Lisboa: An Air of Familiarity
a picture of Lisbon (Cais do Sodre), from across the Tagus River in Almada
One of the greatest desires of the human heart is for one to feel like they belong, to be accepted as they are. When I first booked the trip, I wasn’t sure if we had allowed enough time to experience everything the country had to offer truly. However, within just 48 hours of exploring, we realized that Lisboa welcomed us with open arms. I’ve walked the streets of 11 countries—about 5% of the world, according to my Been App—most of which are in Latin America, so I had no idea what to expect from the Iberian Peninsula.
Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara
Traveling to a new country, especially of a culture that is also foreign, is an exciting and anxiety-filled undertaking, something quite unexpected to experience. The feeling was so foreign to me, that I counted and reminisced on all the places I have been thus far in my 33 years of life. Going down memory lane, I was reminded how much discovery fuels me and how grateful I am to be with a partner who loves the wanderlust just as much as me. And that reminder propelled me into the planning of what would become an amazing, eye-opening travel experience.
With just 10 days, I find it difficult to balance the desire to discover and explore, with the ability to sit still and allow the experience of these new moments to truly settle. I guess that is the plight of the nomad, how much time does one need? The trick in travel and in life is to prepare yourself with as much information as possible in pre-production and allow ourselves to flow in the moment, knowing what’s available to us. In travel, I like knowing that I have options available and like puppet masters, we control the pace and tempo of our experience.
overlooking Largo do Duque de Cadaval from Estação Ferroviária do Rossio
Something important to me, since I started this journey of being a photographer and following my dreams, is changing stigmas and perceptions around blackness. Whether in life, photography, or travel, protecting and inspiring people who look like me has remained a pillar of why it is I do what I do. And as we all know, the world has had a very complicated and tumultuous relationship with the diaspora. In fact, it’s a topic of conversation with every new country I announce to my family and friends; how do they feel about Black people in this space? From the time I booked the trip, even to now as I write this piece, I’ve heard about how different people experience Portugal. So when I look for places to visit, how my people are treated is a consideration I can’t ignore but I’d be lying if I said that I allow this to deter me from seeing a place for myself. By the law of nature I understand that, though we may share similarities, my life and my journey are mine to experience alone and wisdom has taught me that when some may experience negativity, my energy is always attracted to things in alignment.
The Iberian Peninsula, in general, and Portugal, in specific, has been on my travel bucket list for years. I have been drawn to that part of the world for a decade or more. To my surprise, in getting to know Tyce at the beginning of our relationship, I found that we both share an attraction to that region, making it a must-see for both of us. Maybe that’s what made this trip different for me. With so much anticipation, it’s natural for expectation and reality to miss each other like passing ships at night but in this case, Lisboa was everything we expected and more. The embrace, the love, and the familiarity we were met with as we explored this city for the first time made the alignment feel like it was destined, and it was.
Weirdly, Lisbon reminded me of DC. I know what you’re thinking, yes, I am aware of how strange that sounds in theory but let me explain before you judge me too deeply. DC, in design, is an American city wrapped in European wallpaper. If you walk downtown you quickly begin to notice the monuments, the layout of the streets, and even the buildings all have a European flair to how they are set up. If that wasn’t enough, DC is an international city that draws crowds from all over the world, so much so that the job market is full of international contractors. This allows for a much more colorful walking experience as hearing foreign accents or languages as you move about the city is fairly normal. All in all, it might just be the most international city in the country outside of New York City, and that is purely by default due to the different sizes of the cities themselves.
In comparison, as we walked throughout the center city of Lisbon, I very much felt the same way. Lisboa is a tourist attraction in itself, being Portugal's capital city, so it is likely to experience a similar feeling of international flair as you move about. Whether in restaurants, retail stores or even watching performers on the street, English almost seemed to be the default language as people working in Lisboa expect to speak to a tourist instead of local Portuguese. Don’t get me wrong there are stark differences, the idea that these cities share familiarity. Whereas DC is mostly flat, Lisbon in contrast is hilly, so there is a bit of difference there. But all in all, there are similarities in how people interact with the city.
