Before talking about what happened during this day, wanted to talk about the various neighborhoods in Lisbon. The one I’m staying at is called Marquess of Pombal Square. It’s a very modern neighborhood that has a lot of 5 star hotels. I like it because it is not crowded, and very clean. Only downside is that it is farther away from Baixa (which is more south and where the nightlife is), but fortunately the 15 minute Uber ride is only 4 euros. More about neighborhoods can be found here:

https://www.lisbon.net/neighborhoods

Started off the day going to Belem. I would say Belem is very beautiful, and clean. First stop was Pasteis de Belem. You can either get seated, or order items to go. I ordered to go. Got the original pastel de nato and a cafe latte. It’s very soft, and flaky, which I liked.

After, stopped by McDonalds to see if they had anything special on the menu. Seems like they did not, so got a cheeseburger.

After, made my way to St Jerome Monastery. I went to the church part (since the museum part had a huge line up). I lit a candle, then went to the sacristy where they had paintings describing the life of St Jerome. One of the ones that was interesting is where the devil gave him “bad” books, but then he was ultimately forgiven.

After, went across the street to and walked through a really beautiful garden called Jardim da Praca do Imperio, or Discovery Garden.

After, went to Torre de Belem. The line to go up the tower was 2 hours long, so ended up only taking pictures of it.

From the tower, went closer to what I call the fake Golden Gate Bridge. It’s actually called Ponte 25 de Abril. Went closer to take some photos of it.

Afterwards, headed out of Belem and went to H&M to get a suite jacket. Got invited last minute to a wedding. The suit jacket was only 60 euros.

From H&M, went to TimeOut Market in Baixa. It’s a place where you can get local Portuguese food, and they have an Aperol spritz stand! More details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/07/29/timeout-market-lisboa/

Then headed over to Alfama to check out Castelo de Sao Jorge. Will say that the view of the city from it was worth the visit (you had a view of Alfama plus the fake Golden Gate Bridge).

After, went and had dinner near the hotel at a restaurant called Selllva. More details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2023/07/29/selllva/

After dinner, went back to pink street to grab a drink and shot at one of the emptier bars nearby.

Then I headed to a club called Ministerium club (it’s at a part of the city you would have never guessed there to be a nightclub. It’s a restaurant by day, but something completely different at night). It has a very after hours vibe to it. There were two room. It was only 10 euros to get into. I went at 1:30am. It started to get busy at 2:30am. Ended up staying until 4am.

So I think the move for nightlife in Lisbon is to go to be at Pink Street at 11:30 and pregame at Pensoa Amor (being there at 11:30 is key to avoid the line), then head to Ministerium around 1:15am.

On the Uber ride back, the driver gave some of these suggestions for clubs:

-K in beach (more younger crowd)

-Mome nightclub (should have techno)

-Lust in Reuo (forgot the details on this one)