This post was first sent out from the Tiny Letter we set up after we moved to Lisbon in 2017.
Hello friend,
Apologies for the hiatus – life has been a whirlwind of trips abroad, tips back to Dublin, and visitors to us here in Lisbon. Let’s get caught up!
First things first: Could Ireland please give Portugal (and the rest of southern Europe) its summer back? Ben hasn’t been well watching friends and family do beers al fresco and jump into the sea while we leg it out onto the balcony to bring the washing in because it just started raining. Again. 😩
Lisbon home
In other news, we have a new home! Way back in April, we found and moved into an apartment that ticked lots of boxes. Apartments here – decent ones, at least – often come completely unfurnished (sometimes with no white goods either). But we found one that had some nice, simple basics and so pounced and have been busy nesting ever since. We did as much research as we could, but didn’t know a ton about the area moving in. It’s been a few months now, and we really feel we lucked out with the location: the apartment has beautiful views over Monsanto forest, is walking distance to a couple of wonderful parks, has some yum, super cheap neighbourhood eateries and, amazingly, is just a few minutes walk from a newly reopened traditional tram line, the 24E, which takes you right to the city centre and has been a lovely way of introducing visitors to the city (and skipping the insane queues and crush of the more famous 28). The place is still a wee bit bare bones, but we’ve been slowly making it our own (read: Nathalie has been buying lots of house plants).
🥘 New fave eats
We’ve had some amazing meals, many with visiting family and friends over the past few weeks. These include El Clandestino (Mexican), Prado (contemporary Portuguese), Amelia (epic ginormous brunches, above left), A Talho’s tasty steak stand stand (above right) at the Campo de Ourique market (which is a lovely spot, a smaller, more neighbourhood-y take on Lisbon’s famous Time Out market), and, of course, lots of cheap and cheerful delicious charcoal-roasted chicken at local traditional churrascarias.
🍻 Best beers in Lisbon
Ben has been loving exploring Lisbon’s growing craft beer scene. Three fave spots include:
- Quiosque Oitava Colina in Graça
- Crafty Corner near Cais de Sodré
- Cerveteca Lisboa in Principe Real (we’ve only been here once, but really liked it).
🤰🏽Preggo & The City
A few weeks ago, Nathalie made the official switch from being pregnant in Ireland (aka, all appointments at her Dublin GP and Holles St) to being pregnant in Lisbon (getting her records, sussing out local hospitals etc). We’ve signed up with a wonderful doula, had our 32-week ultrasound and, after a good 3-4 hours of queues, muddled Portuguese and hardcore bureaucracatic fandangling are registered with our local health centre. Some things are drastically different here (things like blood tests and ultrasounds happen at dedicated centres, not at your doc’s, for example) but all in in all it’s all been fairly doable. Here’s a gif of our son or daughter practising swallowing (yes, I know we’re already the worst).
We’ve be spending the summer settling into a routine, prepping for our kiddo to join us in a few short weeks (😬😱😍), and exploring some more. If you’re on Instagram, you can follow Nathalie on @natlisbonloves for pics from our travels and recommendations. Ben’s much more often on twitter @bursaar than Insta.
See yiz soon!
N&B
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