Apparently high altitude means I wake up early and don't get hungover. Either that or it's shoveling decadent Mexican delicacies down my throat every five minutes. Regardless it's time for a blog! After a week of anxiety about whether or not we'd make it out due to Mexico given a) my horrifying travel luck and b) the weekend blizzard dumping another foot or so of snow on Boston (which already had around 6 feet over the last several weeks), Chris and I met at the airport around 11:30 Friday afternoon for our 1pm flight to Dallas where we would be connecting. I ran into a chorus friend who happened to have Admirals Club Access and invited us to join him so we spent a good time in there having a free beer before grabbing some food ... read more

Feeling well-rested after turning in early, we went down to breakfast and then to the São Bento train station to catch the suburban train to Guimarães. Guimarães is famous as the birthplace of the first independent king of Portugal, Alfonso Henriques, and is another UNESCO World Heritage city. This would also take us to a different region of Portugal, the Minho, which is also the birthplace of vinho verde. I'd be needing some after the ticket debacle that ensued. thought I understood the ticketing system correctly and, using our multi-purpose transit ticket, I got two tickets to zone 8, which Guimarães seemed to belong to. Once the ticket man came around, however, this was not the case, and am awkward 5-minute exchange occurred between us. From what I understand, that multipurpose card worked only within greater ... read more

Today we woke up to overcast skies and a bit of rain, so it seemed like a good day for our 3 hour or so train ride to the north to Porto. We packed all of our stuff, had breakfast, and were out by 8:30 to catch the metro toward the Gare do Oriente, from where our train would be departing. Getting there and getting our tickets were straightforward, so we had time to spare before boarding at 9:39. The train was pretty standard - it was an Intercidade train, so one step up from the Urbano train we had been using to get to Sintra and Cascais from Lisbon - that basically meant that we now had a tray table. It didn't seem as though the assigned car and seat meant anything, especially since the ... read more

Day three started a bit later thanks to Lisbon's SLE soccer team having won the Portuguese title. We lay in bed for literally hours as young guys screamed/chanted and blasted air horns. I got up naturally around 10 thinking it was dark and dreary, but Chris had shut the shutters so it was actually gorgeous out. We'd also missed breakfast, so we'd have to grab something at the train station before getting on the train to Sintra. Well, the train station ticket window and automated machines were a shitshow - I really hope that things return to low-key with tourists once Easter Monday is over. After waiting 30 minutes in line and missing two trains, I figured I'd have Chris see if he could get through the gate with our metro pass, since a train symbol ... read more

Oh hey, back in Portugal for the first time since 2006! With direct flights on SATA for under $600 we really didn't have a choice. ... We left for the airport around 6 for our 8:50pm flight figuring it could be a madhouse with all of Boston and the surrounding school systems having April vacation. Well, this was indeed the case, with dozens of school groups everywhere, except that most of them were foreign. Our second unforeseen enemy was Holy Week, since most Western Europeans seem to get a full week of vacation for it. Security took at least an hour to get through, and when we finally got through and sat down at Cisco Brewery for dinner and a beer we were told that were out of food on account of the busy day. Um...ok. ... read more