Lisbon, Portugal is a great trip that is sort of off the beaten-path of the standard European trips to London, Paris, Barcelona, & Rome. Many people forget the great history of this once-upon-a-time superpower, and so you can be really surprised when you visit to see such a strong cultural tradition. Despite the rumours you hear about the failing economies of the European PIGS countries - Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, Portugal is a developed country with a wealth of art, history, natural scenery, food, and yes-- wine!





Check out my Lisbon, Portugal Travel Guide Video:









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Lisbon has a great metro, with stops throughout the city.

There are two main train stations in Lisbon, so make sure you book the one you want!





Lisbon is a really beautiful city with history stretching from pre-Roman times. During the Islamic period of the Iberian Peninsula, it was the home of many explorers who sailed deep into the Atlantic, with the resultant myth, perpetuated recently by President Erdogan of Turkey, that Arab explorers reached the Americas prior to Columbus. The city taken by Christians during the 12th century and eventually became capital of Portugal due to its central location. In 1755, the city was destroyed by a massive earthquake, demolishing 85 % of all of its structures. The Marquess de Pombal, a Enlightenment influenced prime minister, led the rebuilding of the city, as well as a series of massive reforms, expelling the religious orders (and confiscating their property), abolished slavery, secularized education, and ended some of the autos-de-fe and anti-converso evils of the Portuguese Inquisition.





The Marquis de Pombal at the top of the Avenida da Liberdade.





The Marquis de Pombal modernized Lisbon's layout after the 1755 earthquake, designed with the regular geometry of the Enlightenment. A broad tree-lined boulevard, the Avenida da Liberdade extends from Pombal Square to Restauradores Square in central Lisbon.





Tree-lined Avenida da Liberdade.





There are many trees, fountains, and statues throughout the Avenue.

Wealthy Portuguese often give their family members flats on the Avenue da Liberdade, for the Christian holiday known as Xmas.

The train station's horseshoe doors are make it a beautiful visit.

On the Restauradores plaza is the Eden Theatre, a beautiful cinema with an imposing facade.

The black and white streets became a symbol of Lisbon.





The Lisbon city flag is black and white, alluding to the street cobblestones.We saw the workers breaking the stones so they could make the designs- it is a handmade process!

Most sidewalks in Lisbon are decorated with the white and black stones.

There are both Funicular trams - 3 of them - and normal street car trams.



The Funiculars are good for helping you get up the hills.

A day pass (6 Euro) is good for the whole Lisbon metro system, including these small Funiculars and the St. Justa elevator, which is worth trying (normally 5 Euro alone).





The trams are all electrified now, but they used to be pulled by horses.The high neighborhood, or Barrio Alto, is a good nightlife area, with many bars and discotechs.

The Barrio Alto is a good place to go hear Fado, a sort of two-guitars accompanying a sad Portuguese singer. It's quite beautiful:





Also Lisbon is known for its grafitti:

Here's an angry Barack Obama:

There are a lot of communists with spray paint in Portugal:

At the southern end of Lisbon is the Tagus River, which allows Lisbon its access to the Atlantic Ocean.

To the west of the center, along the Tagus, you can go to the Belem neighborhood.













The tower of Belem is next to the Tagus river and some marinas:



Also it has a nice wide park-boulevard along the river with many ships.

There are some fancy riverside bars in Belem:

And some fancy, Portuguese restaurants:

You can see some nice ducks and plant life:

A palm tree that went bald:

Well thanks for checking out my post on Lisbon, I hope you follow me to see all of my upcoming posts of Portugal!

Kitty tax, for reddit:

Portuguese are very proud of their strong Naval tradition, and many of their monuments are devoted to their nation during thewhen sailors such as Vasco de Gama sailed around the world bringing the gifts of imperialism, catholicism and slavery to fortunate savages everywhere! The Portuguese empire was truly the first global empire, reaching from Brazil in South America to Angola and Mozambique in Africa, to much of the Indian coast including Goa, and East Timor and Sri Lanka in Southeast Asia, and Macau in China. It was a very long lasting empire, stretching until 1999 when Portugal finally returned Macau to China, to concentrate on tile-making.Nowadays, Portugal is recovering from the EU financial crunch, and is generally seen as one of the poorer nations of the EU. Still, the country is well developed with decent public transportation and a great rail service reaching most major cities. It's major industries are agriculture, including cork production and wine, fishing and tourism, so it does not have the industrial background of Italy, but they still produce many automotive products, as well as a diverse electronic, textile and chemical industry.The Avenue used to be a Park for only the social elites of the city, ironically named Liberty Ave.Now the avenue is a wide, four lane road, lined with trees and major fashion boutiques.There are also various monuments, this statue celebrating the Portuguese Kettle Hat. On the Avenue you can find a Funicular Tram that takes you to upper neighborhood, the Barrio Alto. It's pretty expensive for a short trip up a hill though (~3.60 Euro/ person).Liberdade can be a pretty busy Avenue.And yes, there's a Hard Rock Cafe off of Avenida da Liberdade (I knew you were asking ;P).At the end of the Avenue is the Rossio Rail station, which used to be the main rail station of Lisbon, but now the two other larger stations dominate the train services.This is Figueira Plaza, adjacent to Restauradores plaza at the end of Liberdade. Thanks to Fir3line on Reddit for correcting this for me! http://www.reddit.com/r/portugal/comments/2ue3qd/i_had_an_amazing_time_visiting_lisbon_this/ There were beautiful decorations throughout the city since we visit during Christmas.There's a large fountain in Restauradores plaza.Lisbon is quite known for it's beautiful black and white street cobblestone streets.Lisbon is also known for its iconic street trams.Lisbon is located north of the river Tagus, with large hills on either side of the center.There is also the Funicular tram from the low neighborhood (Barrio Baixe) to the high neighborhood (Barrio Alto).It's not too bad of a walk up the hill, so I don't recommend it for daily transport.But it's fun once on a trip.The tram routes have an E in front of their line number, meaningThere are five different tram lines that generally run either east or west.Shipping is still very important to the Portuguese economy, as well as fishing.Here you can see the Tower of Belem, the Jeronimos Monastery and the Monument of Discovery.Some Aloe Penis:Belem is more of a garden suburb than part of Lisbon:Portuguese like to grow their own vegetables.Also near Belem is the home of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, which Arnold Schwarzenegger accidentally sold it to Portugal while drunk.* There is indeed a rumour amongst the Portuguese that this was actually a plot by Goldman-Sachs to indebt the country more, but so far it's been difficult to prove. Thanks to Crasher_pt for pointing this out! http://www.reddit.com/r/portugal/comments/2ue3qd/i_had_an_amazing_time_visiting_lisbon_this/ In addition to Lisbon, you may want to take a trip to Sintra, a city just outside Lisbon. There you can see the National Palace, which has beautiful stylings- live March 4th! Also in Sintra you can see the Pena National Palace, a beautiful example of Romantic 19th century architecture- Live March 11th!: