Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon, ah, another great European city that stole my heart like Prague did. I recommend this city as another great tourist spot although compared to Prague it does not have the fabulous music arts and easy city transit system. It does however have an abundance of cheap Uber.
Everyone I talked to loved Lisbon although my fellow remotes got a bit tired of the rain towards the end of the month. While the architecture is old a beautiful and don’t forget the gorgeous tiles, Lisbon also had some very cool new architecture that was very interesting. The city is playing catchup and is very much under construction now to make up for years of neglect and to support the booming tourist industry. Still beautiful, with lots of similarities to SF—hills galore (7 famous ones) hills, waterfront and what looks like a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. Lisbon is vibrant —there’s an energy - and it has lots of great cafes, wine bars, street art and clubs (nope I did not go—they start after 11pm!
For me, I’ll never forget the people. They were the best part. They tend to be warm, helpful to tourists, good English speakers, and quite laid back (especially after Prague people). The Portuguese love their dogs like the folks in Prague, but are also very laid back about picking up after them. Smoking is everywhere –which was hard for our group as we thought smoking was quite passe now. The wines and Ports of Portugal were reasonable and excellent—I especially liked wines from the Douro region.
Expats and digital nomads rush back to Lisbon it seems. The expat community is thriving there. Their annual Web Summit puts Lisbon on the map with its 70K visitors all talking web apps/internet/AI/Innovation/Cyber etc. Accenture has a lovely office there—very glitzy—it looks like a castle tower done in a bronzy glass.
My apt was in an upscale area but believe me you’d not believe it to see it. When the taxi driver first brought me there I was there it was in error and would not get out of this car. Poor man. The apt was actually in a nice area by the French embassy and some lovely cafes and restaurants —essentially hidden down back alley streets that you just wouldn’t walk unless you were following google maps to a highly rated restaurant.
One of the highlights of this month was getting to know the Lucitano horse breed and riding bikes along the ocean to a fisherman’s house then having lunch in his living room with his family and some of our remotes. I will write a short recap of both in the Experiences.
As always, it was hard to say good-bye to Lisbon but again it is a city I could easily go back to for work or play. This city certainly grew on me while I lived and worked there.