The weather continues to play tricks on us and last night’s thunderstorm was something out of the ordinary. The entire apartment was lit up by lightning, the windows rattled and the house shook. We woke up to a much calmer day but traces of the storm were visible in the form of gigantic puddles. However, that didn’t stop us, armed with a good mood and an umbrella (for three people) we set out to visit a city park and possibly do some shopping.
The park we were aiming for is Park Eduardo VII which is located in the middle of central Lisbon and is named after an English king. It’s a bit strange to name one of the larger parks in the capital after a foreign king, but what can you do to promote relations between countries? The park is big, really big and contains both a botanical garden, statues and fountains, which I think meets what can be required, a bit of fun is that it is built on a hill, which means you get a fantastic view of the park and the center of Lisbon. Now in January, the park itself didn’t shine in its full glory, but I can imagine what a green oasis this is in the summer.
The shopping went so well, we trotted over to a shopping mall that was adjacent to the park and thought that this would be perfect. The first store I saw when we entered the mall was Rolex, next door to Armani and Prada and so on. Seven floors of design and designer clothing, the top floor of which contained a food court with gourmet food. The fact that I was allowed in at all is a bit of a miracle and even though they were very nice, it was a couple of levels above my budget.
Instead, we headed for lunch at a small, local restaurant that wasn’t even featured on Google Maps. The menu was amazingly translated directly by Google Translate (or maybe more Bing Translate) because nothing seemed right or what they say “look in the oven” as a meat dish. Regardless of the menu, we sat down and received some of the best service during the entire trip. The waiter explained as best he could what the different dishes actually were and he looked just as confused by the menu as we were, the entire staff which turned out to be a family with a grandfather who was driving around trying to charm the little one, chatted with us a bit and to showcase a classic Portuguese dish they offered grilled sardines and some kind of porridge made from bread. That particular one may not have been the tastiest I’ve ever eaten but it’s experiences like this that make me love traveling.
