Hello from Lisbon! We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday afternoon. After taking a taxi to our hostel (Living Lounge Hostel - thank you to the Juergens for recommending it), we dropped our bag and set out to find a place for lunch. We ended up at the Mercado da Ribeira (aka Time Out Market).

We were so hungry that we neglected to take a single photo.

We normally love food markets, but this one was a bit different. Most of the stalls were selling the same foods and they were all fairly expensive. It was also very crowded. Nevertheless, we were starving so we got food and stalked out a place to sit like a lion catching prey.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the neighborhood by our AirBnB, the Baixa area. This is the historic downtown area and, compared to the rest of Lisbon, is moderately flat. It was rebuilt on a gird plan after the terrible 1755 earthquake. Our walk started at the Praca do Comercio square, which is right next to the Tejo River. The square is also marked by a giant arch, Lisbon's Arch of Triumph, and it feels a bit like Paris.

From there, we walked up Rua do Comercio. Many of the buildings are in the austere architecture style adapted after the earthquake and have beautiful tiles. The sidewalk, like most in Lisbon, is black-and-white cobbled.

We ended up at Praca da Figueira, another square with a nice food market. From there, we walked to Largo de Sao Domingos, an area directly outside the old town walls.

It has a monument to remember the thousands of Jews that were killed on this square (many Jews fled to Portugal after Spain expelled them in 1492, and then Portugal killed them when a drought hit).

It's now the area where a lot of immigrants from former Portuguese colonies hang out. We stopped to try some Ginjinha, essentially a sweet brandy.

Our walk ended at Rossio square, a bustling square outside of the Rossio train station.

We stopped at Praca da Figueira on the way back to duck into the food market and eat chorizo. It was delicious and made up for the bad food market experience earlier in the day.

We spent the evening relaxing at the hostel before going out for dinner. Around 8 o'clock, it sounded like there was a loud party outside the window. We went outside and there was a carnival parade! There was loud music blasting and people all dressed up and dancing. Nate followed the party down to the Praca do Comercio, where it turned into a large dance party.

After dancing with Portuguese for a bit (Nate danced, I watched from a distance), we went to get dinner at O Marques which ended up becoming the highlight of the day. We had to wait to get a table, but it was absolutely worth the wait. Nate ordered a steak that came as a large piece of raw meat and a hot stone. He cooked the steak as he ate it and it was both delicious and fun to watch.

In addition, there were tons of people dressed up for Carnaval in elaborate and flamboyent costumes. Nate snapped this photo of our of our restuarant mates.

I feasted on a (previously cooked) steak in a Portuguese wine sauce and it was divine. We split a pitcher of wine. All together the meal cost less than 25 euros and it was worth every penny for the slice of heaven. It was a perfect ending to the day.

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