We’re back for part two! Lisbon was so incredible that it was impossible to fit into one blog post without overwhelming you and that is the opposite of what this is supposed to do! So here we have what to eat and where to eat it. I said in the last blog that most of the things I’ve written about are based on my own experiences. I don’t want to be writing about, never mind recommending things that I haven’t done myself. However, I also said that I immediately knew that I hadn’t given myself enough time in Lisbon so after all the food talk, I’m also going to include the things that I still want to do in Lisbon that I will just have to go back for.

What to eat and drink

Bacalhau

Bacalhau is the Portuguese word for cod but in a culinary context, specifically refers to dried and salted cod. Bacalhau is so ubiquitous in Portuguese cuisine that some people say that there are at least 365 ways of preparing it, a different way for each day of the year, and up to 1,001! Portugal loves fish but it is mostly served fresh. Bacalhau is not fresh because cod is not actually found off Portugal’s coast but brought in from near Newfoundland.

Sardines

Another very popular fish is sardines! They are linked to Lisbon’s patron saint, Santo Antonio, which is why they are eaten during the festival of Santo Antonio in June. There are canned sardine shops all over Lisbon but the best time for fresh sardines is from June to October. Recently, the prices of sardines have gone up massively because of a drop in population due to climate change and overfishing.

Bifanas

Bifanas are Portugal’s answer to a pork sandwich, a bread roll filled with a marinated pork cutlet. The meat is cooked in garlic, white wine and a few spices but served very simply. There are some variations on the bifana depending on where you are in the country but the version that I ate was the simple roll and pork with some added yellow mustard, a common combination in Lisbon and the south. They are a cheap and quick option, often eaten standing at the bar in the restaurant. A good recommendation for bifanas is As Bifanas do Afonso or read on to see where I ate.

Pastéis de nata

I’ve already mentioned these a little but pastéis de nata is Portugal’s national pastry. It’s an egg custard pastry tart often topped with cinnamon, crunchy, buttery pastry with a smooth, creamy custard and (hopefully, for me) a little burnt and crunchy on top. It was first created in the monastery in Belém. They were using a lot of egg whites to starch clothes and the egg yolks were often used to make cakes and pastries. In 1820, the monastery started selling the tarts to raise money in a moment of financial uncertainty. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and the monastery had to close. The secret recipe was sold to a local businessman who opened Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belém and to this day, nobody quite knows what’s in their pastéis! My favourite places to get pastéis de nata were in Belém and also Pastelaria Santo Antonio in Alfama.

Ginja / Ginjinha

Ginja, or ginjinha, is a sour cherry liqueur made from aguardente, brandy or fortified wine, and a little cinnamon. Ginja also refers to the fruit itself which is known as a morello cherry in English. I was welcomed to Home hostel (at 11am!) with a small measure of ginja but they warned me that it’s not a shot! Much like the Italian liqueur grappa, ginja is meant to be sipped. A new twist on ginja is that in the past few years, many street sellers have started to serve ginja in little chocolate cups!

Vinho verde

Vinho verde, or green wine, contrary to popular belief is not actually green in colour! Vinho verde is not restricted just to white wine but can also be rosé or red. It translates better as young wine as it is bottled three to six months after harvesting. It refers not to a particular type of grape but to the process which sees it harvested, bottled and drunk sooner in the process than most other wines. There used to be something in the process that gave the wine a slightly fizzy quality, something usually seen as a fault but appreciated by the consumers of vinho verde. It is now added by artificial carbonation. White vinho verde is usually fresh, fruity and floral and goes well with fish which is often on the menu in Lisbon!

Where to eat and drink

O Zé da Mouraria Mouraria

This is my number one recommendation for where to eat in Lisbon! It might even be my number one full stop. If you only listen to one thing from this blog or the previous one, let it be this. After the first walking tour that I did in Mouraria, our tour guide Zé suggested going for lunch as a group. Eight of us were up for it so we headed back to a restaurant that he had pointed out to us at the start of the tour as one of his favourites in the city. It was hidden away up a side street near Praça Martim Moniz, you would barely know there was a restaurant there, never mind one with such good food

We gave Zé free reign to order for us which was definitely the right decision. Unfortunately, we got there around 2.30 and they were already out of the bacalhau which is almost their signature. If you go, try it for me! Instead we had cuttlefish with boiled potatoes, parsley and a garlic sauce, tuna steak with more potatoes, mushrooms and tomatoes and veal in a creamy peppercorn sauce. The veal was good if you got a nice piece but some pieces were pretty chewy but the tuna steak was fantastic. I think it’s the first time I’ve eaten tuna like that and it was incredible. Just note that the portion sizes are huge! For nine people, we had the three main dishes and two portions of chips. You can get half portions but I would still say a half portion would be more than enough for two people. To finish, we shared a few slices of bolo de bolacha, biscuits soaked in coffee and covered in cream. It tasted a bit like tiramisu without the liqueur.

Tasca do Chico

Tasca do Chico is a fado house in Bairro Alto. I talked about the history of fado a bit in the last blog but what is it like to experience fado? I say experience because you don’t just listen to fado, it is something you feel. Even if you can’t understand the lyrics, like I couldn’t, the feelings of melancholy and longing still come through. There is a word for this feeling, saudade, although it encompasses much more than just that and is considered untranslatable by many people.

Tasca do chico is a more informal fado house. It’s not so much somewhere to eat but fado goes well with a beer or a glass of red wine (although there are snacks on the menu). Most fado houses are very small and this one in particular is very popular so we had to queue for a while to get in. The seating is pretty cramped and even once we got inside, it wasn’t a guarantee that there was somewhere to sit. Beyond the chaotic seating plan, there is also a particular etiquette in a fado house. When the music is about to start, the lights go down and the doors are closed. Usually the fado singer will do two or three songs in a row and you cannot talk while they are singing. If you do, you will definitely be shushed and maybe even asked to leave.

Casa das Bifanas

On my final night in Lisbon, after a walking tour in the morning and a trip to Belém, I was tired and in need of a little alone time. I love travelling by myself because I get to meet so many new people and gather friends all around the world. At the same time, I’m someone who needs a good amount of alone time which can be hard to find in a busy hostel and a shared dorm. I knew that I had lots of friends in the bar of Home hostel when it came to dinner time but I decided to slip out with just my book for company and find them for some drinks after dinner.

I still had one culinary experience left on my list that I still wanted to try before I left and that was a bifana. A friend had recommended a place called As Bifanas do Afonso which was actually really near my hostel but I was having a late dinner and it was already closed. Fortunately I had a back up recommendation from my walking tour guide, a place on Praça da Figueira called Casa das Bifanas. This meal was a great achievement because I managed to get through it all in Portuguese! (Other than asking if I could sit outside in Spanish…) It was mostly understanding what the waiter said to me and one word answers but still! The bifana was great, nothing fancy but flavourful and filling, served with chips and a beer on the side.

