🌤️⛲ Lisbon

It came with light ✨ the kind that doesn’t just land, but spills. It poured down the cobbled alleys of Alfama like honey, catching on white laundry and yellow walls, warming your back even in January. Every morning the scent of fresh pastéis de nata 😍😍😍 floated up through the shutters, and for €1 I’d eat one still warm, fingers sticky with custard and cinnamon 🍮☕ 🚋🎒 I let my days unravel on foot or by tram. The €2.10 ride on the 28 felt like stepping into a postcard someone forgot to send: sharp corners, steep hills, tourists gasping, locals unfazed 🚃🌇 I’d hop off at nowhere in particular, wander up a miradouro with a can of Sagres (€1 from the corner store), and just sit and watching rooftops tumble toward the water like someone had shaken the city loose 🏘️🌀. Lunch might be a bifana from a kiosk for €3, spicy pork slapped into a roll, eaten while leaning on a park bench beneath blooming jacarandas 🌳🥪. 🎶🕯️ Evenings were when the saudade settled in. I’d follow the sound of guitar strings into tiny taverns in Bairro Alto, not the big fado houses 🏘️ but little rooms where someone’s uncle played with eyes closed and the wine cost €1.50 a glass 🍷🎸 Dinner was grilled sardines, bread, and olives 🫒 nothing fancy, just food that tasted like it remembered the sea 🐟🥖. I walked home slow, down Rua Augusta where the stone still held the day’s heat, and I swear even the street lamps felt older than me. Lisbon was never loud about it, but it knew exactly how to hold you. #europeonbudget #travel #budget