Azulejos - Lisbon, Portugal
On the way home from my trip to Angola I strategically placed a long layover in Lisbon, Portugal as my last stop before flying home. This was an important part of my trip because Angola was a Portuguese colony until the war of independence ended in 1974. So, much of my Angola experience was really influenced by Portugal.
My flight from Amsterdam landed late so I went straight to my hotel - which was amazing anyway, but especially after spending three weeks in Africa.
The next morning I had a fantastic coffee in the hotel and headed to the subway to begin my full day of exploration. Luckily, I had experts (Robert and Teague) give me a detailed plan of how to fill my day complete with a hand drawn map of the city before leaving Angola!
The first thing I was amazed with was the incredible tile covering EVERY square inch of wall space on 95% of the buildings. These tiles are called azulejos, which stems from the Arabic, meaning small polished stone.
This style can be traced back to as early as the 13th century but was most popular between the 16th and 17th centuries. The hand painted tiles’ most common colors were blue and white and sometimes yellow/gold. I walked down each little street nearly bumping into people simply because I couldn’t stop looking at the buildings!
Lisbon was incredible. The weather was perfect, the food was amazing and I got to see every spot on the Meyers’ map.