Day 17 Lisbon 5/28/16 pictures - last day

All pictures from final day in Lisbon (mostly of the tile museum and aquarium) HERE

The Problem with TV Travel Shows

This post may be one big DUH of common sense. I don't know. But after watching a show on the Food Network about Rachael Ray's travels throughout Europe, to places I myself went, I cannot keep silent. Travel shows are helpful on some basic superficial level. Watching "Giada in Paradise" made me want to go to Santorini one day. And the really good people like Anthony Bourdain make an almost extreme effort to get off the beaten path.

The big problems with these shows is that, for those of us who are actually always thinking about new places we want to go and see, these shows are completely unrealistic. The aforementioned Rachael Ray show that set me off was set in Lisbon, which was, as you already know, one of my favorite places of my whole European trip. Obviously, everything she did wouldn't fit into a half hour show, I get that. But she skipped major attractions and entire neighborhoods (neighborhoods that happen to have great food, no less), instead going to clearly touristy cultural centers and restaurants and avant garde little cafes, where everyone spoke English and the menus had translations. Where was the fado bar? Where was the plate of grilled meat with rice and potatoes that was ubiquitous on almost every menu I saw? I realize Rachael Ray is catering to the masses of Middle Class America. But what better a person to introduce the American public to the REAL city that many of her viewers might never get to see otherwise. How disappointing.

Better is Samantha Brown, whose Passport to Europe and Passport to Latin America series are fun. She does go to smaller little cafes and she puts a nice emphasis on walking around, wandering into little shops, talking to locals, and really getting a feel for a place. Step in the right direction for sure. One of her mottoes is even that traveling in your comfort zone makes for a boring trip. Couldn't agree more. Her problem is that it's hard to travel like she does. Almost all of her featured hotels are on the very high end. And in every city she goes to, she has multiple guides. Private guides are EXPENSIVE. Most of us can maybe afford one or two on a whole trip, let alone one or two a DAY. But if you are like me and are always looking for new places that look interesting, I think Samantha Brown's show is about as good as you can get. She takes one city and explores it pretty well, enough so that you can kind of envision it and get a minimal handle on the city and even just what it looks like.

Rick Steves's shows on PBS are excellent as well. He gears much more heavily to us "normal travelers" who are on some kind of limited budget and time. His problem, however, is that just like his books he goes for quality over quantity. Which is nice, but he is essentially your "editor" - telling you what's important and fully leaving out stuff he and his staff have decided what's not. For what he includes, his shows are great. And he definitely travels more realistically than anyone else. But again, I would be cautious of using his shows for any more than just seeing if you might like the way a place looks/feels on TV. And personally, I have a lot of trouble finding when the show actually airs on my local PBS.

The Travel Channel has a wealth of other interesting shows like the aforementioned Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (which focuses on food and bizarre food at that). He often takes unrealistic treks that most normal people would either have to spend a lot of money or would have great difficulty experiencing. But of all these travel shows, I find his by far the most entertaining. The Travel Channel also airs interesting shows like Globe Trekker (also aired frequently on PBS), where a group of young backpack-types look at a place. I find this one more realistic than some of the others, but it doesn't air much. If you get the Travel Channel, definitely check its listings frequently for features and shows about places you're interested in.

As for shows on the Food Network, some are better than others. Mostly domestic but IMO better than others, Giada de Laurentiis's Weekend Getaways show is a cute little weekend look and she seems to go to mostly normal types of places. Personally I'd never set food in any place Rachael Ray goes to eat at, not after seeing her butcher lovely Lisbon.

So, watch these shows, but watch them for entertainment. I would never really take any travel advice from them. And now I will end my probably meaningless rambling... ;)

To MR

I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful comment. Hearing those things from a local means so very much to me. It reaffirms my desire to keep traveling, to keep learning, to go back to Lisbon (and the rest of Portugal!) to learn more, but most of all it lets me know that my desire to spend my days in each city soaking as much as possible is leading me to success. To hear that I "got it" from a local is really just heart-warming for me and I am so grateful that somehow, you stumbled upon my blog and gave it a read.

Obrigada!

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.