Lisbon Portugal

I SWEAR I have not given up my quest,
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of busy-ness, and now I have 4 weeks abroad and tons of school work to do.  That being said, I solemnly swear I am up to vegan good (this was a Harry Potter play on words for those of you not in the know).
So since we last spoke I have been to Lisbon, Portugal (AMAZING but more on that later), then I had midterms, and then my dad and sister came to visit all in a span of less than two weeks.
On top of that I have been running around trying to see everything I have not yet and get all my shopping done.

Anywho, I thought I should use this post to talk about my time in Lisbon in case any of you plan on venturing out there.

First you should know that Lisbon is absolutely breathtaking and one of the friendliest and cleanest cities I have ever been to, which was amazing.  It is also very hilly and all the streets and sidewalks are cobble stone so do not try and be cute and explore in stilettos.  Even though I looked like a major dork my feet were so happy I packed my running sneakers.

I used the website Happy Cow to look up vegan restaurants in Lisbon but we never ended up going to any of them because they were all far away from wherever we were when we got hungry.  I had my friend Alex with me and neither of us felt like dishing out for a cab to go outside of the city for a meal, and then come back in when there are so many restaurants.

That being said, we did not have difficulty finding things to eat in the city.  One secret to European vegan success are kebob restaurants.  You order a pita felafel meal for around 5-7 euros with fries and a drink and you are sufficiently full until your next meal.  The amount of felafels I have eaten since coming to Europe is probably ten times the amount I have in my life before this trip, but I am not complaining; they are a cheap, delicious, and a somewhat healthy meal that keeps me alive.

So on our journey we had a lot of pasta, two restaurants with pasta meals and I made a giant pasta dish at our hostel that lasted us two meals each.  Then on our last night as we tried in vain to find a vegan restaurant I saw on the internet we stumbled upon this place.
Now this is not a vegan restaurant, but they allowed me to make adjustments to an item on the menu and thus I received a vegan meal.  While there are no pictures to prove it, Chapitô à Mesa's theme is circus so they have a really cool ambiance and a juggler walking around.  We sat in the outside part, which was a bit chilly, but it was under a mock circus tent!

I had already eaten half of it when I remembered to take a picture (whoops!).  But what I got was two giant pieces of toast with olive oil, avocado spread, cherry tomatoes, oregano, and a mixed salad.  The original menu option was with a Portuguese cheese instead of avocado but they let me do a switcheroo.  It was really good, and I plan on replicating this when I finally get back to my own kitchen.

One of my biggest struggles abroad is not being able to make the meals I want.  My host mom allows me to use her kitchen but she likes to watch me very closely which makes me uncomfortable.  And it is strange asking her to buy me things to make just for my self.  Host families for vegans are weird experiences but I am near the ending stretch.

I still have to do product reviews from VegFest UK so keep an eye out of that, good Christmas gift ideas!