Lisbon: San Francisco's older sister

As you know, this year's SteemFest took place in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal and one of the oldest cities in Europe. We spent a week in Lisbon, and I did a little bit of sightseeing whenever I wanted to take a break from SteemFest. As I was exploring this fabulous city, I realized how much it resembled San Francisco. I call Lisbon San Francisco's older sister due to their striking similarities and Lisbon being almost three thousand years old, the fact that blew my mind when I learned it. Let's go over some of the similarities that these two cities share.

First, Lisbon's famous suspension bridge, Ponte 25 de Abril, bears a striking resemblance to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in terms of its color and overall shape. Although I was initially told that the two bridges were designed by the same architect, it turned out not to be true.

Second, both Lisbon and San Francisco are situated on seven hills, creating beautiful views, driving difficulties and architectural challenges.

Third, both cities suffered devastating earthquakes. The one in San Francisco occurred in 1906, killing 8,000 people and destroying 80% of the city. The earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 was much more devastating, killing between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

Fourth, charming streetcars are ubiquitous both in Lisbon and San Francisco. I assume because they are efficient transportation for hilly cities.

On my second day in Lisbon, the day before SteemFest, I took a long walk to the National Museum of Ancient Art. On the way there I had two stops, one at a cafe to try my first croissant brioche which reminded me of an egg bagel at Absolute Bagels in New York and brought back warm memories of living there, and another at a charming garden, called Jardim de Estrela.

When I got to the museum, I was enchanted by a beautiful tree with pink and purple flowers, standing in the middle of a small garden and creating a nice canopy with its branches.

The museum itself was fun but not what I expected. Certainly, it was short on ancient art, but full of beautiful expensive things that Portuguese aristocracy and monarchy had thanks to their once upon a time vast colonies and successful seafaring. In short, lots of delicately created golden objects.

Some art was more to my taste, like this Arabic script and a bronze sculpture of a Bodhisattva.

There were also some artwork by the Portuguese artists from the 17th century. I must admit that I found them mostly ugly.

Certainly, they couldn't compare to the Roman art, which is very much based on the Ancient Greek standards of beauty and proportion.

There was also a much more dignified representation of Leo's kind.

Overall, I had a great time there. Certainly, worth visiting and the ticket costs six euros.

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