Lisbon - the Last Stop

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Only a few more days left on the 'real'part of this trip. (The rest of St. Thomas and Austin ae not traveling in the same way). Ready to come home this time.

Started to be a bit tired from traveling at the end of Spain. Castles and churches and museums start to blend into each other. At least need a change of scenary from Europe.

I hopped over from Spain on a long bus ride to Oporto. After the lack of people who can speak English for conversations in Spain, I decided to stay in hostels in Oporto and Lisbon. In Oporto at least, there are plenty of room rentals cheaper than a bed in the hostel. The one is Oporto had good facilities and the crowd was international and a bit older than in Madrid. Within hours of checking in, I was drinking port with four French.

The weather was poor again, rainy and colder, and all of Portugal is incredibly windy. So it´s much liquid sightseeing, visiting port lodges where the wine is shipped from the vineyards in the Douro Valley to be aged. I always thought port tasted like grape cough syrup. Guess I had cheap ones before. Here the port is incredibly cheap, and not a luxury item at all.

Couple days later, I stayed on a family vineyard 2 hours by train down the river. It´s 2 miles from the nearest small town, which would be fine other than the only road to town has absolutely no shoulders and the cars are just zooming few inches from me as I walk to town. In the rain. So ended up cabbing back and forth and staying at the farm mostly. The better part was walking around the farm with the owners two german shepherds, eating cherries, figs, oranges directly off the tree...

Heading towards Lisbon, I stopped in a small beach town called Nazare and then a walled medieval town of Obidos. The seafood was great. The Portugeus definitely speak from English and much easier to talk to randomly. I ate at the same restaurant both nights in Nazare and it was the highlight of the trip. As I walked in the first night waiting for a table, they poured a glass of moscato type of appertif wine. Then came a free appetizer of large shrimps in a special sauce. I ordered the seafood rice (sort of like Portugeuse paella, but more saucy in a pot), which was filled with lobster, crabs, mussels, clams, and shrimps. 1/2 of decent house wine at 2.25 euros too. Followed by more free port that they kept pouring.

The country of Portugal however, seem a lot poorer than Spain. Driving pass the border from Spain almost feel like the US to Mexico crossing (a bit less dramatic perhaps, but a very notible change). The cities are dirtier, the shops not nearly as enticing...

Luckily the tourist infrastructure is much better with multilingual staff and detailed bus and train schedules. Smaller towns also had free municipal internet access. The people seem to work a lot harder in general. There is still siesta (12-2 usually), but none of the Spanish or Greek leisure. And the hostels in Lisbon are all top ranked in the world. The one I am staying now is right in the center, but not on a party street with too much noise. Nigthly dinners (8 euros for everything and wine, but I haven´t eaten there yet), free breakfast, internet and DVD´s, beautiful and clean lounges, bathrooms...

I can tell I am done traveling - as I am not so interested to eat locally anymore. Asian noodle place last night. Indian for lunch today. Thinking about a salad bar for a light dinner. I think it´s finally time to come home soon!

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Photos

Looking back to town
from the port lodges on the other side of the Douro

My àlter' of port and fruits
The Portugeus are very catholic and my room at the vineyard has quite a few crosses.

Obidos house
It´s beautiful because it looks like the Greek Islands