One of the destinations that I’ve been interested in visiting for a while is the country of Morocco. I’ve really been into seeing the decorations and tile work that make up much of decoration in mosques and other Islamic structures. I think I first got into it back when we toured the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Morocco seemed like a little bit of a challenging destination for us, and we wanted to take the trip in cooler weather rather than the brutal summer. Besides that, we had a connection in Rabat – Yuki’s friend Aida lives there and we thought it would be great to stop in and see her.

When planning the trip I put together some cities I would like to visit – and then with our flight going through Istanbul it seemed like a good idea to work in a few days in Portugal as a sort of decompression before returning to Japan. As it turned out the tiles of Lisbon were their own sort of attraction for me, so it turned into a tile-themed trip.

What follows is a day by day journal of our trip. Hopefully it will keep the journey fresh for us, and if someone else is reading it may be useful for their future trip.

You’ll have to scroll down to see the start of the trip – from December 21st.

Despite staying up late we checked out early, and it was an easy train ride to the airport. As we arrived there we saw thousands of paper tickets spread out all over the ground near the ticket machines – not sure what that was all about. The airport was surprisingly busy as I guess other people know that it is cheap to fly on New Year’s Day. 

We had a quick sandwich (blah) and coffee (meh) and then lined up to check in. As I had bought the next two legs of our trip on Turkish Airlines from two different companies I was anticipating some trouble and sure enough, they only had my information for the first leg. They said we’d need to pick up our suitcase, clear immigration and customs to enter Turkey, and then come right back in and check in for the next leg. But the staff offered to look for my other flight, if I could just provide the tickets.

It sounds easy but it is not. The tickets are actually emails, and each leg is a different email. Each passenger is a different email. I showed the flight reservation code, but that is not what she wanted. Some of the travel companies will not give you a flight ticket number until you log into their sites, and I wasn’t sure off the top of my head which company I had used for which tickets. I searched through all my emails but the answer was not coming up and I was very aware of all the people waiting impatiently behind us. So, I told the staff that we’d step out of line to look for it and come back when I had it. Kuniko was understandably pissed off – why is Bryan so disorganized? Why do we have to wait twice? I just wanted to get out of people’s way instead of flailing under pressure, and once we stepped aside I found the email that had the flight ticket seat number. We lined up in the first class line and luckily we could get the second leg added on and say goodbye to our suitcase until we meet again in Osaka.

Phew! Afterwards the security line was surprisingly long – about a 30 minute wait to get through. A couple in front of us were arguing so I could see how travel stress could affect us all. Finally through the gate we decided to get a little better food at a deli type place. We had a half bottle of Esporao white, a nice piece of quiche, and everything was all right with the world. 

As we headed to our gate, the flight suddenly was marked as final boarding, so we went down the tunnel and got on a bus which took us out to our plane. Despite the final boarding message, it took a long time to fill the plane, with a big group arriving just at the last minute. Maybe due to the security line?

It was four and half hours to Istanbul, easy flight, and a kid with an unusually large head in front of us was enjoying peek a boo with us. Towards the end of the flight I went to use the restroom and was surprised to find some used diapers wadded up in the toilet – those don’t flush! I told the flight attendant and she knew exactly whodunnit – and went after him and his little kid immediately. Yikes!

In Istanbul we did sort of the same thing we had done on the way in – a kebab and beer at one bar, more kefta, beer, and spicy burgers at the sports bar we visited before, walking around stretching our legs, and playing Balatro while waiting. It was a long time to kill. Finally it was time to go to the gate to catch our 10 hour flight to Osaka.

Not much to report after that – I slept seven of the ten hours. The food on the return leg was not so delicious – breakfast was some kind of sweet porridge – but that is the price you pay for cheap flights in economy!

Then it was the familiar slide through Kansai airport – immigration was easy as usual. We had to wait quite a while for our suitcase – long enough to start getting worried that it didn’t in fact make it from Lisbon. But finally it came around the conveyor. We were able to catch a bus. I had bought a ticket for the return bus ride for Kuniko after checking with a staff that it was valid for the future, but on the ticket we found a message that said that it wasn’t. Kuniko had to buy another ticket and we just made it in time. 

