The first class carriage on the night train was not entirely as grand as we expected, but it was still rather nice. A comfy little 2 seat/bed cabin just for us! After not being able to agree on what to have for dinner, we had a gin and caught up on some Breaking Bad and tried to bed down for the night - which is quite difficult sometimes on a train!

We got a bit confused with the time differences so our alarm went off a little earlier than expected (about 5.30am rather than 6.30), but meant that we could get up and have a leisurely breakfast and avoid the rush. We arrived in Lisbon at 7.30 and headed straight up to our new place…we were located in the Graca district which (apparently) is the oldest part of town…and also the highest. Wow that was a steep climb up a cobbled hill with our big bags…did we mention that it was quite warm already at that time of the morning!? Still, we made it and checked in with our new host…well, her Aunt - a sweet little Portuguese lady who didn't speak a word of English - we all managed though!

Our apartment was lovely, had a nice terrace and loads of room…but it wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we used this as an opportunity to go for a wander and see what Lisbon had to offer us…Hashish apparently! Once we hit the main square (and all before 10am!) we'd been offered hashish about 3 times. Needless to say, we politely declined and walked on!

Our style of exploring is not very structured - we've been on tripadvisor quite a bit looking at things to do in a place, then we head out with a map and try and find them - sometimes this is successful. We headed away from the bustle of the main square and walked up to the Palace of Justice - once at the top, there's a beautiful view down into Lisbon towards the sea. From there we tried to find a monument that had been highly rated…hmm. Where the map was telling us to go turned out to be a shopping centre…so we gave up and had a bite to eat and a nice 'refreshing' glass of limonada - this was not lemonade - it was freshly squeezed lemon juice, possibly sweetened with a little sugar. Funnily enough as we were on the train out of Lisbon a few days later, we found said monument - on the other side of the water and not in Lisbon at all!

It was beginning to get pretty hot, so we headed back to our apartment for a bit of a rest and freshen up. On the way down the hill, Podgi had a bit of a funny turn - might have been looking at all the cobbles! So when we finally made it back to our area, we ducked into the nearest supermarket for supplies and headed home…unfortunately the rest of the day was a bit of a write off. A combination of the heat and a few nights of rubbish sleep left us both feeling a bit lethargic.

14 hours sleep later and both feeling much better, it was time to go out and…oh. No exploring today! Luckily a couple of our friends were in Portugal not far away for a wedding, so they popped across to see us for the day. Today was a day of eating and drinking our way around Lisbon. In actual fact the eating part only involved one restaurant, but the tapas was amazing! (for anyone planning on going to Lisbon, find del Prata 52. If they don't have a table then wait).

Quicker than we'd have liked, our time in Lisbon came to an end and we were off on the road (well, train) again to Ferragudo to see The Blacks/Oliver-Blacks for some well-earned beach time!

Adeus…or if you live in Brazil - Até logo J

xx