Passport for Lisbon

There a song I really like by Mariza; it is called ‘Vozes do mar’. It mentions Camões and the sea. These two things were the reasons for which I booked this hostel downtown Lisbon for my two-days-stay (and also because it was on short notice and there were very few rooms available). I am explaining myself as I’m not a big fan of hostels and by now I had relatively bad experiences with them. But I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

The Passport Lisbon Hostel is close to the sea; I know, I know it’s just the Rio Tejo (Tagus River), but still, in 25 km it reaches the ocean, so some part of the sea is the river – do not contradict me please, I like this image of Lisbon being near the sea… Back to the hostel: it has an absolutely amazing view towards the Camões Square, it’s right at the corner from Bairro Alto and at walking distance from Cais do Sodre (where main trains and metros stop).

Although, I wouldn’t mention the location of this place as the most amazing thing about it: I loved the view, but even more I loved the wonderful solutions they found to decorate the inside of the little room.

The room was small, with the original windows and door, adapted to the modernity with style and simplicity: there was no light hanging from the ceiling, just the big spotlight in the corner, a little industrial orange light on the wall acting as night lamp and a regular reading lamp. Also, the furniture was made of the pressed wood usually used as base for furniture, not as final surface. Nice touch, if you ask me.

The highlight of the room, again, if you ask me, was the bathroom: some smart architect found the cool solution of placing a strange parallelepiped in a corner of the room in which he hid the totally functional (black) bathroom. I liked it a lot.

Also, as I arrived late in the afternoon, I caught the sweet light of the sunset over the Camões Square and got to walk alone in Bairro Alto before it got crowded.

I didn’t start with this because I didn’t want to influence your opinion on this hotel:

It is, by far, my (second) favourite city. And when I go back there, I will stay again at Passport Lisbon Hostel. And have breakfast at the pastry shop downstairs (breakfast is really hostel-like).