Most lisboners have fresh memories of the old days of CAIS DO SODRÉ. At dawn, São Paulo square packed with flowers to sell, the euphoria of the Ribeira market, people going to work in an unstoppable movement of cars, buses and yellow street cars, by train, subway or using a variety of boats and ferries. Everybody is going somewhere and have something to do.
The night could look young but it was made of ancient vices and habits, from open air prostitution to drunk sailors in and out of bars named after port cities of the world. The housing was fully degraded, not one attraction by the river and, as in a rite of passage, CAIS DO SODRÉ lived only to wait for lisboners ‘expelled’ from a Bairro Alto closed too soon to come down hill and give life to this dark neighborhood lighted by old neons promising never to shut a door on their faces.
Things have changed. Some of the old fashioned commerce is still there, most of it evolved to a trendy, alternative and sometimes underground scenario. CAIS DO SODRÉ finally embraced the river as a nocturnal proposal of fun: there are hostels and small hotels, new bars pulling out the ‘modernist’ card in different ways, better places to eat, a varied approach to all sex things and colorful streets that turned into terraces without a view, except for the looks of the crowd.
And, of course, there’s the Ribeira market (Praça da Ribeira), half of the secular building now a huge tapestry of small samples of some of the best restaurants of Lisbon, noisy like an airport terminal but exciting to witness and appealing to all palates.
The old CAIS DO SODRÉ is now something completely different. But even if you ‘re on your way to somewhere, whether it is the south bank and the promises of an even sunnier Portugal, the beaches of Cascais or the adventures of getting to know all of Lisbon, this is the place to stop, enjoy and eventually stay longer than you expected.
EAT
DRINK
SLEEP
