The Alfama in Lisbon
Travel Photography Iberian Peninsula
Andalucia
 
  Travel Photography > Iberian Peninsula >

The Alfama, Lisbon


Paris had ruined all my romantic notions of the western European city. A single city – littered, rude, cheap and crass, and to me long ago, it symbolized all of Europe. Overrated and overpriced, and so I had gone on imagining the rest of urban Europe to be much the same. That is until Lisbon.

Lisbon feels tropical, connected to Africa, on a biting cold day, and in its southern sun, like a mix and match of its neighbor’s architectures. It is colored in a smudgy gray, festooned with pinks and canaries and aquas and limes. Its slight inhabitants dress urbanely like their country cousins; just in tighter weaves.

Over lunch a long time ago with a Portuguese friend, I came up with the idea of hosting a Portuguese Empire party; literally a party themed on Portugal's historical colonial empire. Let's forget for brevity its success or outcome. I came up with this idea with only the faintest notion of what Portugal is, or was. Perhaps it was subconsciously strategic that the two food critics at my old school newspaper were both Portuguese, and that sure, they'd love to help and do the cooking.

 

next

123456

 

Explore more in the Iberian Peninsula:
Image Image Image Image
Cuenca, Spain Alfama, Lisbon, Portugal Gibraltar Andalucia, Spain
Image Image Image Image
Beiras, Portugal Alentejo, Portugal Extremadura, Spain Setubal, Portugal

Iberian Peninsula Special Content
Maps
Europe Map
Iberian Peninsula Map
Portugal Map

Follow Notes from the Road

 

Nearctic Regions

Desert Southwest
Great Plains
Great Basin
Pacific Northwest
Desert Mexico
Sierra Range
Atlantic Seaboard

Palearctic Regions

The Dry World
Iberian Peninsula
Northern Seas
Gaul

Oceania

Neotropic Regions

Isthmus
Amazon Basin
Andean Slopes
West Indies

More

Online Travel Journal
Guana Cay Blog
About Erik Gauger
Contact Erik
Bird Life List

©2013 . All text, photographs, illustrations and web design created by the author