Spring Weekend in Lisbon
In June we made a quick weekend trip to Lisbon for an assembly. We arrived at Sete Rios Bus Station in Lisbon around 3pm after a 3-ish hour bus ride.
The Uber ride from the bus station in Lisbon to our hotel in the Saldanha neighborhood was 3.88€
Where We Stayed — Turim Saldanha
We really enjoyed our stay at Turim Saldanha and found the hotel to be just what we needed and the location was excellent.
You can read our full Turim Saldanha Hotel review including lots of photos of what you can expect from a Standard room at this Lisbon Hotel.
Diamond Bakery Hawaiian Shortbread Macadamia Nut Guava Cookies
We were absolutely famished after the bus ride when I remembered we had a few snacks left in our bag.
A lovely family from Hawaii had been visiting Odemira when we happened to visit for a talk one day.
They were sharing these little tastes of Hawaii with everyone we meet!
Edible gifts are the best – such a fun way to share a piece of your homeland!
A tasty little treat, I’m always in favor of a shortbread. 🙂
Mauna Loa Dry Roasted Macadamias — Maui Onion and Garlic
These macadamia nuts were delicious and addictive.
The Maui onion & garlic flavor was sooo good – highly recommend!!
We were eating these macadamia nuts when there was a knock on our hotel room door – an employee stopping by to help resolve an issue.
Once everything was sorted and we had done a room tour for you, we unpacked and were ready to walk to dinner – trying to find the best pizza in Lisbon!
Strolling Through Lisbon
On our walk to Forno d oro, we discovered the Lisbon Book Fair was taking place. (Feira do Livro Lisboa)
If you’re wondering how people dress in Portugal, I’d say this family is a good example!
Cute and comfy dresses paired with trainers or other supportive footwear are popular outfits among women and girls in Lisbon.
People on a whole tend to dress nicely in Portugal.
Spring time is one of the best times to visit Portugal because of mild weather, fewer tourists, better prices, and spring flowers, of course!
These beautiful lilac/blue/purplish flowering trees in this Lisbon park are called Jacaranda Mimosifolia.
Aren’t they lovely?
If you look to the right hand corner of the photo above, you can see the red hop-on-hop-off bus. Perhaps you’d like to rest your feet and let someone drive you around Lisbon sights for a day or two!
It’s just so hard not to keep taking pictures of the jacaranda trees in bloom in Lisbon during spring time, but alas! finding the best pizza in Portugal is a mission that requires sacrifice, so onward we go on our journey to the pizzeria.
Portugal Travel Tip: Public Recycling and Trash
As you walk around Lisbon and Portugal in general, you will notice public recycling areas (ecoponto). The bins in this photo are actually on the small side. Here are some things to know about recycling in Portugal.
The bins are color coded and when you look at the packaging you want to recycle, it will indicate which color bin you need to place it in. Green (verde) is for glass, Blue (Azul) is for paper and cardboard, Yellow (amarelo) is for metal and plastic. Lixo means trash, as in regular garbage.
By the way, do you see the tree behind those recycling and garbage bins? Do you know what it is?
It’s a pomegranate tree! So cool that in a few months, right on the side of a Lisbon sidewalk will be fresh pomegranate fruits!
It’s really hard to get a sense of it, but this was quite an uphill walk. When you travel to Lisbon you need to pack good walking shoes. The best travel shoes or sandals would not only be comfortable and provide anatomical support, but also have no-slip soles because the beautiful little tiled sidewalks can be quite slick!
My mom just did a multi-brand side-by-side try on of the most popular comfortable footwear for women and this brand is her hands down favorite to date.
Dinner — One of the Best Pizzas in Lisbon
Finally we made it to the popular Forno d’Oro pizza restaurant in Lisbon!!
You can read our dedicated post about our experience at this pizzeria to get our full restaurant review!
With bellies full of delicious Neapolitan pizza and tiramisu, we started the walk back to our Saldanha hotel.
Walking Back to our Lisbon Hotel
Remember earlier when I was trying to capture how steep the hill was? Maybe this picture gives you a better idea.
I happened to look into a store window we were passing by and see this little bear t shirt and it reminded me of my Abuelita. ❤
And have you ever seen pearl hangers like this before?
As we were enjoying the walk and the Lisboa book fair was still open, we decided to take a stroll through it.
Lisboa Book Fair
At the entrance of the book fair you can go along the right side or left side. There were sooo many publishers here.
As this is a travel blog with a food focus, I have to show you a few of the fair foods in Portugal and their respective prices.
This food truck called Capricciosa sold Rolotini’s (pizza rolls) for 7.5€.
If you get the “Menu” it’s a combo including a pizza roll and a drink for 8€.
Farturas are a popular fair food in summer in Portugal and you will see little stalls pop up along the beach boardwalks as well as events like this book fair.
What Are Farturas?
Some describe farturas as a Portuguese dessert which combines everything you love about a funnel cake with a churro and as I type that out I’m wondering how it is that we still haven’t tried these for ourselves?!
Growing up in an area where summer sweet corn is abundant, you don’t realize how good an ear of corn is and how many people don’t have access to such a simple summer time pleasure. That makes it a real novelty item.
Here at corn club you can order some gourmet corn for 5€
Of course this classic moment came immediately to mind.
There was a large seating area set up at the Lisbon book fair where you could enjoy your fair foods while looking out over Parque Eduardo VII.
As we left the book fair, I had to stop and take a picture of this incredible mural at the espaço Porto Editora | Bertrand Editora.
What a detailed piece of artwork! I couldn’t help but think of my talented Italian friend and illustrator Miriam who at times creates works in this style!
Apparently there were various scheduled talks and discussions during the Lisbon book fair. I was surprised to stumble upon live music. We stopped and listened for a few minutes.
Portugal really has a lot of family friendly events like this and most of them are free or very affordable!
You’re never far from something interesting to see whether it’s the sticker collection on the back of a street sign …
or beautiful tiles adding character to a building.
On day two of this weekend in Lisbon we had our scheduled assembly program all day. The hotel had little chocolate umbrellas at the reception the night before and I saved mine for a hearty breakfast. 😉
We Uber-ed to the program and I have to remind you that while your default mode may be to pull out your phone to pass the time in the car … YOU’RE IN LISBON! Look around! =) There are lots of interesting things to see, beautiful architecture etc.
After a day of learning and socializing we were ready to eat!
We discovered a unique restaurant in walking distance from our hotel – an Armenian Restaurant!
At this restaurant I ate something that I consider to be a perfect food. 🙂 Check out all the Armenian and Georgian foods we tried in our Ararate Restaurant Review.
It was now day 3 and we had a 12pm hotel checkout with a 12:30pm bus scheduled. We had plenty of time so we decided to check out the popular and very cute brunch spot Hygge Kaffe.
If you love aesthetic food pics and trendy brunch dishes, check out our review of Hygge which my dad described as “honest and sincere”. =)
We nearly missed our bus, our uber drop off time was 12:28 for a bus that leaves at 12:30. So we ran as fast as we could and just barely made it on in time.
We spent the bus ride catching our breath, filled with gratitude for everything that made this such a special weekend.
More From This June Weekend in Lisbon
- Turim Saldanha Hotel Review
- Forno D’oro Lisbon Pizzeria Review
- Ararate Armenian Restaurant in Lisbon Review
- Instagrammable Brunch Spot in Lisbon — Hygge Kafe Review
Where to Stay In Lisbon
Best Places to Eat in Lisbon
-> Lisbon Food Blog: Photo reviews of amazing restaurants in Lisbon, Portugal
Check Out Our Latest Posts
Leave a Reply