Corinne CrawfordI did part of the second half of the audio city walking tour and also took a detour to see the “pink street”. This is an area I had heard about where there are many bars. I didn’t intend to go during the evening as it was a bit of a walk from my hotel that I didn’t want to do late at night but I wanted to see it nonetheless. It literally is a pink colored street.
I saw the various café’s and bars, some closed until evening and as I was googling different bars in the area, a bar in a different part of town popped up that looked interesting and a bit closer to my hotel. It was back in the Barrio Alto neighborhood and I mapped it out and headed that way. The slope coming up from where I was looked gentler than the one I took when I skipped the funicular so I thought I would try this on foot. Well, I guess I did not learn my lesson the first time because as I would reach what I believed was the top, it would turn and I would climb some more, then turn and climb some more. It felt like I was going uphill for 20 minutes now!
I finally reached the top of the neighborhood and made my way to the bar just as it opened at 6pm. This place, Pavilhao Chines, had the coolest vibe. It was like a collector’s paradise. Mainly old toys but lots of other stuff too covering every surface. The tables and chairs were more like living room furniture and it had lots of little offshoot rooms. This would be a place I would frequent a lot if I was in the area for any length of time. But I knew I needed to eat a little something so after two glasses of wine, I headed in the direction of my hotel and stopped at an outdoor table at the Lisbon Wine Hotel to enjoy the famous codfish cakes. Codfish cakes are like a milder tuna fish salad mixed with the best mashed potatoes you have ever had then deep fried. They were delicious. I was intending to try to catch the traditional Fado music that is played at several bar/restaurants around town but by the time I ate, I was close to my hotel and was feeling tired so even though I had looked forward to it, I decided to skip it as I was leaving the next day to go to Porto. I mentioned my disappointment at failing to go listen to Fado to the receptionist at the hotel and she told me that it was fine that I missed it because it was actually just really really sad music. Maybe it is the emo of Portuguese folk music.
