Good morning, Lisbon. It's Friday, April 10, and we're looking at 19°C with a mix of sun and cloud. The Lisbon Metro is back up and running from 6:30 this morning after yesterday's full-day shutdown, today is the EES deadline at the airport, and you've earned the weekend. Let's get into it.
🌬️ AIR QUALITY: 24 (Good).
🗞️ TOP STORY
THE METRO IS BACK. ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS.
Lisbon Metro service resumed at 6:30 this morning after a full 24-hour shutdown that paralysed the network for the entirety of yesterday. Every line was closed. Stations were locked. An estimated 450,000 daily riders had to find another way to get where they were going, which mostly meant overcrowded Carris buses, surge-priced rideshares, and a lot of people walking up Lisbon's hills who hadn't planned on it.
The strike was called by FECTRANS, the federation that represents most metro workers, and it had no minimum service. The Arbitration Tribunal in the Economic and Social Council ruled earlier this week that the only obligation during the strike was a small skeleton crew at the central command post for safety and equipment maintenance. Three workers, total. Everyone else was out.
According to union representative Sara Sigló, the dispute is not about pay. It's about the company's failure to comply with agreements signed in 2019, particularly around training and work organisation. After Wednesday's late-night plenary, which ran into the early hours of Thursday, the workers actually came back with more demands than they started with, not fewer. That's the kind of detail that tells you negotiations are not going well.
Here's the part you need to know: this isn't over. The unions have already announced a second 24-hour strike for next Tuesday, April 14, and once again no minimum service has been decreed. Same script, same gridlock, same scramble for buses. If you have an appointment, a flight, or a school run on Tuesday, start planning your alternative now. Bus routes near major metro hubs were filling up before they reached half their stops yesterday, and Bolt and Uber prices doubled across the city by mid-morning.
The bigger picture is that the Lisbon Metro has been stuck in this loop for over a year. There were partial strikes last September, more in November, more in December. Management says it's constrained by a government-mandated 5% cap on the public-enterprise wage bill. The unions say the cap is being used as cover for ignoring agreements management already signed up to. The Ministry of Environment and Infrastructure, which technically oversees the network, has stayed almost completely silent throughout, leaving it to Metropolitano de Lisboa's management to negotiate directly. Nothing has been signed. Nothing looks close to being signed.
Bottom line: the metro is running this morning. Use it, enjoy it, and assume Tuesday is going to look exactly like yesterday. If your job allows you to work from home, Tuesday is the day.
⚡ QUICK HITS
EES deadline is today. Friday, April 10, is the hard deadline for full biometric border implementation across the entire Schengen area. If you're flying out of Humberto Delgado today and you hold a non-EU passport, get there at least two hours early. Lisbon's airport posted seven-hour queues last December, and nothing about its infrastructure has improved since.
Drug prices in Portugal are about to go up. Portugal Resident reported on April 7 that pharmaceutical prices in Portugal will have to rise "sooner or later," driven by inflation and political pressure to bring Portuguese drug prices closer to the European average. No firm timeline yet, but if you have regular prescriptions or rely on the SNS for ongoing medication, this is one to watch. Portugal currently has some of the lowest pharmacy prices in Europe, and that gap is the entire reason for the proposed increase.
Lula visits Portugal April 21. Brazil's President Lula da Silva has confirmed an official visit to Portugal on April 21, according to a source in the Brazilian presidency. The agenda hasn't been published yet, but the visit comes against a tense backdrop: Portugal's revised Nationality Law, passed by parliament on April 1, removes the special citizenship pathway that previously gave Brazilian and other CPLP nationals access after just five years. Expect that to come up.
Arsenal lead Sporting 1-0 ahead of next Wednesday's second leg. Kai Havertz's stoppage-time winner at the José Alvalade on Tuesday gives Arsenal the slimmest possible advantage going into the return fixture at the Emirates next Wednesday, April 15. Sporting outshot the visitors and David Raya was reportedly the best player on the pitch. Not over by any means, but the margin is now very thin.
🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY
If you spent yesterday hiking up Lisbon's hills because the metro was on strike, you have earned a properly serious meal. Carvoaria Jacto is where you go for one.
This is a Lisbon institution that's been grilling meat in the same spot on Rua Maria Andrade in Anjos for decades. It started life as a tiny carvoaria, one of the small neighbourhood shops that sold coal, and slowly transformed into one of the city's great steak temples without ever really moving out of its original building or giving up its working-class soul. The dining room is loud, packed, low-ceilinged, with Portuguese soap operas and football matches playing on the TVs above the bar, and locals queueing out the door on a Friday night.
What you come for is the meat. The house specialty is posta mirandesa, the prized cut from Mirandesa cattle raised in the northeast corner of Portugal. It is grilled over charcoal exactly as it has been here for years, and it is the kind of steak you talk about for a week afterwards. The other star is the espetada, a hanging skewer of veal or beef brought to the table on its own metal stand, with the meat juices dripping down as you slide each piece off the sword. The starters are also worth your attention, particularly the prawn rissois, the cheese and pumpkin jam combo, and the croquettes. Side of mushroom risotto if you're going hard.
A meal here, with starters, a serious cut, sides, and a decent bottle of Alentejo red, lands somewhere around €30-40 a head, which is remarkable value for what you get. Be warned: Carvoaria Jacto only takes Portuguese bank cards. No Visa or Mastercard. Bring cash or a multibanco card or you will be doing dishes. They also do not accept reservations on busy nights without a phone call in advance, and they are closed on Sundays.
Rua Maria Andrade 6-8, Anjos. Closest metro: Anjos (Green Line, when it's running). Mon-Sat lunch and dinner, closed Sundays.
Insider tip: Order the 200g cut, not the 300g. The portions are bigger than they sound, and you want room for dessert. The chocolate cake here has its own solid reputation.
📅 WHAT'S ON
Italian Film Festival opens tonight (Fri April 10) Coliseu dos Recreios. Opens with the new Paolo Sorrentino film. Runs through April 18, closing gala on the 18th with a tribute to Claudia Cardinale.
Second Metro strike (Tue April 14) Full 24-hour walkout, no minimum service. Plan accordingly.
Tinariwen (Tue April 14) LAV Lisboa Ao Vivo. Desert blues from the Sahara. Doors and timings on the LAV website.
Arsenal v Sporting, second leg (Wed April 15) Champions League quarter-final return at the Emirates. Arsenal lead 1-0 on aggregate.
Liberty Day (Sat April 25) Public holiday marking the Carnation Revolution.
📜 ON THIS DAY
April 10, 1912. The RMS Titanic left Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. She was the largest moving man-made object in the world at the time, billed by the White Star Line as practically unsinkable. On board were over 2,200 passengers and crew, including some of the wealthiest people on the planet and hundreds of emigrants in steerage looking for a new life across the Atlantic. Four days later she struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank in just under three hours. More than 1,500 people died. The lifeboats only had room for about half the people on board, and many of those left behind were in third class.
Four Portuguese passengers were on board, and all four died. One was a second-class passenger from São Clemente in Loulé. The other three were Madeiran farmers from Funchal and Calheta, travelling in third class. None of their bodies were ever identified.
The disaster changed maritime law forever: lifeboats for everyone, mandatory radio watches, the international ice patrol that still operates today. It's also the reason the phrase "women and children first" is still in the language. A century and a bit later, the Titanic remains the story we tell ourselves about what happens when people get a bit too sure of themselves.
See you tomorrow morning.
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