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Published: July 12th 2007
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Oporto Waterfront
I just love the weather in this place! If I had to advise people whether to travel to Portugal or Spain, I would be a very tough choice. Despite the reputation of being Spain's less attractive cousin, Portugal was just as beautiful, and about 1/4 the price. Our first stop was Porto, right on the river which made for some gorgeous views thanks to the perfect weather we had throughout Portugal.
After hitting the hostel and getting rid of our stuff, we checked out the waterfront and did a bit of wine tasting, and Hannah, being Hannah, couldn't rein in her shopoholic (and alcoholic ;p) tendencies and treated herself to a couple of bottles. It was also an early night as we slowly recovered from our late nights and early mornings in Pamplona.
The following day was more sightseeing as we checked out the Crystal Palace Gardens (where you are not allowed to sit on the gardens. How stupid is that?!?), the Central monument, a couple of Cathedrals (one where we accidentally walked in on a funeral. Whoops!) and onto the Contemporary Art Museum before a sunset stroll along the beach. Our luck also managed to lead us to the best meal of the Spain/Portugal trip
Back across the river
To the main area of Oporto. Very beautiful city. in a small little Chinese restaurant hidden away, which we only found after getting off at the wrong bus stop. It was fate.
Next stop on our Portugal tour was Lisbon, and after a very cool train ride where we got up to 221km an hour, we found our hostel and started the sightseeing. We never got an official temperature for this day, but it would have been mid 40's as well! We checked out the castle that overlooked the city, another cathedral then headed along on the tram to see the square and monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus and his discoveries.
After our half day in Lisbon, we had a tight schedule to keep to and we were on our way to Lagos via Tunes for our 'beach day'. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan. We caught the train to Tunes and had got off the train waiting for our next one to Lagos, when Hannah shouted "My bag's still on the train!" And at that very moment, the doors shut and the train took off for Faro. So I ran into the ticket office and spoke to a woman with very broken English and tried
The town square
Right near our hostel. 2 hobos have also crept into shot. to explain our situation and get the bag rerouted to Lagos. In the end, we had to sprint back to catch our train not knowing if we had succeeded or not. As it was Leah, had put our bags on the new train and was hanging one leg on, one leg off screaming at the train driver not to leave without us. He was a smart guy and avoided her wrath and we were on our way to Lagos minus Hannah's bag.
We got there and spoke to the guy at the Lagos station, who spoke even less English and he gave us times of trains, but he gave us a glimmer of hope by saying his friend was coming on the 3pm bus. With a bag? He didn't understand that part. So we bought our bus tickets for the next day to Seville, and had some lunch while Hannah went to wait for the 3pm train. And we were sitting there when Hannah burst round the corner with a smile from ear to ear and her bag! Somehow they had understood us and got her bag rerouted, so a big Well Done to the Portugese Train Service!
After that episode, we celebrated with a boat ride around the coast before relaxing for the rest of the afternoon on the beach. The water was so good and I even got some body surfing in! After checking out a few street performance, we crashed for the night in a cute little guesthouse.
After our restful day in Lagos (eventually), it was back into Spain, into Seville, where we had the afternoon to look around the city before Leah for Morocco the following morning. I can't say I had heard much about Seville, but I was very impressed. They had one of the biggest cathedrals in the world as well as an old fortress and several huge gardens. The only thing missing was a nice beach to cool us down in the near 40 degree heat! After a final dinner and trying to find some flamenco dancing, we headed back to the hostel.
After waving off Leah and Dan the next morning, Hannah and I headed out for a day trip to Cadiz, down on the Southern Coast, and much more importantly, it had a beach! After checking out the interior of the cathedral and getting some pretty
Town Square by Night
Again, it's pretty nice by night as well. cool views we made the 3 hour train trip down there and found our spot on the packed beach. The water was quite refreshing, though not quite as cold as Lagos, so after 5 minutes felt almost like a bath. The locals must have thought the same thing judging by the number of topless women around. For some reason, Hannah didn't feel comfortable joining in with them. Odd. 😊
After a few hours there, it was back to Seville for our final night there, and with a bit of a shock, the final night of my European leg of my trip before we head to my new home tomorrow, London. It has gone by so fast, and I still feel like a haven't seen all that much! Oh well, the adventures of England are next, then it won't be long before the itchy feet attack again and force me out over the English Channel.
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