Spent 3 full days in Lisbon. Stayed in the Baixa, a block from the restaurant area. While we found most of Lisbon interesting, what we didn't like was the crime and selling of drugs we encountered. We were also ripped off by the yellow tour bus company (?). In broad day light, walking in the Baixa area near H&M, several young men tried to sell us drugs, or at least that's what they said they had. Both my partner and I are in our late 30's, we were surrounded and these guys just wouldn't take no for an answer, finally we pushed our way through these men. Found the local police and they basically just shrugged their shoulders. Walking the main street near the square in Baixa another day, early evening, another man either tried to grab the strap of my purse or pinch my breast. I was wearing a cross body bag, and when I saw he was reaching for me, I put my arm up to block him, he ended up grabbing my forearm instead. My husband yelled out at him, but the guy just kept walking casually. We had just left the Rossio train station about 10 minutes prior to that, having witnessed a fight between young men on the train ride back from Sintra. Sintra is a beautiful town, but having to endure the train ride back in the evening was beyond crazy. The train stops in some pretty rough areas, and the young people getting on the train just basically took over the train, yelling, fighting, cussing. Not to make this a racial topic, but in our cabin of the train, there were only 4 white people and the rest were black. We were singled out, and harassed. Getting off the train wasn't a good idea, as there didn't seem to be a safe stop before we got back to Lisbon. If we would have known this, we would have never gone to Sintra by train, even though it was inexpensive and easy to get to.
We were also ripped off by the yellow tour bus company (?). Bought the tickets were you could ride any line of the yellow tour bus within 24 hours. The first day we were on the blue tour line. What a waste! The recording wasn't on par with where the bus was, my husband's recorder didn't work and there wasn't another seat open for him to be able to listen to what was being said. The second day we waited over 45 minutes to take another tour, only to be told that we didn't pay for anything other then the blue tour line, even though we had our receipts to prove otherwise. Tried to go to the Yellow tour bus company to complain, but the office was always closed.
If your arriving in Lisbon plane, take a taxi. Don't bother with taking the bus into town. The taxi costs approx. the same amount and is much quicker. Wish we could be more upbeat and positive about Lisbon, but honestly couldn't wait to leave. I've traveled all over Europe and Asia, in cities much larger than Lisbon and have never encountered any issues such as what we dealt with in Lisbon.
