A note about LIS, the Lisbon International Airport. Its very small, only 2 terminals. You can get there for less than €15 in a cab (15 mins from city center) or €1.50 on the subway (30 mins). Flying within the country or within the EU is a breeze and arriving for the baggage cutoff should be plenty of time. However, if you are arriving to LIS you need to have water, a snack and an extra battery pack on you cause 2 of the 3 times I stood in the passport control line it took 1.5 hrs for non-EU citizens (which remember now includes the English). The WiFi is ok!

There is so much to do in Lisbon, I’m not going to pretend to be able to cover it all here. Much like NYC its hard to have a bad meal here, yelp works just as good as anything else. I do recommend if you are here on a shorter trip to plan 2-3 days for day trips. 2-3 days for city exploring should be ok. Everything is close downtown and very walkable, transportation is pretty cheap too. The Bolt app is great for ride sharing.

A note about making friends in Lisbon. I was traveling alone, not for the first time, but did want to try and make some friends. BumbleBFF was okay but not great, better than nothing I suppose. I tried going to the local Irish pub and that was not effective either. As my favorite SNL skit reminds us through Adam Sandler, “You are still you on vacation.” So do things you would normally do, and try meeting people there. If you like to play basketball, look for a meetup group. If you like getting your nails done, make friends with the girl in the chair next to you. It takes a bit of bravery and humbling to just blurt out “I’ve just moved here and am desperate for friends” but it usually worked well for me. Almost everyone is open to a new friendship—especially in a city full of transient international people.