Pastelaria Santo Antonio

Found in Alfama, just below the castle, Pastelaria Santo Antonio is perfectly placed for a pastel de nata pit stop after wandering the hilly streets. If you don’t make it out to Belém to try the pasteis from the original vendors at Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belém, then this is a good back up plan as they were crowned the best pastel de nata in 2019! You can also try their other specialty, the croissant Porto, an enriched dough more like a brioche and glazed in port, a fortified wine from the north of Portugal.

Tabernita

This is where I ate after my second walking tour with the tour guide Zé and a few others from my hostel. If you are looking for somewhere to eat after visiting the feira da ladra flea market, this is right in the midst of it. It’s nothing fancy, nothing pretentious, just decent food! I had bacalhau à brás, like a cod fish cake made with scrambled egg and shredded potato with a side salad. I think it was the most vegetables that I had had since arriving in Portugal as most of the dishesI had didn’t involve a lot of veggies. After we had finished eating, we were trying to get the bill but apparently they can be quite slow (something to bear in mind). I didn’t mind too much because while we waited the charismatic waiter brought us some glasses, lemon slices and a dodgy looking water bottle filled with amaretto – on the house! We had to squeeze a good amount of lemon juice into the glass and then top it up with amaretto and it was delicious!

The Wish List

That’s the end of where I went, what I did and everything I ate in Lisbon! But as I’ve said before, I definitely didn’t give myself enough time and I’m already desperate to go back to Lisbon and Portugal in general. Below are some of the things that are on the list for when I make it back, hopefully in the not-so-distant future. Obviously I haven’t done these myself so can’t attest to them but hopefully it gives you some ideas and you can go and test them for me if you end up there before me.

Tram 28

This is one of the classic activities in Lisbon, the iconic trams are somewhat a symbol of the city. Tram 28 starts at Praça Martim Moniz and goes through the districts of Alfama, Baixa, Estrela and Graça and passes some of the main sights in Lisbon like the cathedral and Portas do Sol. I didn’t take the tram because I walked everywhere but it was also packed! There were long queues at Praça Martim Moniz so be prepared to wait but if you get on at any other stops, it’s unlikely you’ll get a seat and you’ll have to stand. Get on at the front, off at the back and buy a ticket in advance or top up your metro card if you want a cheaper ticket. If you want to avoid the crowds, try and ride early in the morning or later in the evening but whatever time, be aware of pickpockets!

Ascensor Santa Justa

Another classic of Lisbon, elevators in Lisbon are generally considered public transport in Lisbon, a way to navigate the many ups and downs of the city. Santa Justa is the most well-known one but using it will involve a long queue and paying €5. However, if you want the views but not the wait and are willing to brave some stairs, head around the back and walk up to the viewpoint at the top!

Castelo São Jorge

The castle is a dominant figure over Lisbon so if I was back in the city and had a bit more time, I would like to visit it. I heard from people from Lisbon though that if you’re short on time, there are other things to prioritise.

Sintra

Sintra is number one on my list of things for next time. I actually almost went because Home hostel where I was staying runs a day tour there but it wasn’t running one of the days I was there and was full the other day. Sintra is most known for the Palácio Nacional da Pena, a gorgeous structure with vivid red and yellow walls. There are several other castles and palaces to see in Sintra as well as the gorgeous hills of the Serra de Sintra. Not too far away are the Cabo de Roca cliffs which are the most westerly point of mainland Europe and some nice beaches.

Cascais

Cascais is another town outside of Lisbon, somewhere between Sintra and Belém, and is apparently a coastal gem. There are cliffs and beaches galore and is the perfect place for a few chill days.

Over the water

A recommendation from my tou guide Zé was to get the ferry over to the other side of the river and walk along the coast towards the bridge. There’s also a restaurant over there called Ponte Final which is supposed to be nice for a drink, some food and views back over to Lisbon. You can carry on walking along the coast until you get to the bridge where you get the lift up to the level of the town and get a bus back over.

LX Factory

LX Factory is an old industrial complex that has been transformed into a trendy spot filled with bars, restaurants, shops and offices. It’s a cool spot to grab a drink and hang out with friends in the evening. It also has a big bookshop so I will definitely be back!

Museums

There are some interesting sounding museums in Lisbon that I’d like to check out like the Fado museum, the tile museum and the Aljube museum of resistance and freedom.

Estufa Fria Botanic Gardens

As I’m writing this blog, I have a friend (Aine of Une Bouchée A Day) who is in Lisbon and she sent me these gorgeous photos from the botanic gardens! Definitely added to the list!

Next up on my trip in February was Lisbon, Portugal! I was really excited for this because I’d never been to Portugal before but I’ve only ever heard really good things about Lisbon. I was leaving Madrid the morning after carnival, running on about an hour’s sleep and leftover good vibes. It was also my birthday! Having celebrated it at midnight with my friend, I wasn’t too fussed about making a big deal of it once I got to Lisbon.

I had three nights in Lisbon, two and a half days. I didn’t really have any set plans before I arrived but I had lots of recommendations from friends, particularly one who spent her Erasmus year there! After talking to some people in the hostel on my first day, I added more things to the list. It may have been the hangover or the lack of sleep, but I felt pretty overwhelmed I arrived in Lisbon. I quickly realised that I hadn’t given myself enough time to do everything that I wanted to, having decided to go to Porto in the north of Portugal for a few days after Lisbon. I didn’t even know where to start! What helped was that I very quickly realised Lisbon is definitely somewhere I want to come back to in the future. That took some of the pressure off in that I didn’t have to try and fit everything into a few days.

Seeing as I found Lisbon a bit overwhelming (in the best way!), I wanted to try a slightly different structure to the blog today. Even if I was only there for a few days, I think I managed to see, do and experience a lot in that short time, and I loved everything I did! I learnt a lot as well so to try and adequately share what I know about Lisbon, without overwhelming you, I’m going to break it down into two parts – where to stay, where to go, and what to do first and then where and what to eat and drink next. Enjoy!

Where to stay

Home Hostel

I want to give the biggest shoutout to Home Lisbon Hostel. It is possibly one of my favourite hostels that I’ve ever stayed in. From the minute I arrived (extremely tired and running on a couple of hours of sleep), I felt so welcomed by the staff and the generally friendly environment. You’ll hear me mention going for dinner with girls from my dorm, meeting people on the walking tour and going to Belém with a friend from the hostel. Sometimes staying in a hostel can be intimidating and starting a conversation can be a lot of pressure but Home is somewhere where the environment is already so warm and welcoming that speaking to people feels like the natural next step.

