I was super excited to head to Lisbon from Barcelona! My flight landed at around 9pm so by the time I got out of the airport, worked out the metro and got to my accommodation it was around 10:30pm. I was sooo tired and couldn’t wait to lay down and get some sleep. It was karaoke night at the hostel I was staying at and the temptation to go and get involved was unreal (anyone who knows me knows that Shania Twain is my jam on karaoke!), but I realised how sleepy I was and made the sensible decision to go straight to bed.

Day one was a wander day as always, I headed to the Time Out Market and then on to Pink Street. From here I headed to Bairro Alto to check out some of the different sights and really just take in the setting. I didn’t really have an agenda for Lisbon, it was just somewhere I wanted to go. I guess this made this a nice trip as I wasn’t feeling like I had to set a solid agenda to see everything that I wanted to within a set period of time and actually had the chance to go wiht the flow a bit more and just see what took my fancy at different points.

Day one also consisted of a bit of time chilling in the sunshine, my hostel was part of a chain and the one down the road had a rooftop bar and pool which was incredibly inviting so I hung out there for a bit, but clearly didn’t top my suncream up enough as by the time I got back I was lobster red and everything that was red, hurt to touch.

Day two I came over really poorly. It wasn’t great. I came over with a full on cold and felt like my head was going to explode. I definitely think it was sun stroke. I had a bit of a down day (they can happen!) and was starting to get annoyed that I had no energy to go out and do some of the things I’d planned and almost that I was wasting a day. I tried to go out but ended up back at my hostel only an hour later because of how poorly I felt so just listened to my body and took some time to chill in the lounge, put a film on, edit some photos and finish my blog post for Barcelona.

I eventually headed out again at around 3pm, still not feeling 100%, but better than I was in the morning and started wandering towards Santa Cruz, Alfama and Graça to check out the areas. Alfama and Graça are more of the ‘old town’ Lisbon so it was nice to see some more traditional areas, I checked out Lisbon Cathedral and found somewhere nice to grab a drink before continuing, remembering what everyone always says that taking it slow isn’t a bad thing and you don’t need to go at 100mph everyday, no matter how much I think I do.

Day three I headed to Sintra, I had planned to do this yesterday but I’m glad I held off as I woke up feeling a little bit better so jumped on a train and headed out of the city. The town was so beautiful, it was super colourful and really quaint and small. There was cute shops with lots of different pottery and art and sculptures, as well as little independent coffee shops and restaurants which looked stunning.

One of the places I was super eager to go to was Palácio Nacional de Pena so I headed there as soon as I got off the train, I’d already booked a ticket to enter the Palace so spent some time beforehand looking around the gardens, which were also incredible. First thing. It looked exactly like the pictures. It was bright and colourful and stunning to walk around. I spent a few hours here looking around the different bits inside and out. The inside was incredible, as was the outside with the different architecture, colour and vibrancy compared the green surroundings of all the trees and the village in the distance. After a day exploring I hopped back on a train into Libson for the night.

I met a girl in my dorm from Oxford so we headed out for some drinks to a cool bar at night, the bar we went to was super quirky, it had loads of trinkets dotted around, lots of things on the walls and was a really vintage style vibe. We got chatting to a few other people and it very quickly went from a few drinks to a night out. I’ve done far too many trips to know that I should never go on a night out on my final night of a trip, I am yet to learn my lesson though, and flying with a hangover is not fun.

Day four, my final day, involved a quick stop at Village Underground LX Factory in Alcântara-Mar. I was feeling a little rough when I woke up, a few too many bevvies the night before maybe, but I had to check-out by 10am so dragged myself out of bed and packed my stuff up ready to go. I left my bag at the hostel to head out and I’m so glad I came here! The street art and the vibe was insane! I treated myself to an orange juice as this was the only thing I could stomach and wandered around taking in the art and the environment that surrounded me. It was lots of fun.

Before long I was heading to the airport for my flight back to England. Currently sat in the airport high on life (and slightly hungover) finishing this post and doing some editing after nine days of adventuring and exploring and even more in love with what the world has to offer. More adventures soon I’m sure, speak soon. Mads x