In the past, Portugal was a major player in ship navigation and discovery. Colonization, route discovering and trading were its top strength. Nowadays it's known for being a peaceful and globalized; beautiful coast lines and winter days that are like Canadian summers.
All in attendance: Eliot and Kristen
Brrr. Let's go away, let's leave winter behind in search of a warmer, more pleasant place. That is the broken record dream of every Canadian. So it's like an absolute dream come true when you are able to abandon that pleasant place (Switzerland) for an even hotter place (Portugal).
Skipping out of work early on Thursday and flying from Basel airport to Porto is a lovely thing that everyone should have the luxury of doing once. Thank you easyjet for giving us return flights for less than 80 CHF. You can take the metro from the Porto airport right to the city center.
We stayed at the Escondidinho Bed & Breakfast and got a private room for 12.50 euros a night. Is it safe to drink the water in Portugal? I thought so but our tap ran orange water for the first night. Oh well.
It was dark once we got there so we just took a nice night time walk along the cobblestone streets and along the Douro river. Across the bridge of that river is another town (wow! so close!) called Vila Nova de Gaia.
Panhandlers here have a different game to what I am use to. The days of a simple "spare change?" are long gone for Porto. Instead, elaborate tales of why the asker is down on his luck are in high fashion. No, not the "I need money to call a taxi because my car broke down". I mean things such as "I have AIDS and my friend has AIDS. Please buy these condoms at ridiculously high prices to help with our treatment and with AIDS prevention" and "I was a concert pianist but now I have lost my job (maybe even his piano!!), I can't afford food but I can afford this cigarette I'm smoking right now". Don't think you're a smarty pants if you feign "no English". These panhandlers are of a different multilingual breed and also speak French.
We saw a lot of university student beings hazed too. Younger students in ridiculous outfits doing pushups and systematically smacking themselves on the head. Older students in black robes and booming voices. Eliot even dumped a bucket full of that orange water I was talking about before on some students from our hotel window.
The next day it was time for a nice long walk through the town and it's winding roads. Walking along the water, contemplating a bus tour (and rejecting a bus tour), and contemplating if it was possible to go up to see the Douro Valley without spending 100 euros (not likely).
Basically we opted for a nice quite day of leisurely walking around the city. No port wine tour, unfortunately. We had a Francesinha sandwich. It's voted one of the top types of sandwiches in the world and despite and appealing description of "every meat you can imagine, then cheese and then swimming in salty sauce", I really don't understand the big fuss. Perhaps it would be better if they substituted all the different types of meat for just bacon and then made it with maple syrup instead of salty sauce.
We walked along the waterline in Porto and passed beaches which I am almost certain must be jammed packed during the on season. Saw some fortress ruins and passed the Casa da Música. We caught the market in Mercado do Bolhã as it was closing and got some tasty pastries. We took a small nap and then heading out near the University area for cheap drinks (the first of way so many mojitos) including a crazy drink with gooey passion fruit seeds. Then it was off to some obscure club and then home to wake up early the next day.
As a general ignorant statement: the average european male takes as long to get ready in the morning as the average north american female... perhaps longer. I have mastered the 10 minutes morning routine from bed to door. If you wake up in a rush, breakfast and grooming time is drastically cut down. This must be a North American go-go-go attitude because when we woke up late the next day, we leisurely got ready and had a full breakfast. One thing I have learned in my Europe integration is that it's completely taboo to even suggest to a European to quicken up their morning prep. They are also not a fan of running like a lunatic to make train and bus connections. I have no idea how punctuality is upheld in this continent.
We made the last train connection that I had written down. We planned to take the train to see the Pena National Palace in Sintra before heading to Lisbon. Portugal's train system is not very forgiving to the non-Portuguese speakers although the website is idiot proof friendly. I felt like the route maps were a bit obscure compared to elsewhere I've traveled in Europe but at least there were maps for us to try. Don't think you can rely on your train departure time to indicate which platform to go to. For some reason they like to put 2 trains leaving at the exact same time for maximum tourist confusion. Don't ask people for directions either, they will swat you away with furious head shaking. Shooo shooo no English shooo
We made it in the end. We got a bus pass for the bus that leaves the train station and goes off into all the horribly touristy locations in Sintra. As we were doing a flash weekend trip, we only went to Pena National Palace. If there was a manifestation of a "gum drop castle", this is probably the closest thing you will get.
Wandering in Lisbon, we found our hostel near a shopping district in a small plaza. The Royal Lisbon Hostel has nothing "hostel" like about it. Where else could you get such a posh accommodation for 9.5 euros a night?! Big screen tv and PS3? A kitchen nicer than the one I have back in Canada? A bathroom cleaner than my own? Homemade baked goods for included breakfast? Posh decor and furniture and a lady who brought me a blanket and the remote when I laid on the couch? I don't even understand how that works.
We ate at Antigo Primeiro de Maio which was right by our hostel. It was really good if you're just looking for something basic like fish. A lot of bars are close to our hostel and they specialize in serving free handed mixed cocktails in 700mL cups for 5 euro. glug glug, stumble stumble.
Belem Tower, Monument to the Discoveries Jeronimos Monastery
The next day we went to the Belém parish by the Tagus River for some mandatory cheesy Lisbon photos. We also went to the Maritime Museum which (somehow) we got free entry to. It's a museum mostly dedicated to scaled models of historical ships. We also saw the Ponte 25 de Abril (similar to the San Francisco bridge) and Cristo Rei (similar to the giant Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro) but only from a distance.
Lots of walking, lots of feasting, lots of fish soup, lots of egg tarts. We even walked up to Castelo de São Jorge for sunset. You could see the Ponte Vasco da Gama (insanely long bridge) from there in the distance.
We also saw the Carmo Convent, a mediaeval convent ruin and the Santa Justa Lift which is really just a big elevator in the middle of Lisbon city streets. I'm also going to make a bold statement that most Lisbon restaurants are pretty delicious because we didn't have a single bad meal while we were there.
Also, where Porto had pan handler bards, Lisbon is full of people who want to sell you hashish, marijuana and ridiculous oversize heart sun glasses.
Things I leaned:
- It's hard to overcome the shyness that comes with speaking words in a language you're unfamiliar with. Mostly because I am embarrassed for things to sound Spanish instead of Portuguese.
- They sure love egg tarts in Lisbon
- Nightlife starts at 2 am in Lisbon - the time where nightlight ends in Calgary
- Buy a transit card in Lisbon unless you want to spend 4x as much on bus fare
- The sound of Portuguese
- Seafood !!
- Cheap restaurants in Porto (Every entree 5 euros?!)
- Cream filled croissants in Portuguese bakeries
- 15°C in January
- More time in Sintra to see the other castle and monasteries
- Go to the beach in Porto
- Go up the Douro Valley in Porto
- Go on a Port Wine Cave Tours