The hostel has community at its heart. The owner, affectionately known as Mamma, cooks dinner every evening for anyone in the hostel that wants to sign up (€15 for a three course meal). There is also a great value breakfast, €5 for a buffet of eggs, bacon, beans, bread and spreads, granola and fruit, plus tea, coffee and juice that anyone can help themselves to. I had breakfast there every morning because I don’t think you could beat the value for money. I wanted to take part in mamma’s dinner on my first night but not enough people signed up and the other nights I was there, I was too full from lunch for a three course dinner! There is also the bar which is always lively in the evenings. It was a great place to have a few chill drinks with the friends you’d already made or to make new friends! They also run walking tours, day trips to places like Sintra and pub crawls.

I cannot recommend this place enough if you are going to Lisbon!

Yes! Hostel

I stayed in Home which is a very sociable hostel but if you want something that’s a bit more lively, a proper party hostel, look no further than their sister hostel, Yes! Hostel. I didn’t stay here but have a friend that did and really enjoyed it. The walking tour, as well as the pub crawl, is an activity that is shared between Home and Yes so you can meet people from both hostels. That’s what happened on one of the walking tours I did (yes, I did two! More on that below). I made friends with a guy from my hostel and a guy from Yes!, both from Quebec. I got to try out my French on them and attempt to understand their accents! Even though I lived with a guy from Montreal last year, he didn’t have the accent but these guys did! Combined with the different vocab they used, I could just about understand them when they were talking to me (I think they slowed down for me) but when they were talking to each other, no chance!

At the end of the walking tour we agreed to meet up again that evening at Yes! hostel to play some beer pong. We got there just as a lot of the guests were finishing their version of a family dinner. It was very wholesome but as soon as the meal was finished, the lights went down, the music went up and the beer pong tables came out. It was a really fun evening chatting with the guys from the walking tour and a few others, crushing it at beer pong and then going Home (pun intended) to bed as everyone from Yes! went out on the pub crawl.

Where to go

Mouraria

I’ve already mentioned that I did two walking tours while in Lisbon, both through my hostel, and the first was in the neighbourhood of Mouraria. This neighbourhood is the most diverse in Lisbon, with over 50 different nationalities living there, and was traditionally Muslim. It is also the birthplace of fado music, a very soulful and mournful type of music very closely associated with Lisbon. We passed through a square on Largo da Severa where Maria Severa, the first famous fado singer, lived. She was a prostitute credited with bringing fado music to the aristocracy, contributing to its growth in mainstream popularity. Fado is intrinsically linked with the past of Mouraria because it is said that its origins come from slaves longing for their previous lives, sailors longing for home, the women they left behind longing for the sailors and Muslims longing for the pre-Christianity Lisbon. Lisbon was a Muslim city until the Second Crusade in 1147 when it was converted to Christianity by the first king of Portugal. At this point, Muslims living in the city were forced out of the neighbourhood of Alfama, inside the city walls, and into the new Muslim ghetto of Mouraria.

Mouraria starts at the bottom of the castle hill by the Praça Martim Moniz, the starting point for the famous, yellow Tram 28. At the corner of the square, where you start to head uphill, there is a church but the most interesting part about it is actually on the floor. The facade of the church is reflected in mosaics on the street around it! Walking through Mouraria, you’ll notice that it’s not as aesthetic as other neighbourhoods like Alfama but it feels more authentic and real in some ways. We passed one of the oldest houses in Lisbon on Largo da Achada. When you look at other buildings as well, you’ll see that the upper floors of some buildings, including this one, stick out a bit because houses used to be taxed based on the surface area of the ground floor so often the upper floors were built outwards to get around that.

Alfama

The second walking tour that I did took me into Alfama, Lisbon’s oldest neighbourhood. Cobbled streets will take you up to the Castelo de São Jorge and the Sé de Lisboa, the castle and the cathedral respectively. Alfama used to be a gritty neighbourhood filled with sailors and dock workers but nowadays it has a trendier, more vibrant reputation. As with Mouraria, be prepared for a lot of climbing! Lisbon is a very hilly city, particularly around the castle, but this also means that it has some incredible views. We started by heading up past some fado murals by the Escadinhas de São Cristóvão and then up to a great viewpoint next to the Palácio do Marquês de Tancos. We carried on further into Alfama, passing a house that is owned (but is apparently not really used) by Louis Vuitton.

Alfama is a great place to find fado houses but while we were in Alfama, we actually stopped for our tour guide to tell us about music that is more or less the opposite of fado. Fado is very melancholic and nostalgic but pimba is very uptempo and almost comedic. They range from corny to saucy to downright vulgar all while retaining an element of innuendo. We also heard about the massive street parties that happen in Lisbon, particularly Alfama and Mouraria. The Festival of Santo Antonio happens throughout the month of June and sees the streets draped in colourful streamers and filled with the sound of pimba music. People crowd the streets to drink traditional cherry liqueur, grill sardines and dance until morning.

One of the most interesting things I took from the walking tour I did in the neighbourhood of Alfama was the ‘Alma de Alfama‘ (Soul of Lisbon) project by British-born photographer Camilla Watson. The project commemorates the long-time residents of Alfama, from immigrants of former Portuguese colonies to young people to the elderly. Portraits are printed directly onto the wall of the house where the subject lives or lived. There is a big problem with the residents being forced out because of increases in prices. A lot of this is due to buildings being bought out to be used as AirBnBs as tourism in Lisbon has soared in the last decade.

Bairro Alto

The one and only stop for Lisbon’s nightlife, Bairro Alto has over 300 bars. I actually only spent one brief evening in Bairro Alto to watch fado music but if I had had more time in Lisbon, I definitely would have been here more. Spots not to miss are the ascensor Gloria (a funicular), the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara (a viewpoint), and Rua Nova do Carvalho, otherwise known as Pink Street, a pedestrianised street lined by bars and clubs.

Belém

Belém, 5 km to the west of Lisbon, is somewhere between a suburb and its own town but seeing as it’s basically attached to the city, it’s very easy and worthwhile visiting while you’re in Lisbon. I had planned on going with a girl from my hostel on my last evening after doing my second walking tour. I was pretty tired by the time I got back to the hostel and almost didn’t even go but I’m very glad I did! It’s very easy to get to Belém using public transport but Uma and I wanted to get there in time to catch the last of sunset so we hopped in a Bolt (the cheaper version of Uber that is popular in Portugal). Even the drive to Belém was lovely, along the water and under the Vasco da Gama bridge. It looks suspiciously like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco but at more than 12 km long, it is actually slightly longer.

