Lisbon & The Ghosts of Pastel de Natas
okay, so lisbon. it’s…a lot. i’m a ghost hunter, right? usually i’m chasing cold spots and EVPs in abandoned asylums, but this city? this city feels haunted, but not by spirits. by centuries of stories, and a whole lot of saudade. i just checked and it’s perpetually draped in a kind of hazy gold light, which is either beautiful or deeply unsettling depending on how much coffee you’ve had.
my trip started with those numbers - 320369 and 1792560053. honestly, i have no idea why i wrote them down. maybe a license plate? a code? probably just sleep deprivation. i’ve been running on like, four hours a night since i landed. the weather’s been…temperamental. 8.98 degrees Celsius, which doesn’t sound bad, but the ‘feels like’ is 5.42. it’s a damp cold, the kind that seeps into your bones and makes you crave strong liquor and fado music. the pressure’s at 1008, humidity’s 61%, and the sea level is also 1008. Honestly, I don't know what any of that means, but it sounds important.
i’ve been staying in Alfama, which is basically a labyrinth designed to confuse tourists and delight cats. speaking of cats, they rule this city. absolute monarchs. i overheard someone at a tiny *tasca (that’s a little tavern, for the uninitiated) saying that the cats are actually the ancient guardians of lisbon, protecting it from…something. i didn’t press for details. i didn’t want to know.
“Don’t trust the tile. It’s always watching.”
that’s what old man joão told me, while simultaneously trying to sell me a chipped ceramic rooster. he claimed the azulejos (those gorgeous tiles everywhere) have eyes. i’m starting to think he wasn’t entirely wrong. they do seem to follow you with their gaze.
i’ve been trying to track down some local ghost stories, naturally. i found a forum (https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=39991) where people are talking about a spectral nun haunting the Convento do Carmo. apparently, she appears during thunderstorms. i missed the last thunderstorm, naturally. my luck.
the pastel de natas are…dangerous. seriously. they’re addictive. i’ve consumed approximately seventeen in the last 48 hours. i heard from a very insistent baker that the original recipe is a closely guarded secret, passed down through generations of monks. he also claimed that if you eat one while making a wish, it always comes true. i’m testing this theory.
i’ve been wandering around, mostly getting lost, and stumbling upon incredible things. the miradouros (viewpoints) are insane. seriously, the views are worth the uphill climb. i checked out Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, and it was breathtaking. you can find more viewpoints on TripAdvisor.
someone warned me about pickpockets around the Praça do Comércio, so i’ve been keeping a very close eye on my bag. apparently, they’re particularly skilled at distracting you with… pigeons. pigeons! i didn’t even know that was a thing.
i’m thinking of taking a day trip to sintra next. i’ve seen pictures of the Pena Palace, and it looks like something straight out of a fairytale. Yelp has some good reviews of tour operators, if you’re into that sort of thing. if you get bored, porto* is just a short train ride away.
i’m starting to think lisbon isn’t haunted by ghosts, but by the weight of its own history. it’s a beautiful, melancholic, slightly chaotic city. and i’m completely, utterly, lost in it. i'm also pretty sure i need another pastel de nata. you can find more info about Lisbon on Visit Lisbon.
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