Best of Portugal

Porto, a city of buildings decorated with tiles, famous for its dessert wines, and cork crafts. Many of the buildings in the old town have revealed that time has passed. The majority of the structures have not been restored giving the city a feeling of authenticity and reality we truly appreciated. Porto is not predictable like so many other European cities we had visited, instead we found it unique and exciting, a city that captivated us with its own charm and colors, a town where you could believe people live day by day. In Porto, we enjoyed eating the traditional francesinha and tasting Porto wines. We also fell in love with the small streets and old yellow trams in the neighborhood of Alfama in Lisbon. The capital of Portugal also offers the best pasteis de nata in the nation, a delicious and famous pastry we ate almost daily. A couple of nights, we attended a live performance of Fado, the traditional Portuguese music. The beautiful rhythms, instruments, and lyrics of Fado reminded Gisela of the pasillos and traditional Colombian music. Lisbon holds similar attributes to other iconic cities around the world: it has a Christ the Redeemer like Rio de Janeiro, a bridge similar to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Tuk-Tuk or Rickshaws like the ones in Thailand or India. Visiting Lisbon can feel like a trip to many corners of the world and much more!