We got dropped off at the Torre de Belém just in time for the last rays of sunset. The Belém tower is a symbol of the city and more widely of the Portuguese age of exploration as it was a starting point for ships in the 16th century heading to East Africa, Brazil and India. You can walk along the banks of the estuary from the tower to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos – the Monument of the Discoveries. This is the official celebration of the Portuguese Age of Discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries. At 52m high, it’s hard to miss and has great views over the estuary and to the tower. Because I was there in the evening we weren’t able to climb it but I would love to. The figures lining the sides of the monument are the explorers themselves and those that made the expeditions possible. The monument is pretty impressive but I think it’s also important not to romanticise this era of discovery. It marked the adoption of colonial mindsets and practices by many countries and was accompanied by brutalities as much as discoveries.

The final major sight in Belém is the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, the monastery where the Portuguese national pastry, pastel de nata, was invented. Again, because we were there in the evening it was closed but it is somewhere I would have liked to go inside. Just a bit further along the street is Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belém. It was the first place to sell pastéis de nata and now sells over 20,000 a day! I had heard that this place has THE best pastéis de nata and I have to say that it lived up to the hype! It was my favourite pastel de nata that I ate on this trip. There can sometimes be long lines so if you want to avoid those, go in the morning or the evening like I did, but I think that both the sit in and takeaway line move pretty quickly anyway and it’s worth the wait!

What to do

Walking tours

I’ve already talked at length about where I went and what I learned on these tours in the Mouraria and Alfama sections but I want to talk a little more about the experience of the walking tour. In general I’m a big fan of doing a walking tour, especially on the first day in a new city. I think it’s a great way to get your bearings and also figure out if there’s anywhere you want to go back to. Tour guides are a font of knowledge as well so you can ask them questions and for some off-the-beaten-path recommendations, as well as finding out if there’s anything that they think is overrated. Often these kinds of walking tours are ‘free’ but tip based. A ‘free’ walking tour should not actually be free. Your tour guide has spent sometimes hours walking you around the city and sharing their hard-earned knowledge with you and they deserve to be adequately compensated for that. I think €10 is a good minimum price but if you had a great time and think they deserve more, go for it!

If the walking tour is linked to your hostel, or even if it’s not, it’s also a great way to make friends. This is what happened with the two I did through Home hostel. I went on the first walking tour with a few girls from my dorm, met more people at breakfast that were doing it and then spent the evening with the Canadian guys I met on the tour itself. For the second walking tour the following day, there were four of us from the day before who were back for round two.

And now, a moment to speak about the man of the hour. The tour guide for both of the walking tours I went on was a Portuguese guy called Zé. He was the main reason that I decided to go back for the second tour. I was a big fan of his style, he was very engaging, clearly knew his stuff and has done this plenty of times before but at the same time it’s obvious that he enjoys not just showing people around Lisbon and sharing it’s secrets with them, but also getting to meet new people from all over. We got a lot of information from Zé which he also balanced well with his own opinions on certain subjects. He was also happy to go with the flow. At one point on my first tour, which was a smaller group of about 12, some people wanted to get a coffee so the whole group stopped at this little cafe in one of Mouraria’s narrow streets. Zé ordered a round of espressos and we drank them outside the cafe before moving on. The following day the group was much bigger, more like 35 people, so it had to be slightly more regimented to make sure it didn’t take us all day to get around the route but the vibes were still great. Zé also got to know me quickly enough that halfway through the first tour, every time we passed a cat he would look around and make sure I’d seen it!

Viewpoints

In a city as picturesque as Lisbon, there is no shortage of spots to appreciate it from. Bearing in mind how hilly Lisbon is, the viewpoints can be a double-edged sword – the views are incredible but the climb up is killer. Therefore, any viewpoint where you can enjoy a cold beer after arriving gets bonus points!

Miradouro da Senhora do Monte

This is the highest point in Lisbon and honestly an underrated viewpoint in my opinion. At least from what I’ve heard and read, it gets talked about a lot less than Portas do Sol or the castle for example but the views are better! The viewpoint is in the neighbourhood of Graça, just next to Mouraria, and has fantastic views across to the castle, over to the downtown neighbourhood of Baixa, into Bairro Alto and across the water.

Miradouro das Portas do Sol

Miradouro das Portas do Sol is potentially the most popular viewpoint in Lisbon and it’s not hard to see why. There is a large terrace area where you can sit with a drink and enjoy the view over Alfama’s burnt orange rooftops, the National Pantheon, the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora and the Tagus river.

Just behind the square at Portas do Sol is the oldest house in Lisbon. This house is 500 years old! What is even more impressive is that it survived the earthquake of 1755. On 1st November 1755, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre in the Atlantic ocean destroyed Lisbon. Because the epicentre was at sea, Lisbon was also hit by a massive tsunami. As if that wasn’t enough, religious celebrations for the Feast of All Saints meant that candles had been lit in churches all around the city which caused a huge fire. Bad things really do come in threes! Between 12,000 and 50,000 people died making it one of the deadliest earthquakes ever. After that, the city had to be rebuilt and was earthquake-proofed by using internal cage-like wooden structures in the new buildings. They thankfully remain untested. When you walk around Lisbon, you will see a mishmash of buildings because some had to be rebuilt so there are newer ones shoulder to shoulder with older ones.

Just below the Miradouro das Portas do Sol is a fantastic mural covering the history of Lisbon which is definitely worth checking out! It starts with the Phoenicians founding the city of Ulissipo, through the Portuguese Inquisition, the earthquake in 1755, ending with the carnation revolution in 1974 which overthrew the Estado Novo regime.

Miradouro de Santa Luzia

Portas do Sol‘s little, lesser known sister is a great option if you want basically the same views but much smaller crowds. It is behind the Igreja de Santa Luzia which feature some beautiful tile panels showing Lisbon before the earthquake and also crusaders storming the castle in the 12th century. There is a little cafe and often artists selling their work and buskers providing ambient background music to this romantic corner of Lisbon.

Feira da Ladra

Feira da Ladra, the Thieves’ Market, is a flea market that happens in a square behind the National Pantheon every Tuesday and Saturday. The word ladra means ‘female thief’ but some people say that the name of the market actually comes from the Portuguese word ladro, referring to a specific type of bug or flea that is found in antique furniture. A nice little play on words there. It has everything you would expect from a flea market, some tourist souvenirs, lots of beautiful tiles, stalls with a mishmash of books, jewellery and a random assortment of bits and bobs, local artists and more. This is where we finished the Alfama walking tour and even though the market carries on until 6pm, some sellers will pack up around 2pm. That’s around when we arrived though and it was still pretty bustling!

