Portugal

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What you should know about portugal:


• The water tastes like swimming water, but you get used to it really fast.



• Somehow it's the same everywhere, but always a little bit different.



• There are at least only a few big citys: Porto (where I haven't been), Lisbon (the biggest and most interesting one), Lagos (the one with the biggest youth-, surf- and partyscene) and Faro (maybe the hidden beauty). Most of the other citys are small and empty. Maybe a little boring for tourists except you like beeing alone or in the nature. Have in mind that most of the people living on the countryside are not speaking english, so learning some phrases in portugese can be helpful, spanish as well!



• If you are interested in the nature there is nearly no other way than a car. The distances are to big and the Infrastructure to bad. I had to walk way to much. Hitchhiking does work, when you're lucky.



• People are really polite here. You're always welcome.



The Flight
Note: 1. Never try to take an e-cigarette on an airplane by baggage & 2. Pay attention to the announcements through the speakers at the airport....
I didn't do both and wasn't allowed to fly... So I had to stay one night at the airport and had to pay more money for a new flight...
But...I've learned something: Always stay informed!
So I took the next plane on the next day at the same time my original flight would have been. This meant to stay 24h at the airport. Well, that's okay, but have in mind, that the airport I was departing from closes from 12pm to 4am. So I had to go outside and sleep in front of the airport. I departed from Eindhoven in the netherlands, so it wasn't as boring as staying at a german airport.

Day 1
So I finally arrived to Lisbon and the first thing I had to do, was finding some place to sleep. I talked to a guy that was in Lisbon, too and he suggested me some hostel for only 5€ a night. Of course every single bed was full. So I searched around a little bit frightened not to get a bed. Finally after some short time I found the Lisbon Top Hostel. 13€ a night, kitchen free to use, comfortabel. First I just wanted to stay for one night, in the end ist was my third. The hostel was not the best, but Lisbon really got me interested. I went out in the evening after arrival and wanted to grab something to eat. I got some and walked around for quite a while. There was a big outdoor game convention. That's nothing of my interests, but I walked over it and got some first impressions about Lisbon and Portugal at all. Friendly an polite.

Day 2
After the first night I have been surprised by the free breakfast. Nothing special, but some toasts, nutella, cornflakes and the important one: COFFEE. Yeah I really need coffee to get the day started.

I really haven't had a plan, what to do this day, so I just went out. I really wanted to see the sea. So I looked for a seaside place. I found Cascais quite interesting, so I got there by train.

It's really easy to come around by train, bus and metro there, because you just need one prepaid ticket for all! Really easy and you don't have to chose the right one.

I had to walk a while in Cascais, but I like walking around in some new places, espacially with no plan at all!
But I had a Plan this time: The ocean! So I got there and wow! The cliffs are so impressive there and I just had to climb them. Sometimes I really was a bit frightened of highth and the big waves there. I climbed down some cliffs and was on some platform of stones. Then the waves got bigger and the water higher. One Wave was so big that it splashed on me and I was totally wet. Yeah, that was okay, because it was really hot! But then I wanted to get away from there, I really was frightened. I also was able to feel all the energy of these waves in the quaking of the gigantic rocks. Really exciting to feel the energy of nature on my own body.

I climbed another 2 or 3 hours and walked around, before I got hungry the first time.
I searched around for nearly 1 hour and didn't find anything suitable for me. Then I used Google to find some place called 'The Cru'. Some really interesting Restaurant. They sell raw and healthy food. Mostly vegetarian, perfect for me. I got a freshly made juice, a meal and a dessert for around 15€. Absolutely worth it.

Day 3
The next day I used the couchsurfing app to find some other people around. I finally met some guy, who was living and traveling nearly without any money. He got me a free meal from a maybe 5* restaurant for free! That's what he is doing all the time. Telling that he does foodsharing and he gets free meals. Awsome! He was from Germany, too and later we met another german and a chinese guy. We randomly walked across the whole city and found some really cool places. Lisbon is really beautiful, espacially from above.
Later we bought a watermelon and shared it. Some time later we met a guy, who changed some pizza for a piece of watermelon. It's so simple!
After that our paths splitted up and I got to Cais De Sodre for meeting some other guy from denmark. We grabbed some beers and cocktails. Really nice evening.

Day 4
This day was a little bit different. I started with packing my stuff, then having a little talk with the people at the hostel while breakfast.
USA, France, Poland and Germany on one table. Awsome.

I startet with taking the train to Setúbal, a small town in the south of Lisbon. As I arrived I just started walking towards the arrábida national park. I think while walking the things you see are was more intense that by driving by car. I wanted to try hitchhiking. So I searched for a good place to. As I found some, I just had to stay about 10 minutes and sombody was stopping for me. He picked me up for a while, but I had to keep on walking after that. There were quite a few kilometers to walk. After a four hour travel I arrived at portinho da arrábida in the evening.
Everybody was leaving, but I was just arriving.
A beautiful bay in middle of some impressive rocks and cliffs.

This was going to be the place I had to stay over night. I had no other choice, I couldn't have got away from there anymore.
So I searched around for some place, were the wind is not so heavy, because some storm began to rise up.
I found a place between some big rocks. This was my place.
After some time I got a little bit frightened of the hightigh, so I got to a higher place, just to be save.
I never slept in the free sky before, but now I would recomend it to everybody! It's so impressive. Just you, the sea and the nature around. All alone.

