Lisbon's Mystique

Instead of my rants of the past few days, over the next few days, I'm going to tackle a few of the places I went that I found particularly interesting or feel like I have something new and/or insightful to say about them. I'll start with Lisbon, Portugal!

There's something about Lisbon that I didn't realize while I was there. But after I started going to other places and now that I've been home for a while and have had time to reflect, I've decided that Lisbon, for a big capital city, has quite a mystique. It's not particularly older than any other major big city in Europe. But it feels a lot more raw - that's really the only word I feel like describes what I'm trying to say.

I was there right at the beginning of August. The weather was pristine, the sky so so blue. Perfect tourist time. Yet I feel we saw very few tourists, relatively speaking. OK, we ate in a lot of "touristy" restaurants because they were right near our hotel and we were lazy. And not seeking out a little fado club or little restaurant off the beaten track is my one major regret for my time in Lisbon, but Lisbon is raw. It's a little dirtier, not in the sense of actually seeing dirt on the street but it felt like a city that wasn't "on show" as much as Rome or Barcelona or Amsterdam. The locals outnumbered tourists almost everywhere. It's less expensive; there were less signs of world corporate domination.

Thing is, Lisbon has everything a world-class destination has. Great people, great food, great culture, great museums, GREAT public transportation, beautiful blue beaches are a half hour away by train, good shopping, lots of history, and much more. We wandered through the old Alfama district (seen in the picture, click picture for larger image), which is all white and where the streets are narrow sloping alleys and staircases, and it was a ghost town, except for this one little area where local people were doing a photo shoot.

So I just have to wonder, why don't people go there more? It's a relatively short flight from Britain and it's no further from the US than London. Perhaps it's because it's slightly smaller and thus a little harder to go to, but so? Plenty of other places require a change in planes and people go there a lot. I guess it's one of those chicken/egg problems. But I suppose part of what makes Lisbon so great is the fact that it IS still somewhat of an undiscovered tourist frontier. In that sense, I hope it doesn't change.

Part of me wants to tell everyone GO VISIT LISBON!!! It's a great alternative to busier and more expensive places and because it's so small and accessible, you can stay for a few days and really truly get a good feel for the city. But part of me wants to say, STAY AWAY and let one city in Europe avoid its fate of an over-traveled trite, ubiquitous travel destination. I'm torn. But absolutely, if you like that Southern Europe passionate Mediterranean type of thing and want to go away but can't afford Spain or Italy, give Lisbon a try. You probably won't be disappointed.