That’s it for now but I hope this has been helpful and given you an insight into why this city captured my attention so much and makes you want to visit it as much as I want to go back! Part 2 is coming soon and going to cover what and where to eat in Lisbon. Most of the things I’ve written here are based on what I did myself on my trip but next time I’ll also talk about some of the things that I didn’t do but wanted to or had recommended to me. See you soon for part two!

Throwing it back to mid-February, it’s time to talk about Madrid! This trip was during the winter holidays of the university. Due to my timetable this semester, I managed to stretch the week off into an 11 day trip as I don’t work on Thursday or Friday. And when I say first thing, I mean first thing! My flight wasn’t until about 10am but it just so happened to be on a strike day. You may or may not have seen but France has been afflicted by repeated and worsening strikes since the start of the year (this isn’t the time or place to get into it). Not only have they been affecting trains, so I was worried about getting to the airport, but also air traffic controllers so my actual flight was at risk. In the end, everything was fine – I got up really early, factoring in extra time for cancelled trains but didn’t need it so just got to the airport with plenty of time.

When I landed in Madrid, it was easy to get from the airport into the centre of town. I got out of the metro at Puerta del Sol, one of the main squares, and had a five minute walk to my hostel which was just off Plaza Mayor. I was staying at The Hat hostel and while I didn’t spend much time in it other than to sleep, I would recommend it! My dorm room was clean and spacious with its own bathroom, there was a rooftop bar that also served some food and a cafe downstairs. You can have breakfast there in the mornings and take part in free sangria making workshops every evening to meet other travellers. The reason I didn’t spend much time there was because part of my reason for coming to Madrid was to visit a friend from university that lives there, as well as finally see the Spanish capital. There was a brief period back in October or November when I was actually thinking about moving to Spain after finishing my time in France and visiting Madrid was going to be a test run to see if it would be somewhere I could live. Having now decided that I’m heading back to Scotland when I finish in Mulhouse, any pressure was off this trip other than just to have a good time!

My friend Marta, who I know from our water polo team at Edinburgh University, and her friend Elisa met me at the hostel and we headed out for the day. First stop was food! My breakfast was a long time ago at that point but thankfully Marta had somewhere in mind to try a Madrid classic. Bocadillo de calamare is crusty bread filled with crispy rings of calamari. Sometimes they can have a little olive oil, lemon juice or alioli but ours were just plain and simple. La Campaña is quite a small restaurant just around the corner from my hostel that could easily be missed if it weren’t for the lines out the door! At least when I was there the line for takeaway was much shorter and moved very quickly so I would recommend that, especially when you can enjoy it in Plaza Mayor just a few steps away. Saying that, we took ours a little further and ate them opposite Palacio Real. This is the official residence of the Spanish royal family in Madrid but is mostly used for ceremonial purposes.

With the extra energy from the bocadillo we walked up into Parque de la Montaña where you’ll find the Templo de Debod, a displaced ancient Egyptian temple. You might be wondering how an Egyptian temple landed in the middle of a park in Madrid Spain. A fair enough question! In 1960, construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was threatening a number of highly valuable archaeological sites including the Temple of Debod and the famous Abu Simbel temples. Spain was instrumental in moving the Abu Simbel temples 65m higher than their original location on the banks of the river Nile and 200m further back to avoid the rise in water level from the dam’s reservoir. Out of gratitude for their help, Egypt gifted the Temple of Debod to Spain. It is unique in being one of the few examples of ancient Egyptian architecture that can be found outside Egypt and the only one in Spain.

Back down out of the park is Plaza de España with a monument to Miguel Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. In front of Cervantes there is a statue of Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza. While here, Marta told me an interesting fact that Cervantes and Shakespeare died only a day apart in 1616! From Plaza de España we walked along Gran Vía, sometimes known as the Spanish Broadway, where you’ll find most of the big shops in Madrid. My excellent local tour guide pointed out some interesting statues on the roofs along Gran Vía around the big Primark (it’s so big that this is honestly a tourist sight in and of itself). On the roof on one side of the street is a statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting, shooting arrows across to the other side. On the opposite side of the road, you can see a statue of a man and a phoenix. The story goes that this man represents Endymion, the mortal shepherd that Diana fell in love with and would visit every night. When her father Zeus found out, he was enraged and sent a phoenix to capture Endymion and hide him away from Diana. She discovered the plan and that’s why she’s shooting across the street. You can see the arrows that have fallen short engraved in the paving stones outside Primark. In fact, the statue is not Endymion but Ganymede, Zeus’ lover, and the phoenix is more likely to be an eagle to fit with that but never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

We wandered around a little more with an ice cream pit stop and ended up down at Plaza de Cibeles. The square is traditionally where Real Madrid fans celebrate their wins and it also has the impressive Palacio de Cibeles, a grand building that used to be the main post office and is now the city council building. There is also a flame that burns in memory of Madrid’s covid victims. At this point it was time to enjoy some beers in the last of the sun so we headed to a nearby 100 Montaditos, a chain specialising in mini sandwiches for a couple of euros and beers for the same price.

Eventually it was getting late and we needed a little something to eat so we headed back towards Puerta del Sol. Marta chose a place for hornazo de Salamanca, a specialty from Salamanca, where Marta’s mum is from. It’s a meat pie cut into sandwich-like pieces. It has pork loin, chorizo and ham inside as well as boiled eggs (although the ones we got didn’t). It was a bit heavy but very tasty! And thus concluded a very packed first day in Madrid!

The first day felt like it was all about getting the lay of the land and seeing all the main tourist spots. I already felt like I knew the basic layout of things and had a good feel for the city. I genuinely felt like I had seen most of the tourist spots on our 13.5km tour yesterday. Little did I know that my second day would have six more kilometres on top of that. Day two was about digging in more. I had the morning to myself today until Marta, who lives just outside Madrid, came in to meet me. I anticipated another big day ahead of me so started out with the breakfast of champions – churros, chocolate and coffee – at Chocolatería Valor, enjoying it in the sunshine with my book. I started by heading back into one of the neighbourhoods that we had walked through a little yesterday. Chueca is known as Madrid’s gay neighbourhood, home to many shops, bars and restaurants and is one of the liveliest parts of the city. A friend had recommended a bookshop to me so I stopped by and of course ended up buying a book because that’s my weakness in life.

After that I headed over to Retiro Park where I was meeting Marta. Parque Retiro is 1.4km² with plenty to do and see inside. We walked past the monument to Alfonso XII, a Spanish king in the 19th century, which is alongside an artificial lake where you can hire row boats. As you walk further in you’ll find the Palacio de Cristal which reminded me a lot of the big greenhouse in Edinburgh’s Botanic Garden! We came out the other side of Retiro and then walked back along Paseo del Prado, a boulevard that runs along the long side of the park and is home to the so-called ‘Golden Triangle of Art’ with the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum. It also has another fountain where fans of the football team Atlético Madrid celebrate their wins!

We had lunch (at 4.30pm) in a kind of fancy tapas restaurant called Vinitus. There were patatas bravas of course, huevos cabreados (chips with a fried egg and patatas bravas sauces mixed through), pulpo a la gallega (octopus with mashed potato and paprika), a montadito (a little sandwich) with beef tenderloin and foie gras and the squid, octopus and artichoke special. It was a lot of food! But very delicious and a cold beer and a sit down was very welcome.

There was one final stop for the day. Marta suggested that we visit one of the museums in the Golden Triangle. She was giving me a little synopsis of each one when suddenly I knew which one I wanted to go to. It wasn’t something I had on my radar but the Reina Sofia Museum is home to Guernica by Picasso. I remember learning about it and recreating it in art class in primary school and I’ve always wanted to see it. There’s a museum in Colmar that has a tapestry version of it but when I visited, it was on loan elsewhere! We headed to the museum and with various student and young people’s cards we both managed to get in for free. We wandered around a little before and after but Guernica was the main thing that we were there to see.

After this, Marta headed home and I went to meet up with another friend for a drink. I met Mabel when I was volunteering in the hostel in Tenerife and she was staying in the hostel. She suggested getting a drink in the rooftop bar of Hotel Riu on Plaza España but it had a 40 minute wait. We went just next door instead to another rooftop bar and had a drink while catching up. Afterwards we walked into Malasaña, the neighbourhood next to Chueca. It is known as being the ‘hipster’ area, with lots of bars, clubs and young people. We were actually looking for somewhere to have another drink but it was a Friday and there were too many young people and not enough bars in this case. After a while, I was getting tired (I had walked close to 20km that day by this point) so we called it and I headed back to my hostel.

On my final day, I had the morning in Madrid and then I was actually heading out of the city for my final night, to stay with my friend Marta in her hometown for carnival! But before I get ahead of myself, I still had a morning to kill in the city and I had a few things lined up. On the recommendation of a friend, I wanted to visit the Museo de América, apparently the only museum in the world dedicated to the entire American continent, north and south. It was free using my university card which was great although it’s only €3 otherwise. There was so much to see but all the information was in Spanish so it took me a while to go round and I don’t think I saw everything. If you don’t speak Spanish, they also have audio guides in English and French. I had my eyes peeled throughout for anything from Honduras, it being my area of special interest but the closest I got was El Salvador or general mesoamérica. It was really interesting seeing things from areas that I’ve visited, having actually been to various Mayan ruins in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, and particularly learning about the Mayan script. I would say that the majority of the exhibitions I saw were from Mexico, Colombia and Peru so if you are interested in those areas I would definitely recommend it!

Right next door to the museum was the faro de moncloa, a tower with a viewpoint at the top (faro means lighthouse). There is a saying ‘de Madrid al cielo’ which means ‘from Madrid to heaven’ because Madrid is so good that to top it, you’ll have to go up into the skies. Well, with the faro you can be 110m closer! (But don’t worry, it’s a lift that will take you up to the top!) It cost €4 and didn’t take long so if you’re in the area it’s definitely worth it. I love getting aerial views over cities so I was all for it, especially seeing as I had already seen a lot of places so now I was able to pick out the places I knew. If I wasn’t short on time, there are a series of parks below the faro that lead down to the temple of Debod which I think would be lovely to walk through.

After this I headed out to Marta’s where we got ready for carnival (a power nap was involved). Everybody dresses up in costumes for carnival so I was joining in with some of her friends and their pirate costumes. Mine was very makeshift as I was only travelling with a rucksack for ten days so the base was black jeans and a white t-shirt. I used an off-cut of pirate themed material from Marta’s costume as a belt and we had lots of gold pieces to put in our hair.

We joined the massive parade as it slowly made its way through town and it was so fun to see all the costumes! My favourite was a guy dressed in a kilt, a group dressed as creative interpretations of Madrid subway stations and a huge group lined up with foam noodles fashioned into seats around them, fake legs hanging down, pretending they were on a rollercoaster! After a quick dinner from Lidl (jamón sandwiches) we made our way down to the main area where we would spend the rest of the night. It was basically a big concert with a few DJs playing until 5am! We found a few more of Marta’s friends and found a spot amongst the masses. This was actually the day before my birthday so when it hit midnight we celebrated me turning 25! An hour later, at midnight in the UK, I phoned my twin sister who was at home in bed and made everyone say happy birthday to her! It was very unlike me but we actually stayed out until the end of the concert at 5am. By the time we got back to Marta’s and into bed it was 6am. I managed to get an hour and a half of sleep before calling an Uber to get to the airport and head off to my next destination!

Typing this is bittersweet but we are on to the final part of my Morocco series. The past few blog posts have been some of my favourite to write as I remember one of my favourite trips. I hope I’ve been able to impart at least some of my love for Morocco onto you and that you might consider Morocco for a future trip! If you do, let me know and I’m happy to talk to you about it, give you even more recommendations and hell, even go with you. Despite all my love for Morocco and the incredible time I had there, the fourth and final part of my week in Morocco is a little different in that I don’t have 100% positive things to say about it. I will preface what I’m about to tell you with the fact that none of that is Morocco’s fault. It comes down to trying to see as much as I could in the limited amount of time that I had and maybe pushing things a little far.

With all that out of the way, and as you can probably tell from the title, I spent my last few days on a trip to the Sahara desert! This was something that Hiba and I had decided on together as it would be something new for her as well. We looked at a couple of places but we were limited by the amount of time I had. When we were planning the trip, I only really had one night to spare for a trip to the Sahara if I was to fit in everything else that I wanted to do. This ruled out a few places such as Merzouga, a town deeper into the desert close to the Algerian border. We considered Ouarzazate, known as the Hollywood of Africa but it’s only really on the edge of the Sahara and we wanted something more immersive (more on Ouarzazate later though).

We had originally booked something through Tripadvisor but when we got to our riad in Marrakesh, Hiba and Rania got chatting to the guy checking us in who was able to get us a similar trip as we had booked but for a bit cheaper. I think we were reassured by being able to talk to someone about it, someone who was really welcoming to us in the riad and had already been super helpful. We were also able to see some pictures of the camp. We decided to go for it because we were getting good vibes from him and I’m all about listening to people in the place, in the hotel or hostel because they’re the ones that know. I’m sure he got something out of it as well but I can’t blame him for seizing the opportunity!

