Beyond Tiki, Bilge, and Test / Beyond Tiki / Pics from a Cool (Non-Tiki) Bar in Lisbon, Portugal
Post #33452 by Tiki Chris on Thu, May 8, 2003 2:07 AM
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Tiki Chris
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Thu, May 8, 2003 2:07 AM
Pavilhao Chines: the pics of the bars are from the menu & a free postcard (thus, no people in them). it's not anywhere near as decadent as the menu's images suggest, but the place was definitely happening w/ young folks out to drink mass quantities & party hard, little old ladies out for a cup of tea, a few off-the-beaten-path tourists like em & me, & other not so easily categorised types (& somehow this mix worked beautifully). we were there earliy in the evening & got the impression that this place got really packed as the night progressed (as did practically all the bars & restaurants i can recall). Lisboa: trader woody, i think you'd love it there! maybe even more bars per person than madrid or barcelona! there may be tiki bars(which i suspect) but we did not come across any. it's an inexpensive place even compared to spain. there are a zillion really good restaurants & the whole city feels as though you've stepped back in time: to when the moors ruled the iberian penninsula, to the age of discovery, to the 1960's. a few bad things: one, it's dirt poor, at least compared to the rest of western europe. makeshift squatter camps extending for miles outside the city centre. zillions of abandoned buildings. but it does look like things are getting better. people tried to rip us off a few times. one guy at a pastry shop tried to make change w/out returning our e10, another cabbie took off in the wrong direction initially, stuff like that. but i must say that these folks were in the minority & i could recount many more times (in lisboa & portugal) when strangers seemed to be doing things out of kindness & nothing more. in general, you just have to be a little more savvy & on guard than you might otherwise be, that's all. & still even w/ the cab going the wrong way, it was still dirt cheap! oh yeah, there's dog shit EVERYWHERE! it's a lovely, laidback, fun city w/ some of the best nightlife i've seen anywhere. it's high on my "must return to" list. |