S8 Team trip 2024: Lisbon
Written by S8 Team
Last week, we set statuses to ‘out of office’ and met in the terracotta-topped city of Lisbon for our annual team retreat. It’s not often we all get together—and since we’ve recently welcomed a tonne of new faces to the team, this year was all about eating, drinking and just hanging out IRL.
One by one, we made ourselves at home at Lisbon’s Mama Shelter—a super sassy urban hangout that we love for its foosball tables and family-style feasting. For some of us, it was a case of a quick coach ride to the capital. But for others (sorry, Cyprus crew), it was a late-night arrival after various layovers and lost luggage drama. Plus, there was a last-minute detour for Jasmine, who, after feeling very smug with her early arrival at Gatwick, ended up making a mad dash to Heathrow (the airport she was actually meant to be flying from…)
Despite the bleary eyes, the next day started strong with the first of our activities: a pastel de nata masterclass. Working under the watchful eye of the pros at Nat'elier, we hand-crafted and baked our very own versions of the Portuguese classic. Why yes, we did make our own pastry.
That evening, the voyage of gastronomy continued as we took to the streets of the city for a tuk-tuk food tour. We sampled everything from local cheeses and vino verde to the city’s famous pork bifanas. We even sat down to the traditional salted cod dish, bacalhau à brás, with a side of Fado guitar. All of this was rounded off with a freshly baked pastel de nata chaser—yes, more pastries.
For our final night, we tore around the city armed with tablets as we took part in an outdoor escape hunt. Turns out nothing makes us more competitive than a Time Cops-themed backstory, cryptic clues, and a 90-minute countdown clock. But after crowning the winners, it was onwards to Sumaya for our final meal together: Lebanese mezze followed by a birthday cake for a very surprised Soraia, who turned 28 while we were away.
The theme of this year’s retreat was all about getting together—so we made plenty of time to do just that. We explored museums, wandered around botanic gardens, and scaled those deceptively steep streets of the old town. We drank port and tonic in Alfama, did karaoke in Bairro Alto, and each night, claimed the hotel terrace as ours for beers and cocktails.
We reconnected with people we hadn’t seen in real life for a while—and, for the first time this year, almost all of us were together in person (shout out to Andreas, Alex and Simon who were with us in spirit). But best of all, we came away with a tonne of new memories and Slack memes, feeling hyped about what the future has in store for the S8 fam.
As always, huge love to Fran and Mario for treating us to three incredible days out of the office. It’s safe to say we loved every second.