Back home we unpacked our loot – the cheese and other goodies all made it safely. What a journey! This trip was our last on our current passports – now we have to stick around Japan until we can get them renewed. Hopefully we’ll be traveling again soon!

I kicked off our second (and last) full day in Lisbon by sleeping in. This was the second time this trip I slept over 12 hours, so my body must need it. We showered up and headed out to try another breakfast place. On our way we walked through the big plaza between the arch and the water, and there was a lot of concert equipment there in preparation for the countdown tonight. The sun was just starting to rise and we got some great photos.

The breakfast place this time wasn’t quite as good as yesterday’s. Here are my raw notes:

“Huge cappuccinos, big avocado toast, one power outage, reasonable prices.”

After a quick stop back at the hotel we decided to go try to hunt down one of those funicular street cars. A google search showed there was one running just a 13 minute walk away, so we hit the hills and started climbing. The neighborhoods here had more tiles to photograph, and we passed a beautiful museum, the Carmo Archaeological Museum, and eventually found the top of the funicular line. Our timing was good to see the car arrive, and then we went next door to take in views of the city from a park nearby. 

On our way back we hit a supermarket to look around. Kuniko found some Moroccan mint tea, made by Lipton. It was weird to me that we were buying Moroccan tea after just having left there, but we tried it later and it was really good. 

We went back to the hotel, packed up and checked out, and then back onto the train heading towards the airport. At the transfer we got off at Oriente station, where we found the weather a little colder. Our hotel was right across the street from the train station, and there was also a shopping center. Beyond the center we could see a ropeway running over the water. 

After leaving our bags at the hotel we took an Uber to get to the National Tile Museum. Surely this would be a great place get my tile addiction taken care of for the long term. We had found mixed results online whether it was open or closed – being New Year’s Eve made things uncertain. But I found a site selling tickets online and they sold me two tickets for today, so we were on. 

But when we arrived we were disappointed to see the place closed. Later I contacted the website and got my money back, but we’ll have to save the museum for another visit. We hailed an Uber and went right on back. Both our Uber drivers were professional and did a great job – big difference from our experience yesterday.

We had the driver drop us off near the water’s edge and we walked along there to get to the entrance of the ropeway. I bought some tickets from the ticket booth – the guy noticed that I had Japanese characters on my credit card and said that he really wants to go to Japan someday. 

The ropeway was fun! As we boarded we politely (I hope) declined the photographer taking a picture of us, but the after that we had great views of the city, the Tagus river, and we could even see the barge that (hopefully) would shoot off fireworks tonight at midnight.

We did a round trip on the ropeway and then got back off and walked through the grounds of a large aquarium, that was doing good business on the holiday. Many other places were closed, and we were starting to get hungry. We went to the big shopping center across from the train station, and found ourselves walking through the big food court and checking our options. We ended up going upstairs where they had more sit-down options, and chose a Belgian beer place that nonetheless sold a local bottled beer. Kuniko had some red wine, we ordered more salt cod confit, and sat in the sun in front of a window overlooking the river. A group of Spanish tourists sat near us so I had a chance to work on my listening comprehension (not good).

For me this was another of those perfect travel moments – comparing and contrasting our current situation to cold days in the Fes riad – we’d come a long way. We had two rounds of drinks here because of the great location, and the staff were again really friendly and helpful. 

Maybe it was because I was under this sort of blissful condition that things went so well at the supermarket. Suddenly all the culinary treasures of Europe lay before us, and the only things standing in our way was a flimsy credit card. Woo-hoo!

We were shopping to stock our hotel room, as our plan was the spend the evening in our room partying until midnight to ring in the new year. The supermarket was a big one, and we weren’t the only ones stocking up. I got four rounds of Portuguese cheese (three to take home, one for tonight), a bottle of Esporao Alicante Bouchet, a bottle of Portuguese sparkling wine, three mini bottles of port (just in case), and then also a salad, some caramelized onion pate, some crackers, and other loot. We hauled it all back to our room with big smiles.

The staff in the hotel opened our wine bottle for us, provided utensils, and provided a lot of extra services for us. So we enjoyed sipping wine, snacking, listening to music, writing in the journal, talking about the trip and remembering the funniest moments. We even got a nap in – staying up until midnight is not something we do often and we needed all the help we could get.

