This post was first sent out from the Tiny Letter we set up after we moved to Lisbon in 2017.
Hello friends,
First, thanks for signing up to find out what we’re up to here in lovely Lisboa. While we love chatting on WhatsApp, Instagram and FB Messenger (haha, just kidding, Messenger is the worst), we thought it might be nice to try and do something a little more old fashioned; akin to sending you postcards, except this way we can include emojis and don’t have to buy quite so many stamps.
So welcome to our first dispatch, let us fill you in on what we’ve been up to…
🏡 We found a (temporary) home
While the housing situation here in Lisbon isn’t quite as bad as what’s going on in Dublin, it can still be pretty tough to find an apartment. Like so many European cities, Lisbon is becoming increasingly overrun with Airbnbs, which not only makes it tricky for newcomers like us to get long lease apartments, it is sadly making it very tough for Lisboans to afford to live in their own city.
We managed to nab a five-month lease in a quiet neighbourhood near the historic Graça; the area is mainly locals and pensioners, but it’s pretty, with easy access to coffee and fresh fruit, and is handy for getting into the city centre.
💻 We worked. A lot.
We landed here in early December and it was a total blur of work-eat-sleep-repeat as both of us were working to some insane deadlines. We barely managed to squeeze in a custard tart, let a alone some proper exploring. January was much more civilised, with lots of getting to know our new ‘hood (Nathalie has a little recap blog post here) as well as other neighbourhoods, as we tried to figure out where we want to live once our lease is up.
The heat was briefly turned up again on us both in February for a couple weeks, with Nathalie heading back to Dublin for shoots and Ben crunching to get the game his company is working on over the line (it’ll be out sooooon and he can hopefully reveal all then).
✅ 5 things we learned
1. Hills hurt unconditioned calves (but you get used to them pretty quickly)
2. There’s no need to buy orange juice. You just pick up a handful of oranges from the local frutaria and squeeze ’em in the morning. It’s amazing.
3. You want ants? Just leave a single crumb of bread, or leave the bin open for, like, a second.
4. We now know the best place to get those famous Lisboan custard tarts. We will tell you if you visit.
5. Sunsets don’t get boring. They just don’t.
😍Current favourite places
🥪 For brunch:Dear Breakfast, a gorgeous little cafe that doesn’t believe you should wait until the weekend for brunch (amen to that).
🍔 For burgers: Ground Burger not only have delicious burgers and a huge selection of craft beers but the most insanely tasty home-made vanilla milkshake. It’s been almost two weeks since we went and Ben is still talking about it.
🗞 For an indie mag binge: Either Hello, Kristof, a coffee shop packed with amazing mags for you to read (and some pretty tasty cakes too) or head straight to Under the Cover to buy independent mags to keep.
🌮 We’ve also tried a borderline embarrassing number of Mexican restaurants, look out for a roundup in a future dispatch!
Love yiz and see you all soon!
N&B
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