Lisbon worked best when I stopped rushing.

Lisbon made the most sense once I stopped treating every viewpoint like a checkpoint. The days that worked were the ones where I picked one hilly neighborhood for the morning, kept lunch nearby, and used the ferry as a pause instead of a transfer.

The practical move was simple: walk before the heat, save trams for moments when they help rather than when they photograph well, and keep one small cafe stop between every ambitious climb.

What I would repeat

I would stay near the river again. It made evenings easy, gave every day a clear reset, and kept the trip from becoming a sequence of uphill errands.