Lisbon: Crumbling Warehouses and Crispy Sardines

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Yesterday we walked along Lisbon's shores. We started the day at the crumbling warehouses of Cais do Ginjal, and by evening we were eating golden sardines and moist monkfish.


Cais do Ginjal is the waterfront just across the river. It used to be filled with life and workers, but now it stands totally empty.



We wandered past locked warehouses with peeling paint and cracked glass. Wildflowers sprouted straight out of the bricks, and most of the walls were covered in graffiti.



In one warehouse, a whole wall had collapsed right down, showing all the rusty pipes inside. The jagged hole looked like a gap-toothed grin, as if the building was chuckling at how broken it was.



We went inside through a side door hanging loose off the hinges. Broken glass crunched under our shoes as we walked around the dark interior. It was now a place for pigeons, and their cooing echoed around.

The sun streamed through broken window panes to light up the dust. Rust bloomed on the old machinery like orange flowers.
 

Eventually we reached Ponto Finale. 
The restaurant is way out at the far end of the ruins, quite remote, but it is one of the most hyped restaurants in all of Lisbon




We sat down in the bright sun and had the fried sardines and monkfish, the glittering Tagus right in front of us.
 
The sardines were perfectly crisp on the skin, tender inside. A black and white dog came over and sat by my chair, just watching me eat, and my shirt got a small oil spot on it from the fish.
 
We stayed there a long time until the sun went down. 

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