For your pleasure, in Lisbon.

All activities are free and all contents are original.

We love Tourists, and they love us.

Portugal has been for a while under the siege of incompetent national rulers, with us watching them obeying mostly their stupidity and external demands - the euro and the EC - being concerned about the fake "dream" of a communal European community. In the beginning, we assume that it looked like a great idea. We remember our school days: it´s great to live for some years with friends, sharing a 20m2 flat, but after a while you will always need your own space. The same with mother Europe and all its young siblings.

This has leaded to something that we now find it very bitter and hard to swallow - it was in fact a dream, and a dark dream. When you don´t have a political system to sustain a coin shared among other countries, there will be no coin anymore. Let´s say, money.

They simply forgot to try to answer the question: What will happen to each countries traces?

We can recognize now very easily that the boom of tourism in later years in Portugal was somehow due to a very funny feeling: the let´s travel there before it changes, and gets very expensive or unrecognizable. The crisis made that watermark in everyone´s behavior. In fact, it´s still very cheap, and we look around and we only see people struggling to survive. Meanwhile, resorts are arriving to the most hidden gems in the coast - yes, yes, who doesn't have resorts... - , to places we never thought it could happen. But we see also very happily that it´s not that easy to do whatever they can to expropriate the identity of a place that, in this case, has a lot of it.

Portugal is tough, and so far our character has been proving to be very resisting. It´s not a matter of a distinctive characteristic of our people - and how bad this may sound - but in fact there´s something there that has been working in order to keep our manners. Some may say they are rude. We are - descendents of fishermen and farmers, ready to improve their life in order to simply survive. 

We believe in a balanced tourism, but the last incompetents ruling us were desperate to sell us. A balanced tourism is the one that is releasing smoothly their gems. If only they could understand the value of a personalized service, face to face, from a friend to a friend, they would understand very fast that the massive tourism will never be right and bright, and a clever step would be to keep our beautiful piece of land taken by the young spirits that lately respected our origins: doing their best to leave everyone happy, and that will do for sure more for the future of the tourism than a closed bunker with palm trees called resort.

Gore Sassoon

We love tourism tours

Sunday's Fado

If you’re one of those persons who just hates Sundays - one must never depreciate the art of procrastination – and if you happen to be in Lisbon, I might have the solution for you.

Hop on the tram 28^th and hop off at Graça, walk a few steps forward and you’ll arrive at Tasca do Jaime.  Every weekend afternoon they play ‘fado* vadio’, which means that anyone can get up and sing. The result is always unique and unpredictable, the fun is guaranteed and the owners will make anyone feel at home. That’s how we felt last Sunday – 16 of us from all over the world – in a journey that made us lose track of time. I tried to draw the guy on the Portuguese guitar, but I swear he looks better.

Oh and you’ll be forced to try the magnificent ‘pasteis de bacalhau’ (codfish pastel), the specialty of the place. It's heaven.

If you already have plans for the afternoon, fear not. At night, you can visit Tasca Bela, in Alfama. Although the mood is different, it’s also quite an experience. Even if you can’t understand the lyrics, they’ll make your heart beat faster. If you happen to be in Lisbon, or staying with us at the Poets Hostel, give it a try. I can assure it will be worth it.

*fado - Portuguese folk song, recently proclaimed Intangible world heritage by UNESCO;

Nuno Dias