Close to midnight we opened the bubbles and turned off the lights for the countdown. Through our window we could see fireworks off in the distance from about an hour before midnight, and then we had a good view of the fireworks near our hotel when the big moment came. Across the horizon we could see fireworks in other areas of the city – it was a great moment and nice way to finish 2024.

We went to bed soon after, knowing that tonight’s sleep would be the last chance for us to sleep horizontally for a long time. 

We were up surprisingly early after walking so many steps the next day. We had declined the breakfast at this hotel with the hope of going out and getting something a little bit better than “hotel breakfast”. We found a place called “Mil Sabores” that was open early, so we walked a few blocks in the brisk morning air to get there. We passed some beautiful landmarks on the way, and the road maintenance people were out cleaning up from the night before.

The breakfast place was a cafe, not part of a chain, and the lady running it spoke English, so we were all set. We had a ham, egg and cheese omelette (better than Marrakech) and I had a grilled cheese sandwich, along with two cappuccinos (each!) While we enjoyed our hot breakfast the shopkeeper was talking with a couple of what looked like homeless guys. I got a really good vibe from the cafe – it was a nice breakfast place.

We went back to the hotel to get organized and then went outside and hailed a car with the ride hailing app Bolt. Ride hailing was banned in Morocco but it was nice to be able to use an app instead of haggling with taxi drivers over price and having to listen to their sales pitch while driving. 

But we soon found that there are some drawbacks to the app model. Our driver was quiet but most of his attention was focused on his personal phone sitting on his lap – he was either attending a web meeting or watching someone’s presentation. He got us to our destination, but I was surprised how little he paid attention to the road. I’m sure he was getting paid dirt cheap wages to drive, and so I guess we should expect a little more risk for as low as the price was. Still, not a great experience but at least no haggling.

Our destination was The Monument to Discoveries, a dramatic and imposing sculpture in remembrance of historical Portuguese explorers setting out from this point. It was really impressive, even more so with the morning sun shining and backdropped with the blue sky and water. 

From the monument we walked along the river/ocean to the west until we came to the Torre de Belem, a landmark tower with a great view of the Tagus river and the ocean beyond. In this area we started to see a lot of tour buses parked – we weren’t the only ones getting an early start. In the area we also walked through the Jeronimos monastery which had some beautiful exterior architecture in a white gothic style. 

Instead a riding a taxi we decided to walk back and burn some calories. It was not a short walk but gave us plenty of chances to see things that we would otherwise miss. I got lots of photos of tiles, and we passed so many cafes and restaurants that were placed to enjoy the view of the river. We walked over a bridge to a unique platform overlooking the long bridge to the south. The viewpoint was called MAAT, and the modern style indicated that it wasn’t that old. 

Finally we ended up closer to where we started. We popped into a big market that was divided into two sides. The first side we visited was the traditional market – where people would buy ingredients, fish and meat for cooking – but it was about half closed down. However on the other side was the Time Out market, which was packed with small restaurants and food shops selling things that were ready to eat. They had all kinds of local foods, bars that were serving local booze and wine, and some lively music playing. It was a cool vibe, so we thought it would be a good place to take a break. Kuniko bought us some shrimp in a spicy soup with some crusty bread, and I contributed two glasses of Portuguese sparkling wine. The place was full of long tables, and there were big empty spaces, but we were surprised when a group of four people sat right next to us. It felt like someone sitting right next to you in an empty movie theater. 

We continued exploring the city, checking out new areas that we had missed last time. Lisbon is of course a huge city and we were only getting a little taste of it, and the hillsides we went up and down reminded me a bit of San Francisco. Eventually we stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant that was located on a quiet intersection. We sat outside as the day had warmed up, and once again got into the sparkling wine. I ordered a big cheese plate with five or six kinds of cheese and it was fun to taste and compare. We also had salt cod and potatoes, and then some still white wine that I really liked. 

After lunch we checked out local markets, found new year’s traditional roasted suckling pigs piled on a table for the locals. A little grotesque, but I’ll bet they are delicious. We also had to buy some pastel de nata (four of them!) as we had really enjoyed them in Macao and thought it would be weird not to eat them in Portugal.

We spent some time resting our feet and taking a nap in our hotel, and then went back out to get some more wine and food. We went to a wine bar that wasn’t too far away. It was a very stylish restaurant, and the wines they served were all different labels but owned under one wine group. The staff were friendly and fanned out their wine list as a set of cards – we could read about each wine. They also gave some recommendations, and let us taste before pouring our glasses. 

