As the title suggests, this was my second time to Lisbon. 
I had visited previously in December and really enjoyed the visit, but this time I knew what I definitely wanted: a great bed and a good surf school.
​Booking
Onto Tripadvisor and top of the list was Boho Cais do Sodre Guesthouse. With a score of 9.4 and only Excellent or Very Good it seemed like a good place to book. Not only that, in February 4 nights came to €113 in total! 
​Back onto Tripadvisor for a surf school and my search yielded Carcavelos Surf School. I made contact with them and Pedro whatsapped me each day with the surf lesson times.
This time I decided to mix the flights. While there is a Ryanair flight from Dublin at 6:45am, it's a lot of hassle especially if you're not already based in Dublin.  I decided to go with Aer Lingus flying out as they had a 3pm flight. I flew home with Ryanair at 9.30am. 

Met by another Pedro, Boho is a great location in Lisbon. Two blocks from Cais do Sodre station, it is at the heart of everything you want in a city break. It's only little flaw (depends on the person really), it is at the heart of everything and can be quite noisy on the streets at night. For me, the pluses outweighed the bit of noise. 
First of all, Pedro the host was very helpful, told me about the Time out Market, advised me on activities and then best of all, left me to it. Breakfast which was included was everything you could think of: cereal, breads, cheese, meats, yogurts, fruit, juice, cake! Guests are welcome to use the kitchen all day, including the tea/coffee/milk supplies.
There was a communal sitting room with satellite TV, magazines and books. The decor reflected the lovely atmosphere of the house: chilled out, hipster and definitely cool.

Surfing is my current obsession and really kicked off in Morocco last summer.   The reviews for Carcavelos Surf School were excellent and all proved to be true. The pupil/instructor ratio seemed to be about 5/1.  All instructors were excellent, good English and were relentless in pushing me to try harder. They also had kids and people with special needs taking lessons which was really nice to see. Gear and boards were all to a good standard and I don't know how much they influence it but the water was warm!
Carcavelos is just over 20 mins by train from Cais do Sodre station. Again this was a great bonus of staying in Boho guesthouse, within two minutes of leaving the train, you were in the shower.
The promenade is lined with restaurants and cafes and it's a real chill out place, especially at the weekend. While it might not be a hard core surf spot, it's ideal for a beginner/improver.

 Lisbon is a city to walk, chill and enjoy, not least because it has the best coffee and pastries. It also helps that it is quite cheap so one can happily spend the day eating, wandering and eating.
A walking tour is always good to get the lie of the land, I took the 10am Lisbon Chill-Out Free Tour. I like these free tours as the customer pays the guide at the end whatever amount they believe they should be paid. I did a tour like this for the first time in Copenhagen and I find the guides work really hard and give great local info.
On my arrival at Boho, Pedro recommended Time Out Market. I ended up there nearly every night as most of the major restaurants have a kiosk with a number of dishes on offer. It's great with friends or as a solo traveler. Very informal and not as daunting as arriving into a restaurant alone.
On my last night, I was lucky to go to Povo restaurant on Pink St to hear some traditional Fado singing. This restaurant comes highly recommended because the songs are explained in English, the food is great and the singers were excellent.

As the title suggests, I really enjoyed my break in Lisbon! I took advantage of our school closing for the 8th of December and booked direct flights with Ryanair to the Portuguese capital for the crazy price of €58. Sure what could go wrong with that!  
Unfortunately Storm Desmond, the first of many storms to wreck all Irish travel plans and the beginning of serious flooding around Ireland for all of December. We were to fly out at 6.30am on Saturday 5th but the flight could not leave due to winds, so after a 3 hours 'wait and see', the flight was cancelled. We promptly rebooked onto the same flight on the following morning. We were due to fly back on the morning of Tuesday 8th so we still had two full days.  Of course we hadn't banked on missing two nights sleep because of having to check into 6am flights two days in a row!
Much of our stay was in a zombie like/sleep depraved state, but we made the most of it.
The aim of the trip was to surf. Last surf of the year in the Atlantic for me, as while I love the water, I cannot handle Irish waters in December and January!
I had prebooked with Lisbon Surf Camp and they booked us into a hostel in the heart of Barrio Alto. The surfhouse closes for the winter months so we took their hostel suggestion without further thought. Maybe it was a good thing, because now, I can officially say- my hostel days of dorms, mixed dorms, shared bathrooms and bunk beds are over! It was a treat when I was in my early 20's, traveling the world and mad for variety. It is not a treat when two nights sleep have been missed and the downstairs niteclub kicks off at bedtime! 
Due to the lack of sleep, only having two days and having a surf lesson each day, we abandoned the travel books and the tours, we just wandered.......​

First of all on arrival in Lisbon airport, you just follow the signs to the metro, buy your plastic card in the machine and a few minutes later you are heading straight into the city centre.  We changed from the red line onto the green line and got off at the Baixa-Chiado station. 
We also used the metro/train to get to the beach at Carcavelos each day. It took about 25 minutes from Baixa-Chiado
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We were staying in Barrio Alto (the Temple bar of Lisbon) and after dumping our bags in the aforementioned hostel, the wandering began. 
First part of loving Lisbon: the food.

This pastry and coffee was from a really busy cafe right beside a tourist hotspot where many of the walking tours seemed to begin or end. It was always difficult to get a table (we visited it each day!) and was frequented by locals and tourists. Yet my bill was only €3.50.


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They seem to love their pastries in Lisbon particularly this delicacy:

A type of custard pastry. It was delicious. 

Lunch and dinner were also very reasonably priced, and due to our time constraints we did not wander too far from the main tourist areas. As Lisbon is coastal, the fish, particularly in the beach restaurants, were amazing:

Shopping was equally good. We were based in Barrio Alto, next door to the upmarket Chiado area. There were some lovely boutiques but as usual for me, jewellery caught my eye.
There was a craft market in the basement of the Armazéns do Chiado which quite a few handmade jewellery stalls.
 
My first purchase was this delicate gold chain from SEG Portugal (€20).

Of course one piece is never enough, especially when it's handmade!

​So I picked up this beautiful gold plated trio of rings from Sopro (€80).

Despite a windy and delayed start, the Lisbon experience was lovely. So lovely in fact that flights have already been booked for the next midterm. Chilled, cheap, great food and decent surf, it definitely deserves a return.....hotel this time for sure!