managed to take the metro up town to visit the famous Lisbon Oceanarium. This is one of the largest aquariums in Europe, was an incredibly good deal, and was absolutely beautiful. A particular highlight: the sunfish. Most aquariums don't house sunfish because they are incredibly large and require very specific ecological conditions in their tanks, but these two enormous fish sailed around the central tank, reminding us of just how large the ocean is and how small we are in comparison. I'm not ashamed to say I almost cried. There are photos to prove it.

I came to Lisbon skeptical, but am glad to say I left pretty much enamored with this city. The Portuguese people were warm and welcoming, the food spectacular, the the city filled with pockets of ambience. Though this city is not on many people's radar for places to visit on a European vacation, I am incredibly glad that I got the opportunity to experience it.