Lisbon, Portugal, September 2015 - Favourite City?

When people find out that part of my claim to some sort of academic reputation lies in the research I have carried out on European cities, they often go on to ask which is my favourite among them.  Over the years my view has changed.  At one time my answer would be 'outside the UK I have three favourites - Berlin, Lisbon and Paris.'  I am wondering whether in fact that should be narrowed down to one - Lisbon.  Perhaps that's because I am there as I write this.

I came to Lisbon, and to Portugal, relatively late in my career.  It is less than 20 years since I first visited.  But since then I find it difficult to count the times I have disembarked at Portela airport and got a taxi into the city, or been met by a colleague with a car.  (Since my last visit the metro has at last reached the airport, but I've not used that to reach the city centre yet.)  I have been fortunate to be involved in some significant research projects with colleagues in various Portuguese universities, particularly in Lisbon, and have got to know the city and its surroundings in part through their eyes.  That also involves going to places that other visitors would not find, being taken to authentic fado evenings, visiting buildings not open to the public, and meeting a variety of interesting people.  On this visit I have caught up with a number of colleagues and we have talked over plans for possible further collaborations.

But part of the time I have been here has been just to relax for a weekend before my meetings, and later in the day after they have concluded.  So why do I like Lisbon so much?  Here's a brief list of highlights of my current visit - most not being tourist-oriented activities.  

• Travelling the buses, seeing how people get up for the elderly and infirm, despite the press of people (most buses seem to have twice or three times as many passengers as they have seats for).  There is also a wonderful iPhone app that accurately lets me know when the next bus is due at any stop in the city.
• Travelling the 12 tram up above the Baixa district.  The 28 tram appears as a 'must' in every guidebook - and is always jam-packed with tourists.  But the humble 12 which does a one-way circular route carries ordinary residents, many of them elderly, up the narrow streets to their tiny houses and apartments on the side of the castle hill and in Alfama.  This is a more authentic Lisbon experience.
• Eating at the A Travessa restaurant, with tables around the cloister of an old convent.  There is no menu for starters: instead the chef sends out small dishes prepared from whatever has been freshest or most interesting in the markets of the city that day.  And although the restaurant appears in all the international guidebooks, there are many Portuguese eating there on the evening I visit.
• Catching up with emails while sitting in a little shaded square near the back of the Open University (the Praca Flores, or Flower Square), accompanied by small children playing, old men reading newspapers, and old women knitting and talking together.
• Taking the train out to Estoril on a sunny Sunday morning, along with hundreds of other Lisbon residents, and strolling along the seawall promenade to Cascais, followed by a plate of grilled prawns in garlic at a beachside restaurant - and a glass of white wine from Setubal.
• Taking a short cut from the Santa Apolonia station back to the city centre, cutting through the Alfama district, an area of few roads but criss-crossed by a dense network of stepped alleyways lying against a steep hill.  Ever since I first arrived in Lisbon I have watched the gentrification of the Alfama neighbourhood - an old Moorish district that lay outside the walls of the medieval city and whose name, with the Arabic 'Al-', reflects its history (as do the names of other Lisbon districts).  People have lamented the loss of the old - but gentrification in Alfama is a very slow process.  Families that have lived in the tiny and inadequately provided houses here are inclined to stay on and there are still many long-standing residents.  Yet I accept that there are signs of change - some houses with new tiled roofs, painted walls and well-fitting windows; and in the lower part of the neighbourhood there is a rash of small restaurants offering a tourist menu in five languages, with a fado performance included.  But the saddest sight in Alfama today occurs where the chaos, irregularity, and hidden and secret delights and corners of the neighbourhood confront the quays of the Tagus river: there the massive monolithic cruse liners moor for their few hours in the city, creating a wall of uniformity to close Alfama in from the rest of the world.
• Being taken to a horse riding centre just a few steps from the University of Lisbon and the stadium of Sporting Lisboa football club.  I had previously not known of the existence of this green space, surrounded by stables for numerous horses, right in the middle of the built-up area.  And nor had I known of the excellent restaurant, open to everyone and not just to those coming to exercise their horses.
• Taking the metro, which is spacious, clean and efficient.
• Eating pasteis de nata de Belem (custard tarts, which should be coated with cinnamon before eating), or indeed any other Portuguese cakes and confectionary.  

I will close this paean to Lisbon with mention of one specific set of artefacts in a museum: I try to go to see them as often as I can when I am in the city.  The Portuguese were the first to reach Japan by sea, and in the Museum of Old Art (the Museu de Arte Antigua) there are a set of screens painted by Japanese artists depicting the arrival of these people from an equal but different culture.  They were produced within the lifetimes of those who could bear witness to the reactions of both groups involved.  And they are a wonderful insight into the initial contact of civilisations, as well as being beautifully designed and executed works of art.  I recommend anyone to go to seek out the 'Namban Screens' - and the districts around the museum (Lapa and Santos) are some of the most relaxing in the city as well.