So Thursday rolls around, five days since I arrived in Morocco, and we had an early start – 6am to be exact. We had spoken to the guys in the riad the day before and they had said someone would be up to prepare breakfast for us and then take us out to meet the trip organisers. After a slightly stressful start because our contact in the riad overslept after a late check in the night before, we made it to our tour van and met our driver and the other people on the trip. It was a very German heavy group but there was also a French mother and daughter couple, a Portuguese and French couple, a half-Belgian half-Moroccan guy and an Argentinian plus this Scot and my two Moroccan companions.

We were heading out of Marrakesh by 8am and drove for a few hours until our first stop. By the time we stopped we were in the Atlas mountains, a mountain range that stretches for 2,500km across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It was obviously a popular spot because there were a lot of other tour buses there but not much about other than a little cafe and a balcony with a gorgeous view. I took advantage of it because as soon as we were back off in the bus I was incapable of staying awake. I think the last few days were catching up with me and a year of travelling on chicken buses through Central America means that I’m pretty adept at falling asleep in moving vehicles, however uncomfortable. After another couple of hours of driving, we had another brief stop to stretch our legs at Tizi n ‘Tichka, a well known mountain pass that is 2,212m above sea level. Apparently Tizi n ‘Tichka means ‘difficult mountain pasture’ in Berber which is a fair enough designation. It had absolutely spectacular views though.

Around 12.30pm, so four and a half hours into the journey, we reached our first proper stop. Aït Benhaddou has been a filming location for many films and TV series including most recently Game of Thrones but also Lawrence of Arabia, Asterix and Obelix, Gladiator, The Mummy and Indiana Jones. At one point it was also a stop along the caravan route from the Sahara to Marrakesh. Traders would spend a few nights there before going on to traverse the Atlas Mountains via the mountain pass of Tizi n ‘Tichka, where we had passed through earlier. Nowadays the ksar (a fortified village) still has a few families that live there, benefiting from the tourism related to the film industry. The old village lies across the dried up bed of the Ounila river, across from the new town where most people live now. Included in the price of our tour to Zagora was a guide to take us around Aït Benhaddou. He spoke incredible English, French and Spanish as well as Arabic and some Berber, all of which we heard on our tour. We were taken into a traditional Berber house and able to look around and also stopped in at an artisan’s workshop. He was using saffron and tea to paint a barely visible scene onto the paper. This is then heated over a flame, bringing out and fixing the colours onto the paper. The pictures often depict kasbahs or ksars, desert scenery and camels. If you bought one you could also have your name added in Berber.

I’ve mentioned Berber a few times in the past few blogs, most notably when we visited the Berber museum in the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh. Berbers are the indigenous people of the Maghreb region in North Africa, covering what is now Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, They are also known as the Amazigh as is their language. The Berber language is actually a collection of languages that is written using the Tifinagh script. An interesting crossover is that the indigenous people of the Canary Islands (where you’ll find Tenerife, 100 km west of Morocco), the Guanches, are believed to have spoken a now extinct branch of the Berber languages. Morocco has the largest number of Berber speakers with an estimated 24% of the population speaking at least one Berber language. Berber suffered during the post-independence years as Morocco and other North African countries tried to replace the influence of France and the French language with a policy of ‘Arabisation’ during which time all forms of Berber were oppressed. Berber is now an official language of Morocco. To give you an idea of what Berber looks like written down, this means ‘Morocco’ in Standard Moroccan Berber, also known as Standard Moroccan Amazigh or Tamazight – ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ.

After Aït Benhaddou we carried on to Ouarzazate which we would come back to the next day. For now it was only a quick lunch stop. It wasn’t the best food that I had in Morocco, a bit of a tourist trap judging by the high price and lower quality than I expected. I did get to try couscous though and tick that off my Moroccan food list although I’ve eaten it before and it wasn’t my favourite, I have to say. After a quick lunch it was back in the van and a race to our final destination before sunset.

We were running a little behind so we only saw the sunset from the van and arrived at Zagora in the light of twilight. I personally hadn’t realised this but the final stage of our journey was going to be made by camel! We could only take what we could carry so just what we needed overnight. We were able to leave our bigger bags in the van with our driver who wasn’t coming to the camp and would look after them. If you are going to do something like this, I would probably recommend leaving your bigger bags back at your riad or hotel in Marrakesh, especially if you are going back to the same place like we were. Everything was perfectly safe the way we did it but we had been given the option to leave it at our riad and I think that would have been easier in the end.

Here I have to admit that I’m not the biggest animal person. I have slowly come around to cats in the last few years after our wee girl Anna wormed her way into my heart and anyone that knows me or follows me on Instagram knows that I’m OBSESSED with my dog (and all dogs) but aside from them, most animals make me a little nervous. Enter a two metre tall Dromedary camel that was going to carry me to our camp. Getting on them was fine but the lurching movement when they stood up almost had me calling the whole thing off. The movement of the camel once we started moving was actually very jarring, nothing like what I remember riding a horse to be like from my (admittedly limited) experience. Juggling my hastily packed assortment of tote bags also proved difficult and I almost dropped them several times. In the growing darkness, I feel like that would have been the last time I would have seen them. I was so uncomfortable, borderline in pain, and then I heard someone ask how long it would take to get to camp and I genuinely thought it must be a joke when they replied an hour! No joke, but I was finally able to get my bags in a better position. Comfortable might be taking it too far but I was definitely more at ease.

We finally reached the camp after passing several others on the way, my hopes rising each time a collection of lights grew larger and then sinking again as we passed them and continued on. Finally we did approach our camp and we were able to get off the bloody camels. One of my knees had started hurting from just hanging there and my inner thighs were screaming from having to grip on. One of the things going through my head during the journey was that, for me, riding a camel was really a once in a lifetime experience – as in, I was only going to do this once in my life because there was no way I was ever going to get back on a camel ever again!

Our camp was simple but homely, a circle of tents for sleeping, a larger one for eating and a few carpets laid out in the middle where we could gather. The toilets were just outside of the circle. The group from our van were joining up with another tour group in the camp that were already sitting having some tea. We joined them and got to know each other a bit more as well as meeting the hosts of the camp. It was already 8pm by the time we arrived so it wasn’t long before we were all taken into the dining tent for some food. A Moroccan classic, we had soup to start followed by chicken and olive tagine with potatoes, vegetable and of course some bread. I’ll speak for myself, Hiba and Rania but after a 12 hour day, at least 8 of which were driving or riding a camel, we were very tired and getting a bit delirious. I won’t say it wasn’t fun, as we broke down in laughter over the smallest thing, the way only very fatigued minds and very close friends are able to. I was on the verge of going to bed when instead we were ushered outside to a bonfire and our hosts with their musical instruments. We enjoyed the music for a while and danced a bit before we got to have a go on the drums as well! We had a little walk outside of the camp to look at the stars away from the light before calling it a night.