We ate and drank well here, as you might expect. We had two sparkling wines, two rather bold reds, I got a small round of Azeitao cheese (oh yeah) and then we had pork cheeks with potato, mushrooms stuffed with chorizo sausage and quail eggs. We were the only people there because as usual we were starting early, but it was great to try several kinds of wines and eat local foods.

As it was getting dark we wandered the area randomly, turning corners and heading towards things that looked interesting. There were shops selling tinned fish in stylish designs. It was shocking to see that each tin was 9 euros – the price you pay for style! We saw more Christmas trees, some DJs were set up playing really loud music, and again lots of people were just standing around taking it in. 

Finally we went to another wine bar that was close to our hotel, and had port wine for dessert. I had a tawny 10 year port, Kuniko had a white port, and we ate a drunken pear with ice cream on cinnamon sand. Once again the staff were really nice and helpful – we met so many genuinely nice people on this trip. 

Back at our hotel room we realized that the H&M camisole that Kuniko had bought earlier still had the anti-theft tag on it, and so we went back out to get it removed at the store. We waited in line for a cashier – customers were all using their smartphone to look for coupons maybe – so it took a while. But the staff checked our receipt and then remove the tag. She said that next time we don’t need to wait in the line, and I wondered how often this kind of thing happens…

So we headed back (again) to our hotel, and to bed to build up our energy for New Year’s Eve tomorrow.

We didn’t sleep so late this morning, so we had a chance to go to the hotel breakfast right at opening time. 

The same setup as yesterday, although outside the staff were still setting up. The omelette lady was the same one – and she looked just as miserable cooking up our eggs. As we got some food from the buffet we stepped on sticky floors, and then sat down and sipped our cocoa-tasting coffee. The food was about the same, but again I enjoyed the oranges and yogurt. As we ate we had a view of the outside workers, who occasionally ducked behind their work station to use their personal phones. Something was a little off with the vibe of this hotel.

Back in our room we did our final packing and then went downstairs to check out. The front desk got on a radio to a staff member upstairs, who ran and checked our mini-bar situation. I guess they have trust issues with their guests.

The staff hailed a cab for us to the airport. The taxi was in better shape than the ones we used in Casablanca, but our driver spent most of the drive trying to sell us on tour packages. Seemed like an odd thing to do for people going to the airport with their suitcases. As we left central Marrakech we passed an intersection with a group of camels tethered to a tree. It was our first camel sighting in Morocco, if you don’t count the camel burger that we ate.

We had to get through a lot of traffic at the airport, but the driver eventually dropped us off in front of another nicely designed facility. We said that he didn’t have enough change for the bills that I gave him, effectively tipping himself 20% – nice…

We went into the airport and got into the line to check in. In front of us we noticed an interesting relationship – a young Moroccan guy and a much older European woman. They communicated only using translation software on their phones, and we watched as the young man patiently reviewed the pictures of this lady’s cats. It seemed like a temporary international relationship that was wrapping up.

Check in took a long time – some staff that was off duty insisted on walking around to all the agents and they all stopped what they were doing to shoot the breeze with him. Then it was to the immigration line that was packed with stressed, fairly pushy people who were worried about missing their plane. After immigration there was a huge line for the security check, also many highly-stressed people. By the time we made it through to the crowded (and quite small) concourse there was no time for food, so we pulled from the leftover snacks we had been carrying around during the trip. 

Soon enough our flight was called, and we boarded a bus that took us out to our TAP plane to Lisbon. The flight was only half full, and oddly quiet except for a great deal of coughing – I wasn’t the only one fighting off a cold on this trip. The older woman who we had seen earlier with the younger local guy put her bag in the overhead bin and an oddly shaped device was sticking out. I joked to Kuniko that it was a sex toy as the staff struggled to rearrange it and make space.

The flight was just an hour and twenty minutes – and we descended to the airport over the city of Lisbon. There were some beautiful views as we came in. This visit was special as it was the first time we’d ever visited Europe outside of the summer months. I was interested to see if we enjoyed this European visit as much as our summer visits.

