Hello!
I am day 3 of my 11 day trip in Europe, I originally planned this trip for my 28th birthday but because I moved in December, I couldn’t afford it.
When my father passed in n March, I figured I’d just go and get away from the stress of my day to day and begin enjoying myself.
I’m writing this sitting at the train station in Lisbon and I remember writing a blog post at this same place the last time I was here lol.
Okay, let’s get with the story!
For this trip, I decided to stay at a hostel and not a hotel— again, I didn’t have all the money in the world or a ton of saving so I figured the best way I could save money is staying in a hostel. I hadn’t done this before so I did a bunch of research to find a good one. I will not mention the name right now because humans are weird but when I leave, I will mention where I stayed.
I booked my hostel on HostelWorld. I paid like $20-$30 to book the stay and then paid for the full trip when I arrived.
The hostel I’m in is clean and the hosts are really nice. This place offers breakfast for 5€, there’s a bar, free WiFi and a nice seating area. Every night they have a pub crawl, they offer walking tours around the area and trips up to sintra and the beach.
On my day one, I went on the walking tour, they only ask that you tip the tour guide. I’m gonna leave some pics of the tour below. My guide was funny and kind, she took us to some really great spots, we had lil munchies. It was incredibly hot so she made sure we always had water and that we were in the shade as often as we could. She left us by a flea market that is only open on tuesdays and Sundays. It was such a nice way to end the trip. Most of the people on the tour mentioned joining in the pub crawl and I said I’d go but only after my nap… my nap lasted 5 hours and when I woke up, I heard a bunch of frat boys cheering and figured getting late night tacos was a much better idea.
I love the prices here, I went to this place for my tacos and ended up paying 30€ for two margaritas and three tacos. As a New Yorker, paying that and it not being a happy hour was a thrill so I skipped out on the pub crawl the second night and ended up getting late night tacos again. I ended up meeting two guys on my walk back to my hostel and have a fun night out.
But going back to what I did during the second day in Portugal— I saw a TikTok that showed all the great foods that were offered in Lisbon and I saw a lobster roll in that video. You don’t know this but I’ve started a series on lobster rolls that I plan on sharing soon. It’s me traveling around and trying out rolls in different places so I had to go try it. Unfortunately, it was at the time out market so I knew I wouldn’t be eating local but I still wanted to know what they had to offer. The walk there was EXHAUSTING and I plan on posting a YouTube video of me huffing and puffing up the hill. When I finally arrived, I was a bit in awe of all the yummy foods I got to try. I got a sangria from Taylor’s Port stand because I thought it was funny (iykyk) then I went to get me some oysters and sushi. It was sooooo good and I was sooooo excited. After, I felt I was ready enough to get a lobster roll from ground burger… unfortunately they had just run out of the rolls 
.
I had already decided I wanted to go to the contemporary museum before heading back because it was a comfortable stop on my way back to the hostel but now I just HAD to include a place to get a lobster roll. I googled it and found a place that was just a little off the path so I went and stopped there. It just happened to be one of the fanciest places ever! It was such a beautiful atmosphere and while there, I realized that they did not have lobster ROLLS! But they did have lobster TAQUITOS which was hilarious. The taquitos were yummy and I finished off my meal with a pistachio crème brûlée. The food and the staff here was delicious and even though it wasn’t what I asked for, I am more that happy that I went.
The museum was so much fun, they’d just opened and it was full of such beautiful art work and great historical information.
It’s been basically 100 degrees here so after all that walking in the sun, I went back to the hostel, showered and knocked out. I woke up to the sounds of karaoke from the lobby and chuckled to myself as I heard someone singing shaggy “it wasn’t me”. I got myself dressed and headed over to my taco spot. My goal was to eat and then go to bed and watch movies but things took a turn and I ended up hanging out with strangers until 2 am.
Today makes day three and after I showered and got in bed at 3am, I couldn’t sleep because one of my hostel mates snored the WHOLE NIGHT! I didn’t sleep until 5am. I’d planned on arriving in Sintra at 9am so that I could wander around the castles but I didn’t wake up fully until 12. I grabbed some breakfast, got myself a ticket and I am typing my journey so far on the train to Sintra! Tonight I have a reservation to a place I went to last year that was so good. Surprisingly, I don’t care much about visiting the castles. I think I’d only do it because it’s what I’m “supposed to do” if I could wander around castle for free, I’d be down but it’s between 15€-50€ for various tours or just for entry and that doesn’t sound fun for me. I think I want to walk around and just look at the architecture. I guess we’ll see where the wind blows.
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