Lisbon, Europe's First International City

Lisbon is a lot of cities. It's Portugal's capital city. It's a food city. A party city. An old city. A medieval city. A modern city.

Most of all, it is Europe's very first truly international city. 

Before New York was New York, before everyone dropped anchor in Amsterdam, before they came to London or Paris or even Rome, Lisbon was where the world came to Europe. 

And because it came aboard Portuguese ships, the flavour this internationality left on the city is unique. The architecture, the food, the city itself all feels like it might be from somewhere else, but has enough of a touch of Portuguese that it does not feel out of place.


A Pile of Tiles

It is forbidden to depict any of Islam's big players. While Europe's artist were painting bearded Jesus pictures, Arab artists were stuck painting lines and shapes. 

Because the Arab's were also the world's medieval mathletes – they invented zero – and because their hot tropical climate was hard on oil paints, they created intricate geometric patterns with tiles. 

The Portuguese picked up this tile making, and being good Christians they ditched the geometric patterns and put Jesus and flowers and God and stuff on the tiles. Then they got more intricate, creating huge pieces of art with dozens or hundreds of bits of tile. 


Today, many of the city's buildings are covered with tiles and they lend the city an Arab look, even though these tiles remain a Portuguese trend, and a specialty.

When the Holy Spirit strikes!

Tile peeping.

Lisbon Feels Like Lisbon

Travel to any big, popular to visit city in Europe and you end up marvelling at how lovely it is. You also find yourself marvelling at how people can live there? Rome was like that. Paris is apparently like this. I always thought the middle of London was a lot like that, unless you were super rich. How do normal people live in a touristic town that, as a result of its touristic-ness, feels blandly touristic?

The core of a city, with its museums, monuments, points of interests, shops, kiosks, restaurants, hotels, hostels, bars, and cafes, is the draw for visiting tourists. As more tourists come, the city's centre becomes less about offering these things for the locals and more about accommodating tourists – or fleecing them, depending on your level of cynicism.

Lisbon's centre is compact, making it great for tourists to like to walk or stroll or amble about from point of interest to restaurant to museum to bar and back to the hotel.

While the 12 squares blocks in the centre of the city's centre has been given over to these hordes of tourists, the actual places you want to visit – Alfama, the city's maze-like Medieval district and the Bairro Alto, the city's nightlife area – are also in the centre, yet still feel like Lisbon, not a watered down touristy Lisbon.

My theory is that Lisbon, as a port city linking Europe with Brazil, India, Africa, and the Far East has been accustomed to having visitors for almost five hundred years. Locals live in these great neighbourhoods, and used to eating and drinking cheek-and-jowl with the herds of visitors. 

They have enough practice with hundreds of years of tourists to not feel like they have to surrender the city centre to them and flee to the suburbs. It adds a welcoming spirit to the city when you're out on the town.

Alfama: A Lisbon hood with its own vibe.

Lacking in Lockers

This cool reception for tourists has its downside. Everywhere we went, it seemed the city was wholly unprepared for the thousands of foreign visitors who flocked to the city.

The major subway stations were choked with tourists lining up to refill their transit cards. A few more machines at these busy stations surely would help the lines move quickly. 

Staying in an Airbnb with a morning checkout time and a late afternoon flight meant our luggage had to go somewhere. We spent over an hour going to various train and subway stations looking for a locker. Each station had a small wall of lockers, all occupied. In some stations, there were tourists zealously guarding an empty locker while a friend made change.

Lisbon is an international city, but in some ways it felt wholly unprepared for its international visitors.


Food

A colleague from Lisbon offered up his tips for the city. I figured it would be advice for beaches and points of interest, with a few bars and restaurants. 

The tip list we got was largely restaurant recommendations, with some pointers on where to find the good places to drink. What made the list so interesting was not its length, but its variety. 

The eateries we visited were not just seafood spots, although the seafood we ate was deliciously fresh. Our choices on list and along the streets included all sorts of cuisines – Indian, Moroccan, Asian, and many more – but many were fused with different cultures and flavours together. And they did it well. After all, cultures and nations have been mixing and fusing in Lisbon for hundreds of years.


Architecture

While the late Gothic architectural craze that was raging across Europe on the 1500s, Portugal conceived its own architectural style. Taking a bit of the Spanish, and combining that with Morrish and Indian influences, Portugal created Manueline architecture.

Sadly, most Manueline buildings were constructed in Lisbon, so many were destroyed in the earthquake and tsunami of 1755 (the Alfama district was spared). There are a few examples still standing like the Jeronimos Monastary, in Belem, just outside of Lisbon.

The church in the Jeronimos Monastary.

No point in talking about architectural influences at the Summer Palace in Sintra – just look.

Unrelated: Going Off the Grid

My data plan was inoperative in Portugal because I have a lousy cellphone provider and a lousy cellphone. Getting shut out from Facebook, Twitter, and most of the news, this year still being 2016, turned out to be a good thing.

Then I returned and learned that some sort of Pokemon Go phenomenon occurred while I was away. I learned about it upon my return, but I still don't understand it.


If you go...

Drink the Green Wine: 
Or Vinho Verde, as the locals call it. It's a bubbly young wine that I ignorantly avoided, thinking it was like champagne, which I am not crazy about it. It's actually dry and only slightly bubbly, like a fröccs – great for afternoon drinking on Portuguese patios.

Buy a transit card: 
Lisbon is a compact city, but you will take a train if you want to hit the beaches or go to Belem, where there are a few nice sites and a cafe where the Pastel di Nata (Portuguese egg tarts – was invented. You'll save a lot of money if you get a transit card and refill it as you go.

Look for random places to eat: 
We stayed in a mixed neighbourhood of locals and tourists. There were many restaurants, but the best were the places with little signage, bright lights, and normal-looking furniture on tile floors. Do not be deterred. Get in there and eat up!