Portugal - Lisbon II

In my last post about Lisbon, I ended it as I was about to go to lunch at the "Mercado da Ribeira".  

Mercado da Ribeira (Ribeira's Market)

Mercado da Ribeira (Ribeira's Market)

Situated in the 24th of July Avenue, this former fruit and vegetable market operating since 1892, reopened in May 2014 with a food hall that has brought the market and the area back to life. 
The traditional fruit and vegetable area of the market is still operating though.
The food hall is amazing, with a great variety of restaurants and stalls selling traditional products - the only drawback is it seems to be super popular, so finding a table can be quite hard!

We ordered our food and then went in search of a table.  As I found one, our beeper called us to retrieve the order, and my daughter collected it while I kept the two bar stools occupied.
Lunch was tasty - we ordered Steak in beer sauce and Spinach Puree.
Sadly we didn't go to the upstairs area (more restaurants there) where I could have taken a photo with a view from the top!  I wonder if it was as full as down below?

Can you see how full the place is? 

Our lunch - steak in beer sauce and spinach puree

Garden Kiosk

Next to the market is a park - Dom Luis I Square, and here you will find a lovely red kiosk cafe and a terrace with seating for 250 people belonging to a couple of eateries. So if the Market is full, you might be able to get a table here...

Pink Street

After lunch we walked north towards Largo Luis de Camoes (Luis Camoes Square) and came across a pink street! How cute is that?

Pink street - Rua Nova de Carvalho

This area was once part of Lisbon's red light district - Cais do Sodre. 

Eventually the seedy night life in the area made people afraid to go to there. 

A rehabilitation of the neighbourhood started taking place with the cleaning up of the streets, better lighting, more commercial venues, reinforcement of cultural venues already present in the area, and of course the main street was painted pink!

Now the area is crowded with people leaving Bairro Alto (further north) where the bars close earlier, while here they are opened until the morning.  Lisbon is never dull and the Portuguese love to party till dawn!

Street Art - Murals

Largo Luis de Camoes ( Luis Camoes Square)

The great Portuguese poet of the 16th century has a square named after him. A little kiosk serves coffee.

We had intentions of joining a street art tour departing from this Square  to visit the murals around Lisbon, but somehow I got my time wrong and they had departed 1 h earlier! 
Well, we just carried on and went to visit a few of them on our own as I had a few addresses on hand.  I probably photographed about 40 murals, over 2 visits to Lisbon, but there were many more I didn't see.  I can see that a Street art tour would be fabulous for those that love murals!

Miradouros (Lookouts)

On the way we visited some of Lisbon's best viewpoints.
Lisbon is built over 7 hills, so be prepared to do a lot of walking or otherwise hire one of the many tuk-tuks now available all over the city.

The Tuk-tuks are everywhere

With probably 7 or 8 wonderful viewpoints across the city, you might not be able to visit them all if  you are time restricted like me, still I managed to visit 4 of them.

Miradouro Santa Catarina (St Catherine's Lookout)

Not far from Camoes Square is the first viewpoint we visited. Not as impressive as some of the others, you can see enjoy views to the Tagus river and the "25th of April bridge".
The statue of "Adamastor" in stone, is a mythical sea monster from the epic poem "The Lusiads" from Luis de Camoes.

The Tagus River and the 25th April bridge 

Two restaurant esplanades from where the views can be enjoyed

A statue - Adamastor, with a poem by Camoes written in the white plaque 

Parliament

From the lookout we walked further east to search for murals and went past the Portuguese Parliament in the district of Sao Bento.

Portuguese Parliament

Just across  from the Parliament building I saw this lovely yellow house with a beautiful front door and fell in love with it!

A beautifully restored yellow house

In this blue building nearby I thought the dog looking out the window with the owner made for a cute picture.

The tour continues next week...there's so much more to see and my feet were getting tired.

Monday Mural - Amalia by VIHLS

This mural in the Alfama district of Lisbon was sculpted by Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, AKA VILHS in collaboration with pavers from Lisbon's Municipality and was inaugurated in July 2015. 

It can be found at Rua de Sao Tome (St Tome street) in Alfama.
It pays homage to the great Portuguese fado singer - Amalia Rodrigues, but also the cobblestone pavers who are the artists of Lisbon's beautiful basalt and limestone pavements.

Other murals I found in Lisbon of Fado singer Amalia Rodrigues:

The above mural,  near Avenida da Liberdade in a little lane called "Travessa de Santo Antao", was painted by Mr Dheo and Mosaik, and was created in 2009,  10 years after her death.

This drop-cloth painting of Amalia hangs from the facade of the "Fado Museum", installed in what used to be the singer's home, at Rua Sao Bento 193.

Hope you've enjoyed all 3 murals. If  you would like to see other murals from around the world please click on this link.

Monday Mural - the giant

If you enjoyed last week's mural by Perth artist Kyle-Hughes Odgers, here's another one! 
This gigantic mural, 3 floors high was painted on building 405 at Curtin University, (visible from Hayman street).
The mural is part of the 40 odd murals painted at Curtin University in April this year as part of the Public Form 2016 initiative.

For other murals from around the world check this link.

Monday Mural - Child in flower garden

Created for the "Underline - Freo Rail Bridge Mural Project", this mural painted by Perth artist Kyle-Hughes Odgers is one of the six murals found under the rail bridge on Tydeman Street in North Fremantle.

For other murals from around the world click here.

Other Kyle Hughes-Odgers murals in my blog that you might enjoy:
http://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/street-art-in-leederville.html
http://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/murals-in-claremont-ii.html
http://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/monday-murals-in-denmark-wa.html
http://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/a-thousand-lights-at-airport.html

5 year blogging anniversary

I can hardly believe that 5 years have gone past since I first posted my first blog post!
I haven't remembered to celebrated the milestone every year, but being the 5th year I thought I would mention it.

I've gone from 0 to over 1,2 million views, have viewers from 157 countries, and 96 registered followers.
Not bad at all. On my 1 month blog anniversary I only had 500 views...

All I wanted to achieve was to register my experiences for the future, they are a powerful reminder of our good and bad times, although I only seem to register the good times, which is probably because I'm a a very upbeat and positive person.

I've made blogging friends, some virtual, others I've actually met, have learned a bit more about other bloggers,  have learned a lot more about blogging, and still learning... it's important to never stop learning!

To all those that read my blog, I hope that you find my stories interesting and a big thank you to those that regularly comment my posts. It's much appreciated.

From left to bottom to right - all about my blog -  Perth, my family (our son, me, our daughter and my husband), my art, my cats, murals and travel (Amsterdam).