Lisboa

Disclaimer: this blog is mostly being written on mobile device keyboards, so please forgive my spelling and grammar which is average in the best conditions.

Maybe it's because I'm on holidays, but Portugal is awesome. I'm even starting to find the horrific pedestrian facilities charming. Lisbon city is beautiful and as a gross generalisation seems to have better pastel de natas which have become a breakfast staple. On an unrelated note, I have diabetes.

Breakfast of champions 

The first order of business was to return the dumb car we had to hire on account of the train strike. The driving in the heart of Lisbon is like European Mad Max. Then at the Sixt rental office it took over an hour to drop the keys despite being 2nd in line. Luckily there was a reasonably priced child friendly restaurant nearby we could calm our frayed nerves at, as the area was pretty high faulting. Heidi had a ridiculous hanging kebab of BBQ seafood and I had half a BBQ rabbit

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We walked up to the neighbourhood of Bairro Alto, in hope of burning off some of the daily caloric surplus. Bairro Alto apparently translates as high street, I'm never complaining about Sydney being a hilly city again. In the evening we had some sausage and cheese that we had picked up from the markets the day before for dinner.

Mmmm hills and marble pave made pushing a $20 pram fun. 

The next day we went to do some shopping at H&M, Willow needed some new shoes, and I needed new jeans. After the successful shop, we stumbled across a temporary market and had a draft wine. The wine merchant said he had been to Sydney and enjoyed it but complained about the lockout and RSA laws adding to my cultural cringe.

For lunch we went to the timeout mercado. This place is everything tramsheds in Sydney should/could be. Heidi went to a tartaria and got a raw salmon plate, I decided to load up on some "typical" food and had Caldo Verde, Sardinha fidalga and coxhina empanada. Our perfect child fell asleep, leaving us to enjoy lunch and wine in peace.

Cone of jamon and cheese

Why does everything sound better in the romantic languages? "National bottle-o" doesn't have the same ring to it

In the evening I took Willow to the supermarket to get her new favourite meal, arroz de pato. Bacalhau is so ubiquitous, they even have it at this IGA sized mercado. It's handy carrying a small child as they called me to the front of the queue at the checkout.

Bacalhau is love, bacalhau is life

After feeding Willow we went to another neighbourhood restaurant and had a plate of fried balls. Then shared a steak with scrambled eggs and rice. The perfect child just sat quietly and watched the tablet.