My 2024 Vacation to Portugal

After attending ICSE a few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I had a blast exploring in and around Lisbon, Portugal. Here are all the places we visited, as well my brief thoughts on them.

Museums

• 3D Fun Art Museum Lisboa: This museum had a few funny illusions that made for some great photos (which are little too silly for me to want to share haha).

• Calouste Gulbenkian Museum: Tucked away in a library, this museum was replete with artifacts from cultures all across the globe! We started exploring this museum in the afternoon, but spent so long admiring everything that the museum staff had to kick us out before we could finish walking through the last section on European history.

• Mosteiro dos Jerónimos: Large and honestly somewhat imposing, this monastery is one of the most conspicuous historical sites in Lisbon. It’s kept in great condition though, partly because the city only lets people in to explore the site in groups of about 30 people at a time. This also made it easier for my girlfriend and I to get some great pictures, such as this one of the monastery courtyard:

  

• Museu da Marioneta: This was actually the first museum we visited, and it was very funny and quirky. At the end we got to watch the Portuguese stop motion classic, A Suspeita, and it was great.

• The Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT): This museum presented a look into the industrial history of Lisbon, and into global efforts towards a more sustainable future.

• The Museum of the Orient: This was our favorite museum. There were just so many artifacts (snuff bottles, paintings, dresses, suits of armor, and more!) that we didn’t have time to appreciate it all before the museum closed and the staff told us to leave. Oh well, on the bright side we got in for free because we apparently came on International Day.

• The National Tile Museum: So many pretty tiles.

Historical sites and landmarks

• Aqueduto das Águas Livres: Honestly the aqueduct is not that pretty to look at, but it’s massive size is impressive, and its location above the highway makes it a great spot for taking photos.

• Arco da Rua Augusta: Crowds of people were flocking to this iconic site when we stopped by it, and there was even a guy with a bubble wand blowing a ton of bubbles!

  

• Belém Tower: We didn’t go inside but the outside was cool. My girlfriend painted a picture of the tower one day while I was at ICSE.

• Centro Cultural de Belém: This was the ICSE 2024 conference venue.

• National Palace of Pena: Pena Palace was probably the most beautiful historical site we saw, and definitely the most colorful. This is because it was built much more recently that the other historical sites (in the 1800s), and also appears to be better well-maintained. To get to the palace, we decided to forgo taking the bus and hiked up the mountain it is perched on ourselves. This took about an hour, but the climb was worth it in the end. Afterward we had a nice time exploring the palace gardens (although the greenhouses were in disrepair), and finally took a semi-hidden side-trail to climb back down the mountain. The whole experience felt somewhat magical.

  

• Padrão dos Descobrimentos: An interesting monument to the discovery of America and the New World. The cool thing about this monument is that one side of it faces the East and the other faces the West, so if you go in the morning or the evening, you may want to visit it again at the other time of day so that you can see the sun shine on the other side.

• Palace Fronteira: We only explored the outside, and while it was somewhat overgrown, the nautically-themed tiles were striking, and the maze-like garden was good for a stroll.

• São Jorge Castle: This castle is almost worth visiting for the view alone. It sits atop a high hill in Lisbon and thus offers a great view of the city. The castle itself is honestly rather rugged, and the stairs are steep, slippery, and narrow, but I think that gives you a better idea of what it must have been like for the soldiers who resided here in the past. There’s also a museum next to the castle that has some neat artifacts that are worth checking out.

• Sé de Lisboa: This immense church has many gorgeous sites, but a few things that stick out to me are the pope’s dressing room (so much of it is gilded that it almost looks like the room is made of gold), a large nativity scene diorama, and the church’s huge pipe organ.

Nature sites

• Cabo da Roca: Absolutely breathtaking. We traveled to the westernmost point of continental Europe after visiting Pena Palace, and the view totally blew me away. The ocean seemed to stretch on endlessly toward the horizon, and the waves undulated gently under the sun like a sleepy serpent. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

  

• Parque da Pedra: This park was fun to explore. On the side of the park close to the aqueduct, we saw some cute wooden scupltures!

  

• Tropical Botanical Garden of Lisbon: The front of the park is nice but unfortunately the rest of it was kind of run down and gross.

Restaurants and dining

• Encanto: This Michelin star vegan restaurant was fantastic. It was our first time eating at a Michelin restaurant so I didn’t know what to expect. The dinner turned out to be a nine-course meal, with many of the dishes being one-bite wonders. I enjoyed every second of it. All the dishes were works of art, and my girlfriend and I tried the non-alcoholic and alcoholic drink-pairings, respectively. At the very end, our waiter even gave us a wax-sealed letter listing the evening’s menu to help us remember our experience.

• Legumi Sushi Vegan: This place was as true hidden gem. We dined here one night early on in our trip, and tried the small sushi boat. It was delicious, and the staff (who were very friendly!) even gave us a free dessert! On our last day in Lisbon we returned here, ordered the large sushi boat, and managed to finish it!

• Time Out Market: Part fish market, part farmer’s market, and part food court, Time Out Market was quite a fun place to explore for an hour or two. We didn’t even get a chance to explore upstairs, which from below appeared to be a plant nursery.

• LX Factory: ICSE’s conference banquet was hosted at an empty warehouse in this art district, and while it looked really cool, the banquet was uncomfortably packed and the restaurant my girlfriend and I tried to escape to was unfortunately overpriced. If we go back to Lisbon though I would like to check this place out again; it looked really cool and I bet some of its other restaurants are better.

Shopping

• Campo Pequeno: This mall was small and the upper floor was basically closed. My girlfriend liked the exterior look of the place but honestly I was not that impressed.

• Colombo Shopping Centre: This three-story mall was a lot of fun to walk around. We purchased some nice apparel for cheaper than we would have in the United States, and explored a cool home decorating store named Area Infinity.

• Pingo Doce: I would be remiss not to mention one of Portugal’s biggest supermarkets! We stopped in a few of these for snacks.