If you’re looking for a shirt with the words “My brother went to Lisbon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” to take as a gift from Lisbon, forget it. If you want to buy the same-old Lisbon souvenir such as a colorful ceramic tile or the famous Barcelos rooster for good luck, you’ll find plenty of those in every single tourist shop in the city. But for the right Lisbon souvenir, you have to look in the wrong shop – literally. The Wrong Shop, found on an uphill street connecting Chiado’s main street Rua Garrett with the charming Carmo Square and the ruined Carmo Convent, has all the Portuguese symbols and the typical tourist favorites, but with a twist.

You’d expect to see t-shirts in Paris to display the Eiffel Tower, or you’d look for a t-shirt in London showing Big Ben, so of course in Lisbon you’d perhaps expect to find one with the Belem Tower, or the Discoveries Monument. Those do exist in several shops, but how about a t-shirt with the Eiffel Tower and the words “This is not Lisbon” below it instead?

Portugal’s iconic Barcelos cockerel is also given a makeover, trading its usual red and black colors for the British flag, the American, the Spanish, or the rainbow flag.

The more cultured tourist may want to check out the national authors, so in Lisbon they may look for the genius Fernando Pessoa or the Nobel-winning Saramago. At The Wrong Shop, you’ll find the books they never wrote.

You’ll see more of these funny Lisbon gifts at the The Wrong Shop website.

Related Posts

1. “Amatudo” – You’ll Love Everything at this Gift Shop of Portuguese Products
2. Jimmy Portuguese Styleshop – The Place for New and Fun Gifts from Lisbon
3. The Eyeful Tower: Lisbon’s Santa Justa Elevator

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Lisbon General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.