Drinking and Entertainment
Among the city's hundreds of bars and cafes, some of the older cafes and pastelarias (specializing in cakes) in particular are worth dropping in on at some stage during the day. For night-time drinking, the densest concentration of designer bars and clubs is found in Bairro Alto - Lisbon's traditional centre of nightlife, with its cramped streets sheltering bars, clubs, fado houses and restaurants. Much of the action has also now moved out to the Docas (Docklands) district, just to east of the 25 de Abril bridge (train to Alcantara Mar from Cais do Sodre or tram #15 or #18). Converted warehouses at the Doca de Santo Amaro are host to waterfront bars and cafes, while a little closer to the city centre the Doca de Alcantara has emerged over the last few years as the hangout for Lisbon's chic (buses #9, #28, #39 and #46). Late night clubbers should also try Avenida 24 de Julho , the avenue running west from Cais do Sodre to the more outlying Alcantara district. The electronic music scene has exploded in the last few years: head for Bairro Alto or the latest riverside venues at Santa Apolina or Alcantara. Clubs don't really get going until around 2am and are generally open until 6am. Admission fees are usually about ?10 (often including one or two drinks), although some Lisbon clubs leave the cover charge to the doorman's discretion - anything from ?5-20. Tourist brochures tend to suggest that Lisbon entertainment begins and ends with fado , a form of music that developed in sailors' bars in Lisbon in the late eighteenth century. It is a mournful, romantic singing style somewhere between blues and flamenco and bemoans lost loves and better times (try Bairro Alto or Alfama expecting to pay over ?15). Portuguese jazz can be good, rock can occasionally surprise, and if you check out the posters around Restauradores there's a good chance of catching African music from the former colonies. Entertainment listings are available in the Agenda Cultural , a free monthly booklet issued by Lisbon city council or in the Friday editions of the Independente or Diario de Noticias newspapers, which both have listings magazines. Virtually all the city's cinemas show original-language films with Portuguese subtitles. Mainstream movies are on show at cinemas around Praca dos Restauradores and Avenida da Liberdade; and at the Amoreiras shopping complex (tel 213 831 275), on Avenida Eng. Duarte Pacheco (bus #83 from Praca Marques de Pombal), there are ten screens. The Instituto da Cinemateca Portuguesa (tel 213 546 085, www.cineworld.com/Lisbon/screen.html ; ?2), Rua Barata Salgueiro 39 (Avenida metro), is the national film theatre - programmes are available at the main tourist office in Rossio. Lisbon's busy theatre season is from October to May.
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