"You haven't really visited Lisbon without eating a Pastel de Belem"

Like I have stated before, there's nothing better than combining my love of travel with my passion for food, and I discovered that Lisbon is my haven. The food there was phenomenal; from the most inventive and delicious soups to melt in your mouth steaks. And every city in Portugal, as it seems, has it's own signature torte.

So what better way to discover Portugal than by eating our way through it. (side note: Between the times that I feel the need to lose 5-10lbs, I find myself so grateful that I don't weigh 75lbs more than I do). We started Saturday morning off right by eating at the city's historic bakery, the Brasileiro, before walking a few miles along the river to Belem.

Now, the city of Belem is most widely known for 2 things: the tower and the torte. The tower, built between 1515-1521, was the city's fortress for a few hundred years. The main level of the tower was where it housed it's military defense. The tower itself is a few stories high, and only has one stairwell - narrow and circular at that. I'm sure that was no problem back in the days of it's glory, when most of the militia stayed on the bottom level, but when there are hoards of tourists going up and down the stairs it gets a little tricky. The views from the top were breathtaking and the inside of the tower was quite neat, so smashing yourself up against the wall in order for someone to make their way down the stairs was quite worth it.

Lisbon locals will be the first to tell you that although you're walking around their city, if you haven't eaten a pastel de Belem, all that walking will have been in vain-- because you can't experience Lisbon without trying one. And of course we had our priorities straight! So before we toured the tower we stopped at the nearby restaurant and had the torte. Words can not describe it's goodness, so I pried my mouth away from the dessert long enough to take a picture, and let the torte speak for itself. Yummy!