The Yum Yum Factor

Have I told you how much I enjoyed being in Portugal lately? Well, we all fell madly in love with Portugal. In fact, I loved it much more than I expected to and that surprised me. I have spent a lot of time in Spain and I think I assumed that Portugal would just kind of be like Spain-light but after spending a couple of weeks there, I know that this couldn't be further from the truth. Not only do they speak a completely different language, their music is different, their culture is very unique and their food is not Spanish at all.

Three days is actually a really great amount of time when it comes to discovering Lisbon. I imagine if I lived in Europe, I would treat Lisbon much like we treat NYC and I would visit for a long weekend jaunt once or twice a year. Fly in, explore an undiscovered neighbourhood, revisit a couple of my favourite restaurants, shop a bit, eat a lot and fly back home on Sunday night, relaxed with a belly full of port and bacalhau. I love spending time in a great city without the added pressure of feeling like we have to see EVERY SINGLE AWESOME THING THERE IS TO SEE IN THREE DAYS. make sure to take a ride on a funicular at least once To prepare for a trip, I like to do weeks of due diligence and then just wing it. With all that intensive research, I kind of feel like I know the city already and then when we get there, I just start walking around and what I find is that I will keep turning a corner and bumping into something that I had been reading about anyway. I hate feeling l...