Lisbon Day 4 - A city full of surprises
After breakfast, our first appointment was Lisbon Poets Hostel. Situated in Barrio Alto (Lisbon’s old town, and full of life) it was a great surprise for us. Being in an old building, difficult to recognise at first sight, when you get inside you find a proper Backpackers Hostel full of character and charm. Decoration based on poems by Portuguese authors, a brilliant lounge room with bean bags and books, a kitchen, nice clean bathrooms, and wonderful shared and private rooms make this a unique and special hostel. It is perfect for the single traveller, as it is very easy to meet lots of new people or just chill out. We were speaking long enough with Lilian (co-owner of the place with Ricardo) to realise they love what they’re doing. I’ll be back to this one, as it was probably my favourite of them all.
After that, we moved to visit Hotel VIP, the first one in a big chain of Hotels that started in Lisbon 13 years ago, and now have 3 and 4 stars hotels all over Portugal and even Mozambique. This one, “Hotel VIP”, is the original, and is 3 stars that will turn into a 4 in a few months. It is a big hotel, and we were showed the rooms (obviously all private) and a nice breakfast area. Then we moved to Hotel VIP Diplomatico, a 4 star, with a huge hall, restaurant, bar, and nicely decorated rooms. Our last stop of the day was Hotel VIP Zurique, where we met Bruno and Mohammed, and we spent a good time with them, speaking about Hostelbookers and VIP Hotels, life in Lisbon, London, Spain… We even had time to enjoy a nice meal with them at the Hotel before leaving.
We returned to Lisbon Downtown, to mix with the Portuguese people, to eat some of the best food I’ve had in the last months, and to walk around its streets wearing short sleeves, as there was Spring weather in November. We’ll have to come back, because this city is full of surprises, and we definitely haven’t seen them all yet…
