Thinking back to what drew us to add Lisbon to our year of travel, it’s a mix of things that were true and others that weren’t. It appeared to offer both a great standard of living and manageable costs; a perfect balance. Stops like Manila and Sri Lanka were definitely cheaper, but offered a lower quality of life. Other locations like Japan were more expensive on paper, but offered an unrivaled lifestyle. Whether this perfect balance in Lisbon was real, we didn’t know until staying there for five weeks.

First Impression

Our first impression of Lisbon was bad due to the immigration process at the airport. It took us 2.5 hours to get through the line because they mostly had a single security officer working our “other passports” group. I was very pissed off while standing in the line because that’s a solvable problem.

If they can’t afford to pay more staff they could do what Vietnam figured out, which is just charge more for a fast-track immigration option. We saw a similar immigration line when we entered Vietnam that was similarly understaffed, but we sailed through an alternate security booth in less than five minutes via the $75 fast-track. That $75 is probably enough to pay a couple security officers for the whole day.

Enjoyment Is Relative

It can be hard to get an objective read on any place, because it’s always measured against the last place. Leaving the bad conditions of Manila made Ho Chi Minh City feel like heaven. Leaving Guam (great) to go to Manila probably made Manila seem even worse than it really was.

In the case of Lisbon we were coming from Knysna South Africa, which was a complicated place. You have extreme poverty, and extreme beauty. We had the convenience of a car, and the discomfort of a bad Airbnb. It really added up to a mostly neutral experience, but it did make us appreciate certain aspects of Lisbon.

Freedom of Movement

Being able to walk out of our condo in Lisbon and walk an infinite amount was very freeing. The main factor preventing that in South Africa was safety, and the feeling of constantly being harassed for money. Lisbon felt very safe and we appreciated walking around any time of day, and that JC and the kids felt comfortable walking without me. The hills were fine too and rarely felt like a burden.

Food

The groceries in Lisbon relative to South Africa were a nice boost in quality. The grocery store in Lisbon may have been the best we’ve had all year. Surprisingly we found the groceries in South Africa to not be cheap at all. Lisbon offered a much higher quality of food for the same price.

In terms of restaurants, both locations were equally good.

Accommodation

Our Airbnb was undeniably better in Lisbon than South Africa. There wasn’t a humidity problem, it was large, and we had an amazing view. Having said that, our condo in Lisbon is not a place we would choose to stay again. It was dirty and felt like we were breathing in dust all the time. Also all of the couches, beds, and blankets were past due for burning. I got bit by something where the welts lasted the entire stay and still itch today; weeks later in Barcelona. It was most likely bed bugs, which lead us to do a thorough examination of our bags and everything we packed into them when packing to leave.

Location

Our location within Lisbon was the best possible in my opinion, and I would definitely choose to stay in the same area. We stayed in the Graça neighborhood which is further inland from the popular Alfama area. It was a really fast and easy walk to Alfama which we did often. We loved walking around those streets and just seeing what we would find around all the corners. We enjoyed a few Ginjinha that people sold out of their houses, had some good drinks and people watching, and ate some good food. For me, I don’t need much more than that to enjoy a place.

City Ambience and Aesthetics

The most memorable thing that will stay with me about Lisbon is the feel of the place. It’s one of those things that is very hard to describe in words. More than once I felt like I was watching a memory from my life and almost feeling nostalgic in the moment rather than years later. It may have been something about the handcrafted streets, sidewalks, buildings, and other very intentionally constructed parts of the city.

The construction everywhere had the feel of something on a city scale that I feel when I work on things around our house. There are those times where you build something not perfect, but awesome, and it takes on a different feel than a sterile professional and perfect alternative. The whole city felt like this to me.

Anti-Tourism

I found the anti-tourism banners hanging on balconies to be annoying and unwelcoming. I think the people putting those up are sort of like MAGA in the US. Many of them are probably facing a hardship of some kind and want to put the blame on “others”. They might be having trouble affording rent because short-term rentals drive the prices higher. Or they might not like the foot traffic, other increased costs, or lesser amounts of Portuguese speakers.

My response to them would be “welcome to the world, grow up”. There are places that are unaffordable for a given budget, and places change over time. I’d like to live in Manhattan, but I can’t afford to. I simply don’t move there, and if I did I wouldn’t be telling anyone else to get the hell out.

This happens even in our area of CO, where for example in our small city, prices have increased to the point that our kids probably can’t afford to live there as adults. This same pattern has played out through history where awesome places become expensive because people want to be there. Simply living there currently or historically doesn’t mean you will forever be able to afford it, or that you can stop change from taking place.

Meeting Fellow Travelers

Hands down my favorite aspect of Lisbon was the ability to meet and converse with people from all over the world. Lisbon gets partial credit in drawing all of these people, but Time Out Market also gets a lot of the credit for creating an environment where this can happen. We talked to people from Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and fellow Americans. It was so enjoyable we kept going back, chasing this experience four different times.

Transportation

We did not try the full suite of transportation options that Lisbon offers. In fact, we only used Bolt because it was so cheap and easy. Traffic was very reasonable, but traveling via car wasn’t always ideal because of all of the one way streets. We would have to take weird circular routes to get places.

There were tons of buses and trams that you could take by either paying cash or using the Navegante card. It just didn’t make sense for us with four people. We could ride a tram for 1.8 euro each, which is $8.47. That would get all of us half way across the city in a Bolt with door to door service.

Language

It has been the case everywhere this year that whatever you are told about the english proficiency of a place, it’s worse. Literally every place so far has been oversold on english availability, including places like Manila and Sri Lanka where english is an official language.

That said, even though your average person on the street didn’t speak much english, most of the staff at businesses speak it functionally. Ordering food, getting a haircut, and things like that were pretty easy.

We were talked to a few times in our neighborhood by people on the street, and I had to use the phrase “falo muito poco Portuguese” (I speak very little Portuguese) at least a handful of times between that, the grocery store self-checkout attendant, and the school kids that bullied us.

Affordability

Lisbon turned out to be far less affordable than projections. Our accommodation was significantly above initial projections, and that may have been due to booking it too close to the time of our stay. I think prices of Airbnbs have just gone up as well over the year since I ran numbeo projections.

Grocery costs were also significantly higher than projections as well. This one I can’t figure out aside from things just costing more now due to inflation. We ate the vast majority of our meals at home, and we had five weeks to soften the expensive initial loading phase of groceries. In some locations where we stayed for shorter amounts of time, the initial loading phase alone is responsible for high grocery costs.

Final Thoughts

Overall I did enjoy Lisbon quite a bit. It got off to a rough start between the immigration shortcomings, getting bit by bed bugs, getting sick upon arriving, and the anti-tourism banners. It totally redeemed itself though. The safety of the city and walkability were welcome luxuries, and Lisbon exposed us to so many fellow travelers. It felt like exactly the social opportunity I had hoped for throughout our gap year.