After almost 3 full days in transit, I landed in Lisbon, Portugal. Originally, I don't remember why I wanted to go to Portugal, I didn't know anything about it and I hadn't heard many people telling me that they wanted to go there, but I had booked my flight from Rio to there and when I had to rearrange all my flights I was now dedicated to going to Lisbon. It was a very good choice that I did!
First off I don't speak any Portuguese, however, it is surprisingly easy to pick up if you speak Spanish. I almost missed my flight to Lisbon because I thought 17:00 was 7PM, not 5PM but they re-opened the gate and I was the last to board. My hostel in Lisbon was super easy to get to on the metro which was a nice surprise and it was beautiful, every room was designed by a different Portuguese artist and they held a 3-course dinner every night with free wine for only 10 euros!!!!
The first morning I slept in, had pancakes for breakfast and then decided to do a little research on Portugal and Lisbon. I met a guy named Rob that morning who had just arrived and he agreed to go explore Portugal in Lisbon. We walked along to the waterfront and attempted to take the tram to the top of Lisbon, however after unsuccessfully trying to buy tickets and to find the trams, we gave up and started walking, which resulted in us getting lost but finding some of the most incredible views and entering the castle on top of the hill. I also had the most amazing meal in a tiny hole in a wall restaurant. Rob had a lot of dietary restrictions, however, I just asked the waiter/owner what he recommended and he brought me a tapas dish of all of his favorite Portuguese foods. It was incredible. Meat, cheese, mushrooms, potatoes, seafood, pork, everything! He even paired it with some amazing wines, we sat and talked with the owner for a while as he was born and raised in Lisbon.
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| view from the Castle |
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| Rob and I exploring the alleys filled with street art |
While I was in Chile on my very first weekend I met two women from Portugal, one was still traveling in South America but Francisca was actually in Lisbon, I went over to her apartment and met up with a bunch of her friends, we all went out as they are almost all bartenders around Lisbon. I got back at almost 6AM because partying in Lisbon goes on all night long, but had a tour of Sintra, Cabo de Rocas, the Palaces and the Free Mason house. Luckily our driver was really cool and I got to have a Pastel de Nata in Belen where they were created in 1837. Sintra is beautiful, its set in the countryside of Portugal with colorful tiny twirling roads and great food. I also got to have duck rice for lunch and visit some famous surfing beaches. After visiting the Free Mason house we were running out of time to see the palaces in full detail and so decided to go rock climbing and watched the sunset with a view of the palaces on the cliff as well. After a full day of site seeing we also went port tasting and I got to try ginja, a cherry liquor served in a chocolate shot glass. For dinner, my hostel waited for us since all 8 of us were on the tour together and we had an amazing dinner of Chicken Piri Piri and wine, corn, and salad.
The next day I went to Porto via train. This was my first European train trip and it was an experience! I couldn't find the train to begin with and spent what seemed like hours running around the train station lost and boarding the wrong trains.... eventually though I found the train headed to Porto and even got a window seat for my journey. The Porto train station I had been told was extremely beautiful but when I got there it seemed like any other train station, maybe a bit more modern but not by any means beautiful. I could not figure out the metro though, and after struggling and walking in circles I found two German backpackers doing the exact same thing, we worked together and realized we needed to change stations to get to the metro area and once there it only took us a few minutes to understand the maps and ticket situation. I had already downloaded the maps for Porto and was able to walk them to their hostel before carrying on to my own as they did not have any maps. My hostel was extremely friendly and as I checked in I was invited to go to dinner with two people. That night I had a Francesinha (a Portuguese specialty) and did the pub crawl. While on the pub crawl Erin and I made drunken plans to go to Essencia do Vino, the amazing wine and port festival happening that weekend.
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| Porto Train Station |
The next morning after the walking tour Erin, where we visited the original train station in Porto which I admit, is very beautiful. We then grabbed lunch with a few of the guys from our group and had a multiple hour lunch with many bottles of green wine (another Portuguese thing) after which the guys were too tired to continue onto the wine festival as planned. Erin and I, however, were game. We made it just in time for the last day meaning tickets were now only 12 euros including the wine glass and once inside it was unlimited. We tasted so many different varieties and types of wines, ports, and wine cocktails. They even had free sandwiches and snacks and it was so interesting to talk to the different wine producers about what went into their bottling process. The venue itself was stunning, and the rooms of wineries seemed to go on forever.
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| Essancia de Vino venue |
After waking up very late (potentially having something to do with the amount of wine I had consumed the day before) I missed the train I had intended to take back to Lisbon to make my flight to Barcelona, to make my flight to Morocco. But somehow in the pouring rain, I made a train (not on the online schedule) and was able to change my ticket for free. Sitting across from me? Everton! He had been on the tour with me and at lunch the day before. He asked why I wasn't on the earlier train and if it had anything to do with the wine festival, but he also offered to make sure I got on the right metro line to get to the airport as fast as possible.
In the end, I made my flight and headed off to Barcelona!
The first morning I slept in, had pancakes for breakfast and then decided to do a little research on Portugal and Lisbon. I met a guy named Rob that morning who had just arrived and he agreed to go explore Portugal in Lisbon. We walked along to the waterfront and attempted to take the tram to the top of Lisbon, however after unsuccessfully trying to buy tickets and to find the trams, we gave up and started walking, which resulted in us getting lost but finding some of the most incredible views and entering the castle on top of the hill. I also had the most amazing meal in a tiny hole in a wall restaurant. Rob had a lot of dietary restrictions, however, I just asked the waiter/owner what he recommended and he brought me a tapas dish of all of his favorite Portuguese foods. It was incredible. Meat, cheese, mushrooms, potatoes, seafood, pork, everything! He even paired it with some amazing wines, we sat and talked with the owner for a while as he was born and raised in Lisbon.
While I was in Chile on my very first weekend I met two women from Portugal, one was still traveling in South America but Francisca was actually in Lisbon, I went over to her apartment and met up with a bunch of her friends, we all went out as they are almost all bartenders around Lisbon. I got back at almost 6AM because partying in Lisbon goes on all night long, but had a tour of Sintra, Cabo de Rocas, the Palaces and the Free Mason house. Luckily our driver was really cool and I got to have a Pastel de Nata in Belen where they were created in 1837. Sintra is beautiful, its set in the countryside of Portugal with colorful tiny twirling roads and great food. I also got to have duck rice for lunch and visit some famous surfing beaches. After visiting the Free Mason house we were running out of time to see the palaces in full detail and so decided to go rock climbing and watched the sunset with a view of the palaces on the cliff as well. After a full day of site seeing we also went port tasting and I got to try ginja, a cherry liquor served in a chocolate shot glass. For dinner, my hostel waited for us since all 8 of us were on the tour together and we had an amazing dinner of Chicken Piri Piri and wine, corn, and salad.