We took a bus from the plane to the terminal, had a super easy entry into the EU through automated gates, and our suitcase came right out almost as soon as we got to the carousel. We had been in Morocco so long that we had started getting used to delays – it felt like we had come back to civilization.

We walked to the airport metro station and bought rechargeable cards, then went to wait for the train. It took a while to arrive, and once we boarded there was an angry Santa-esque dude getting off, and soon after that an accordion player looking for tips. We did notice that the stations here didn’t have many escalators, so I had to lug the luggage now and then. We made one transfer, then got off and found our hotel, quite close. 

Check in was quick and our room felt a little like an IKEA showroom corner, but it did have a big space, and seemed comfortable enough. We didn’t stay long, and went right back out to go get some wine at a wine bar I had found online. The place was a few blocks from our hotel, called Wine Bar Antiga. We consulted with the staff to try a few different wines from various areas, and he was very kind and helpful. We started with a white wine and some cod cakes and goat cheese rolls. For a second round we ordered some Port, and a local red along with a cheese platter (Portuguese cheese – just as good as I remembered). It wasn’t until I had the cheese that I realized that I had a good chance to eat more of one of my favorite cheeses ever – Azeitao. I’d have to keep my eyes open.

Behind us a table of three American women were chatting with a white guy who said he was from Hong Kong who was traveling with a much younger companion. The more they drank the more everyone was getting along. 

After our wine break we started walking – all over the place. We walked down to the ocean, the Arco da Rua Augusta, and at the Se de Lisboa cathedral there was some kind of huge event – maybe related to Christmas? As we walked a few guys tried to sell us marijuana – I guess we fit the profile of potential buyers. We also saw the Lifta Santa Lusta, which is an architectural oddity placed right in the middle of the city. Near there we happen to walk by right when a Chinese lady had a freak out. She suddenly started screaming, with nobody around here, and a local guy walking by told her to shut up. Travel can be stressful sometimes.

We had last been to Portugal way back in 2014 – about ten years ago – and I had forgotten just how important tiles are to the architectural style here. I spent lots of time taking pictures of tiles in Morocco, and I had accidentally lined up another tile-focused country on our itinerary. Once again Kuniko had to be patient with me as I snapped away at tile work that caught my eye.

We were still doing lots of walking, hitting landmarks that we wanted to see but also enjoying the cooler weather and European vibe. Heading north we walked alongside a street lined with trees that led to a large park, set up with a Christmas festival. A big Ferris wheel stood next to a large Christmas tree. Many families and young couples were walking around, playing games and buying food from stands, and I was surprised how many stands were specialized in wine by the glass sales. I guess parents need more wine than most. 

Eventually all the crowds started to grate on us a little so we headed back towards our hotel. As we went we passed many buildings with Christmas displays and projection mapping – they had big crowds watching and listening to the music, filming with their phones. I’m not sure why this was so attractive to everyone – it was basically a Christmas themed commercial – but we had to take more time to thread through these standing crowds.

We took a 20 minute break at our hotel , and then headed out to our dinner restaurant choice. To get there we followed Google maps, which took us down some dark, deserted streets. I was a little nervous – strange cities always seem more dangerous after dark – but we were fine, and I got some good pictures out of it. 

The restaurant was called Floras da Pampa, and it had a stylish interior and cozy vibe. There weren’t so many customers at first, but later they really started to come in. This place was a hit for us – good vibe, food and wines. We ate Hispi cabbage (signature dish?), spicy mussels with cilantro, and a codfish confit. I had missed salt cod – so tasty!

I drank a local IPA, then changed to a red wine that was really good called “Chamine”. I liked that even with the glass wine the staff in the restaurants we visited offered a taste to see if you like it first. Usually in other countries you just take whatever they have.

As we left this restaurant the nightlife was starting to open up – that’s standard for us in Europe as we often eat way earlier than everyone else. Nearby we checked out the Black Sheep wine bar (a recommendation from Nastya at Aida’s place in Rabat) as a possibility for tomorrow, and it was really packed. 

We walked back to our hotel and found a cheesy souvenir shop with a great keychain that we will convert to a tree ornament when we return. Score! The staff at this shop were really nice to us – even though we were doing some drunken keychain shopping. 

I took quite a few more photos on our way back, and then we retired to our hotel to write in this journal and get some sleep. Good to be back in Europe!