LISBON, THE PERFECT FIRST DATE

Me: “So where are you going during the summer?” He: “I think I’ll be going to Costa Rica.” Me: “Oh, what a coincidence. Me too!” He: “Ok, so that should be our first date then?” Me: “Haha. Sure!” Well, we didn’t go to Costa Rica, but Lisbon it was!…

On these first few notes, I would have never thought that we would actually be crazy enough to really do it and I still think that it’s not just my crazy yolo mind that had me going on a trip with a total stranger. Instead, the circumstances just lead that way…

So after this first joke about how we would meet each other in Costa Rica, he asked me if there were other places in Europe that I still wanted to visit. I told him that I had never been to Rome and that I thought that Lisbon was such a beautiful city. He told me that he had seen both and that he could really recommend it, again joking around with “Ok, so first date in Rome and then off to Costa Rica?” Ha – ha. Sure! But the joking continued as he started sending me pictures from discount codes for Rome. “Let’s book” is what I replied after a while and while laughing about my own fooling around, I started to think that it would actually be such a cool experience. When I asked him if he was serious about it, he replied: “Well, why not…? It could be fun…”

And that’s how we started to brainstorm about our first date, which would in fact be our first vacation and went to Lisbon and Madrid instead of Rome. All and all it was very exciting to even think of it. We have thought about meeting each other before we would actually hop on the plane. Drinks in the city like normal people do, for example. But we agreed that if we were to do this, we would do it the hard way. So we met at the airport. Tickets ready, no way back… OOPS!? Not really, cause we clicked very well and we had the best of fun in beautiful Lisbon. I wouldn’t say that I recommend this kind of date to everyone, cause of course every date is different and it was me and him thinking this through, which already meant that we were on the same open-minded – crazy – foolish – but fun page. But it was most definitely a mindblowing experience which I would not have had if we or one of us would’ve gone the easy way and blow this thing off. So if you are ever on the edge of reason, jump!

This all brought me to Lisbon, of which you may have seen some of these beautiful pictures on instagram already. And wow, how beautiful is this city! Some quick tips: drinks at Bairro Alto, diner at Mini bar (best restaurant I’ve ever been to), long evening walks through the old town called Alfama and shopping in districts Principe Real and Avenida da Liberdade. I bet you, you’ll have an amazing time.

Wonder how the rest of my trip was? I will tell you more about Madrid and this love story in my next post…

Photos by me & Reinder