I never thought I’d be someone to have a favourite book or author. However on my last trip throughout Latin America, I stumbled upon The Art of Travel and was soon hooked on the writing of Alain de Botton. A few years on and I now found myself attending his The School of Life Conference here in Lisbon.

Given the subject, I shouldn’t have been as amazed as I was by the people I met and the conversations I had with at the time complete strangers. I left the 3 day conference with new ideas, friends and experiences that well and truly inspired me.

For reasons of brevity and otherwise, I’m going to sum this post up with a Yelp-style review of my experience of Lisbon:

Overall I recommend this place to literally everyone who isn’t boring. It’s a beautiful city with friendly people, fantastic food, great hostels and luckily for me it happened to be hosting a just as impressive gathering of like minded people.

Do: Try the beef rolls at As Bifanas Do Afonso, go out for a Portuguese Feijoada and Fado show, walk around the Alfama district, and talk to the cute girl who caught your eye at the conference.
Don’t: Book your flights to leave the day after the conference finished (leaving you with no option but to come back in a few weeks to see more of the city), book a 7 bed dorm the first night of your stay because this is undoubtedly where the terminal snorers sleep, and don’t spend an hour on the Tram to Belém Tower, arriving at 5:30PM only to realise that it shuts at 5.

4 stars out of 5.