When I first went vegan four years ago, I worried that travelling would be difficult, and I did struggle on my first vegan holiday abroad. But fast-forward to now and, thanks to the internet, the Happy Cow app and an increasingly herbivorous world, I can be vegan and proud. When I go away on holiday, I no longer have to survive on paprika Pringles, salad and sorbet. I have a whole range of options to explore, and Lisbon certainly didn’t disappoint on that front. As well as tasty vegan food, my best friend Natalie and I were also looking for sunshine, castles and cocktails and we got those, and then some.
Our Lisbon vegan experience started with brunch, after a much needed lie in at the Lisbon city hotel — don’t you just love it when an all-vegan food place is less than a five minutes walk away from your hotel? Well, Happy Cow told us we had one. Natalie and I, along with James, the bear, headed to Moko Veggie Café (@Moko.Veggie.Cafe, Rua Forno de Tijolo 29D). James is my travel companion for the summer. He is a special bear with his own Facebook page (Will travel for baby James) that I read about in the book Will Travel for Vegan food by Kristin Lajeunese. Kristin found him in a tree while she was travelling the USA in search of all-vegan eateries. The bear belonged to baby James who, sadly died in infancy in 2012 — his parents placed the bear in a tree in the hope that he would be found and taken on journeys around the world. Thanks to Facebook, he is now with me.