Fado in a tiled room, a pink street at 1 am, and the tram home that never came.
Lisbon does not have a nightlife district. It has hills, and the night rolls down them.
Night one · Alfama
We dropped the bags at a small place off Rua dos Remédios and went looking for dinner, which in Alfama means following the sound. Tasca do Chico on Rua dos Remédios fits maybe thirty people, the walls are covered in football scarves, and at some point after the grilled sardines a woman stood up by the bar and sang, and the room went completely silent. No stage, no ticket. We drank vinho verde by the glass and stayed until the guitarist packed up. On the way back up the hill an old man sold us ginjinha in chocolate cups from a doorway for a euro each.
Night two · Bairro Alto and the pink street
Bairro Alto is quiet by day and by eleven it is one long street party, people spilling out of bars the size of a kitchen and drinking on the cobbles. We had caipirinhas from a hatch on Rua da Atalaia, then walked down to Cais do Sodré. Rua Nova do Carvalho is painted pink and lined with the old sailors’ bars turned clubs; Pensão Amor still has the red velvet and the mirrors. We ended at Musicbox under the arches for a Portuguese band we had never heard of and would now cross Europe for. The last tram had gone. We walked up through the Chiado at three, past bakeries already lighting their ovens.
Night three · the river and the sunrise
Sunday started slow, with a bica and a pastel de nata at a counter in Belém, and then the day disappeared at LX Factory under the bridge, where the market, the bookshop and the rooftop bar run into each other. In the evening we took the ferry to Cacilhas for grilled fish at Ponto Final, the tables literally on the quay wall, the whole city lit up across the water. The ferry back was full of people going out; we followed them to a miradouro in Graça with a kiosk that sells beer until it decides not to, and watched the sky go from black to grey to gold over the castle. Then, finally, sleep.
What it cost
Nothing about this needs money. Ginjinha is a euro, a beer at a kiosk is two, fado in a tasca costs a dinner, and the miradouros are free. The one splurge was the concert ticket, twelve euros. Take the 28 tram early in the evening if you want a seat, and give up on it after midnight: Lisbon is a walking city and the walk home is half the night.
- Nightlife
- Live music
- Bars
- Walking
- Portugal
4 stories on Travlyo
Written by the traveller with Travlyo's help. The Lisbon guide ·