My first impressions of the Portuguese capital were less than stellar. On the morning of our first full day in the city, as we stepped out to find breakfast, we were shocked to find that the entire length of our street was littered with stubbed-out cigarette butts, broken beer bottles, and crumpled aluminum cans. Before we arrived, I had also remembered reading that Lisbon was a very hilly town. That was no exaggeration. To add further insult to injury, we foolishly chose an AirBnb in the Bairro Alto (“high neighborhood”) area of the city. But the greatest offense of all was the city itself. On November 1st in 1755, the city was rocked by a series of large earthquakes, leveling two-thirds of Lisbon, only the Alfama neighborhood was left standing after all the destruction had subsided. In the ensuing years, the metropolis was rebuilt by the new rulers but in a more modern fashion, to keep pace with its neighboring countries. Nothing is more unattractive to me than a facelift, be it a person or a city. Let the true beauty shine through.
There is more to Lisbon than first meets the eye though. On the same morning, as we rounded the end of our street, we watched a giant street sweeper scurrying up the roadway, inhaling all the left over debris. Later that night, we uncovered the source of all the trash. The Portuguese love a good night out, the louder and merrier, the better. Knowing that their empty beer bottles and cans would be swept up the following morning, the residents were little concerned about dropping their drink containers when they were done. As for the undulating terrain, it did a booty (err body) good!
The allure of the capital city is not in the facades of its buildings or architecture but in the distinctiveness of its culture, from the haunting lament of fado music to the endless recipes for dried cod or bacalhau to the globe-changing appetite to discover new lands.