Come follow the Sunshine: Portuguese Custard Tarts

This morning we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal bright and early, so early the sun isn’t even up yet! We head to our hostel and put our bags down for a small siesta in the common room and then are up about 9am or breakie.
After breakie we took a big walk around Lisbon city and along the docks, it is one of the prettiest city's with the most character we have been too, the old traditional buildings have fully tiled exterior walls with different colour themes to each building. About 2pm we head back for a shower and unpack to get ready for dinner at Buddha Sushi. Across the road from Buddha Sushi there is a park that overlooks the entire city and shoreline, its a really nice view and cute spot to sit and relax. Dinner is the equivalent to heaven in my eyes, all you can eat sushi including alcoholic drinks for 14.00 Euro each and the sushi is fresh and delish might i add! I swear i need to open my own sushi bar with my sushettes when i get home. (Ange/Lee, keen?)

Next morning we get tickets for the hop on, hop off bus around Lisbon, these buses although in some city's are a bit expensive are an excellent way to get to know your way around as well as some of the history of the city you are in. Halfway through we hop off at a restaurant called Lost n Esplanada for lunch, it is a beautifully decorated outdoor restaurant with a Bohemian theme and a view over the city and shoreline of Lisbon. The sangria is second to none and the food is delicious, it was a very lucky find! After lunch we walk to some close by antique markets where i gambled 2 Euro on a couple of 1920’s coins making me rich one day. Always one for a get rich quick scheme. Portugal is full of little antique stores and markets they seem to be very popular with the locals too for decoration of their store or restaurants.

The rest of the afternoon is spent on the hop on, hop off bus getting to know Lisbon. At one of the other stops we found another local market where we did some tasting of cherry liquor and local cheeses. Once dinner rolls around we head home and dress up because we are going out to celebrate Kyle's mum, Donna’s birthday. We found a restaurant that serves Portuguese food and ordered a big BBQ meats platter and some local cheese to share. Forgot to mention somewhere in between the days events we found time (okay... four times) to stop in bakery's for Portuguese Custard Tarts. They are my number one new favourite food, they might look a bit manky and burnt on the shelf but they are so delicious, get me out of here before I'm 10 kg heavier!!

The next morning we are catching a bus to Paradise Baleal Hostel in Peniche which is about an hour and a half by bus down the coast. Peniche and the small connected suburb of Baleal is a beachside surf town, full of locals with holiday/weekend homes or who are camping/caravaning and tourists who are mostly there to surf. Speaking to some of the people staying at Paradise with us it is very popular because the waves are good enough to surf every day. The temperature is 30 plus degrees during the day every day we are here. Paradise is an awesome place to stay, it is only 15 Euro per person, per night for a private room in the woodhouse which is as it sounds a big old woodhouse separated into rooms, they are clean and there are plenty of bathrooms and kitchen facility’s. My favourite thing about this place is the common room which is a big indoor/outdoor wooden deck that has a beautiful view of the sunset every night as well as table’s to sit and eat your dinner in front of it, pool table, table tennis and plenty of bean bags and couches to relax. I can absolutely see why people book to stay a few nights and end up staying months, if we had not been trying to do as much as we can in three months i would have loved to stay a few more nights! This night is also a first for me cooking dinner in a hostel, spaghetti bolognese, so nice to have a normal home cooked meal for dinner on the deck.

The few day 's are pure bliss after all the city's we have been staying in, dont want to bore you with all the details but basically sunbaking and swimming all day on the beach, making big cheese and meats platter's for sunset on the deck, drinking radlers (yes i know, watered down beer boo, whatever its delicious), finding secret coves of rockpools, and i beat Kyle in a match of first to 20 points in ping pong. The fact that I'm scared of the ball and wouldn’t let him hit it fast at me had nothing to do with it. This place is so good to get away, its like going to the river at home. The only difference is the water sports are stand up paddle boarding which was quite expensive so i didn’t get to have a shot, sailing and surfing.

Shot of a quirky barber shop in Lisbon

Donna's Birthday dinner :)

Cutely decorated restaurant in Lisbon

Some pigeons chilling the Lisbon dock

Seriously, check the detail on this BRILLIANT piece of street art in Lisbon

Jellyfishes were washing up on the dock as we walked along

Someone's very happy with his chocolate dipped Portuguese Custard Tarts

Loving the holiday life today

Lost n Esplanada lunch

Main square in Lisbon

Lisbon City

Statue of Sebastiao Jose De Carvalho e Melo - the man who was responsible for the rebuild of the city after the 1755 earthquake that destroyed nearly all of Lisbon!