Obviously it gets quite cold at night in the desert, at least compared to during the day, but I wasn’t too bad. I slept just in a t-shirt and shorts but still wrapped up in a big blanket and I was fine! I started to get cold just before we had to get up at 7am but I pulled on some trousers and a jumper and it was all good! Our group had breakfast, a little spread of bread, jam, cheese, boiled eggs, coffee and tea before packing ourselves up. Now the night before I had thought that I would never, ever get on a camel again but sleep had made the pain and discomfort more distant. We had been promised that the ride out of camp would be half the length of the night before, so only half an hour, and when else am I going to get to ride a camel? This time though, there was a camel with panniers where I was able to tuck one of my wee bags so that I could arrange myself more comfortably. I’ve already said that I would recommend leaving any big bags or suitcases in Marrakesh but for the bag you bring with you, make sure it’s a backpack! You need something that doesn’t require any hands to hold on to, unlike a tote bag, so you can focus all your energy on not falling off! Most people had had the same change of heart as me, after feeling the same as me the day before, although there were a couple of people that decided to take the journey on foot.

We rode back out to meet our driver and the van, ready to start the 8 hours of driving back to Marrakesh. We left around 8am again and were going for several hours with just a few short bathroom breaks before arriving back in Ouarzazate around 12.30. This time we got to see a little bit more during a short walking tour with a guide. Ouarzazate is known as the ‘Hollywood of Morocco’ because it is home to a number of film studios. It acts as a base for productions filming in Aït Ben Haddou for example. It also has the nickname of the Door of the Desert because of its position at the far edges of the Sahara and 70% of the population speaks Berber. It is a popular tourist destination, is known for the Ouazgita carpets made by Berber women and plays host to the ‘marathon des sables’, a gruelling 6 day, 250km race across the desert.

We wandered through the medina where the guide talked to us about the castle and the old town. We stopped in a women’s artisan association as well and had some tea. After our tea and being entertained by an absolutely adorable cat, we went down into the shop and got to see some of the carpet designs. Carpet weaving is a traditional Berber art made by the women. It takes hours and hours especially because they only do a couple of hours at a time because it’s bad for their eyes. I did think it was interesting that even in an association of and for women, the only woman we saw was the one that brought us tea. It was men that showed us the carpets and explained them to us. We had a look around the shop and the carpets were gorgeous and they had some really nice earrings as well but it was all pretty expensive.

It was back in the car and another hour or two before we arrived at our lunch spot. It was the same kind of place as the day before, definitely made to serve these bus trips with a set menu price. However it was a little better in terms of quality than the other place. Between the three of us we split a mixed kebab plate and a kefta plate. The kebab plate had two chicken skewers and some keftas which are basically little beef meatballs with chips and salad. Not the best and not the worst thing I ate during my trip. We were back in the bus with a few more toilet stops before getting back to Marrakesh around 7.30pm, about 36 hours after we left. We got dropped off first and hobbled our way back to Riad Chennaoui. After hours and hours in the van and with aching muscles from the camel riding, all we wanted was to lie down. It was our last night in Marrakesh and my last night in Morocco so we felt like we needed to make the most of it but once we got back, there was no way we were leaving again. Instead we ordered a pizza and called it a night.

In all honesty, I’m torn about whether this trip to Zagora was worth it. The experience of being in the camp in the desert and the stops we had in Aït Benhaddou and Ouarzazate were a lot of fun and very interesting. On the other hand, the journey on either side was SO. LONG. We left Marrakesh at 8am and arrived at camp at 8pm. We had stops but at least 8 of those hours were driving or on camel. And then the same to get back to Marrakesh. It was a lot. I think if we had stayed a day in the camp before going back it would have been better. There was also the option of going to Merzouga which is 300km or 4 hours further into the Sahara but that was a multi-day trip which I didn’t have time for. I already know that I’ll be back to Morocco and maybe then I can do a longer trip at a slower pace but I don’t think that trying to fit it into one night away really did it justice.

After one more night in Marrakesh, it was time to go home. I had a slightly rushed final morning as I wanted to nip out and get a few souvenirs before my taxi to the airport that the riad had helped me organise. It was sad to say goodbye to Hiba and Rania because we’d had such an amazing week. It was so nice that me and Hiba were able to pick up where we left off and then me and Rania have formed such a good friendship in such a short amount of time.

My return journey was via London with a pretty long layover but it was surprisingly nice to be back in an English speaking country, however briefly. I arrived back in Paris around 10.30pm so it wasn’t possible for me to get back to Mulhouse on the same day but luckily I have a very lovely friend, Lizzie, who has a very lovely couch that I was able to crash on. It was nice to catch up with someone else, even if I was barely there for 12 hours, before finally arriving back in Mulhouse the Sunday after I left.

I can’t believe that everything included in the last four blogs all happened within a week. Despite how much I’ve enjoyed writing them, I worry that I haven’t and won’t ever be able to fully convey how incredible and special this week was. It wasn’t just that the food was delicious (maybe more so than I expected) or that the history was fascinating, the culture was rich and vibrant, the people were some of the most welcoming that I’ve ever met. It was so much more than that. I had been thinking about this trip for three years since I met my friends in China in 2019. A lot has changed in the world since then but I’m so glad to have met them and be able to pick up where we left off as well as have them show me around their home. Reconnecting with Cheima, Aymen and particularly Hiba, my beautiful, kind, generous and funny tour guide for the week, as well as becoming fast friends with Rania was the heart and soul of this trip and to me is really what drives me to travel as much as I do. It’s all about making, and then sustaining, these connections. As I look forward to the travelling that is to come in 2023, a lot more of what I have planned is built around people rather than places and I’m thrilled about that.

I have this philosophy when it comes to saying goodbye. I used to get really upset or emotional when saying goodbye to something, somewhere or someone that means a lot to me. The first time I remember this was at the end of a month-long trip to Costa Rica when I was 17, a trip that was a catalyst for pretty much everything that has happened since. I was distraught at the thought of leaving when so much had changed since I had been there, when I had changed so much since I had been there. Now, that is a rare thing to happen. I usually don’t get upset or even vaguely teary eyed because I’m at the stage where if somewhere or someone is important enough to me that I might get upset at the thought of leaving them, then I know I will see them again. I know that I will be back to Morocco. There’s so much more to see! And whether they like it or not, these people are stuck with me for life.