* If you’re landing here for the first time, this is the last of several posts describing my first visit to Portugal to decide whether I’d want to move here.
If you want to read this section in order, start here: Chegada a Lisboa para explorar
And here’s the beginning of the whole story: Onde esta história começou

Keeping with the pattern of strikes on this visit, there was no rail worker strike on my last journey, returning to Lisboa for a few days before my flight back to the US.

This time, I stayed in the Olivais neighborhood. And that’s so similar to Olaias that I kept getting the names mixed up 😂

My experience was that these different parts of town had very different vibes, but I can’t say how much of that is about the neighborhoods and how much of that was due to the way my perspective had shifted.

I picked this last spot because of its proximity to the airport – just about a 10 minute walk to a Metro station on the red line, which runs to the airport.

It turned out that the apartment was in a brand new building. Like, I think it even had central heat / air conditioning, which is incredibly rare in Portugal! It was way more than I actually needed, but my entire focus in booking this spot was to make my travel day as simple as possible.

In contrast, the place I stayed in Olaias was a very nice little apartment in an older building. It had wall-mounted space heaters and no a/c.

But over the course of this visit, I started judging neighborhoods by what I called the dog shit index – how much shit is there on the sidewalks? My assumption was that people who actually care about their neighborhood will be less likely to leave shit on the actual sidewalk, and more likely to discourage their dog from leaving a deposit there in the first place.

Based on that, Olivais seemed to be a much nicer area!

The most significant feelings that I associate with my time in Olaias were those of being a fish out of water, trying to figure out the basics of functioning in this brand-new-to-me space. Honestly, this is making me think that I should go back to walk around that area one of these days, to see what impressions I get now that I’ve been living in Lisboa for a couple of years.

The feeling I got in Olivais was relief to be back in a regular residential area where people are going about their regular lives, instead of on vacation or catering to tourists.

That’s not to say that no one stopped me to pet my dog, but it happened with a more comfortable frequency, and people were more polite about it!

One of my favorite parts of this stay was a little breakfast and lunch restaurant that I found about a block away from where I was staying. In a sharp contrast to the Algarve, the restaurant employees barely spoke any English. Thankfully, by this point I had started picking up some of the essentials, as long as people spoke slowly.

Like many authentic Portuguese restaurants, they have a “prato do dia” (plate of the day) menu instead of a fixed menu. As someone who prefers to check the menu online before deciding where to go, that took some getting used to!

And I think this was the first time I encountered getting both french fries and white rice as my side dishes with a protein! I forget what it was that I had, but steak, fish, chicken, whatever, don’t be surprised if that is served with both fries and white rice!

At another nearby traditional restaurant, I tried alheira for the first time. That regularly comes with french fries (batatas fritas) and a fried egg. I should note that batatas fritas here are generally hand-cut, which tastes way better than those in the US. But they’re rarely seasoned, which is not so great!

My other favorite thing about this area was a low key neighborhood park with a dog park. Like, this was just a nice residential area that I could see myself living in. I was already set on moving to Setúbal, but I could see this being a back up plan.

But also, this was close to Estação Oriente, a major transportation hub, and the Parque das Nações. A lot of CP train routes begin or end at Oriente, and there’s a Metro station and bus station in the same spot.

There’s also the big Vasco da Gama shopping mall right across the street from the train/metro/bus station, but I wasn’t interested in that!

Once I passed those features, I made it to the park, which apparently was the site of the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition. The best part for me was the long trail along the riverfront on the Tejo river.

At this point, the Tejo is an estuary, rather than a regular river, so I think that stretch of mud between the walkway and the river is because we were there at low tide.

I didn’t get nearly as many scenic photos from this stay, because I was emotionally preparing myself to head back to the US on 19 Apr.

The day before I left, though, I did take time to bookend the day with photos of the sunrise and sunset from my balcony.

I think the last little visual I have from this stay that seems worth sharing here is this short video of the blinds in the apartment:

These blackout blinds are so common here that I’ve started to take them for granted. My apartment has some that are controlled by remote control, which is a fabulous way to “turn the lights on” in the morning, but not so great when the battery in the remote dies 😂 And others use a pull string to open and close.

But this was something I don’t remember ever seeing in the US, and they’re freaking brilliant.

Even though there were challenges and I didn’t love every part of this 8 week journey, I was absolutely in love with Portugal by this point. I wasn’t looking forward to “going home”. I was preparing myself to go get my affairs in order so that I could come back to build a new home.