Day 5
After that interesting night at the beach I walked to the street again and searched for a place to hitchhike. A portuguese guy in a van stopped for me. He didn't understand any english, so it was a quiet ride. He took me to Setubal again, where I checked in some Hostel.

Day 6
I was so glad to have some shower, because sand was everywhere because of the storm.
The city wasn't really interesting, but I walked around a little bit. Saw many fishers around. I watched them for about 2 hours. I like fishing really much, but I can't do it, because I don't eat Fish. It's a really cool atmosphere around there.
Nobody, nearly nobody I was talking to except the owner of the hostel was speaking english. So I didn't talk to anyone for this time.

Day 7
I was a little bit happy to get away from there. I startet with walking to a bigger street with direction Algarve.
After one hour of walking I found a place for hitchhiking (yes, you have to choose the right place and this can take a while, but multiplies your chances) I took my cardboard with 'south/sul' on it and stood there.
Finally after just half an hour and hundrets of cars a guy stopped for me. I asked him in english where he is driving and I was lucky, He wanted to drive about 200 km in the right direction. I took my stuff and jumped in. Barefoot, long hair and I he didn't sleep so much, he said. After some small talk we realised that we can speak german. He lives in Portugal for many years now, but came from Germany. It was really a joy traveling with him. I liked him.
The landscape was so impressive! No big citys, just small villages. Dryed plants and brown gras everywhere. He brought me to Aljezur. Not worth to stay there I thought, so I took the bus to Lagos, a bigger city at the ocean.

I was walking around as always and stopped for some guy, who was balancing over a pipe over the water. I wanted to see him falling down so I talked with the people belonging to him. Finally he fell down and we had a laugh. Really funny people. Some students from england, who come to Lagos every year for surfing and drinking as well.

I enjoyed the evening with them at their hostel that day. I came out totally drunk and had to find a hostel. I'm a lucky guy and found one right around the corner. It was the best I've ever been in, but I had to find another one the next day because they were booked out.

Day 8

So the first thing I did was finding a hostel. I went to midtown and after a few tries I found one. Really good as well. There was bbq in the evening. It was not so interesting so I went out to grab some drinks. On the go I saw the british people I met the day before. Of course I went with them. That night I got really drunk, too. As always when you drink with british people, they are crazy.
They accepted me as a member, so cool! Everyone of them knew me: the german guy we randomly met. Quite funny.

Day 9

I wanted to stay in that hostel for a few days. I liked it.
As I woke up I had breakfast and got to the beach. Sunbathing and Swimming. Really relaxed.
In the evening I wanted to look for my british friends, so I went to their hostel. They invited me to visit them whenever I want to, so I did.
What I didn't know: They had a special day. Every new member had to take part. I was a little bit frightened that I have to take part, too, because some of them told me to do it. I was glad that I didn't have to.
The main part of the competition was drinking as always. But there was a little special: they put viagra in the drink for the 'freshers'. Every guy who took part, had a hard pipe now. Really funny!
All the people were so fucking drunk.
All they do is surfing and drinking. That's all, but it's really funny. Such a cool group and I was so glad that I met them. Some of them invited me to stay at their home when I visit England. I was so welcome and almost a member of the group. This wouldn't have happened if I wasn't traveling alone.

Day 10

I started the day with meeting a guy I was texting with since I arrived in Portugal.
We were walking towards the beach and took spontaniously part in a kayak tour. Everyone is talking about this Tour there and now I know why. It's really amazing. You paddel through caves and sometimes it feels like a real adventure. In the end we got some goggles and snorchels and were able to see fish. Really nice, I can just recommend it!

After that we splitted and I sat down in the city having a talk with a homeless.

In the evening I met two girls from the couchsurfing website. We went through the city and of course we met the british people again. They invited to visit them at the beach. We went there and decided to go swimming. One other guy wanted to swim, too. So we got rid of our clothes and jumped in. It felt so free to swim naked, an awsome experience!

Day 11

It started as an ordinary vacation day. Relaxing at the beach and swimming with the two girls from couchsurfing. There were really big waves. It was an adventure to resist them in the water.
Afterwards we met the british guys as always. We ordered four bottles of vine for us three and planned to do a message in a bottle. We want to visit the country the answer message will come from. After finishing all the bottles, we wrote our messages and got into the water with our bottles. Naked of course.
We got really drunk and went over to the bars to have some party. I got to bed at around six. An amazing night! Some people spent every night like this in this city.

Day 12

This day was a hangover and relax day. I didn't do anything except sleeping and hanging around at the living room of my hostel. Was really nice to spend one day like that. It wasn't lost! I had to stay out of sun a little bit, because I got really burned the day before. The sun is really strong here, you have to be careful.

While relaxing in the living room of the hostel I spoke with a german girl who wanted to see the sunset and she asked me to join. So we went with 3 other people to a really special place in Lagos: The lighthouse of Lagos. It is on a high cliff, from which you have an impressive view over the ocean and the amazing Landscape. We had a picknick with some good talks in this amazing atmosphere so high over the ocean.

Day 13
This day I had to travel to Faro. This is a special thing, because I changed my plan a little bit. Everyone I was talking about Faro keept saying that it is a boring city.
But in the end I had a different experience. On this day I arrived at the best Hostel I've been in, the 'backpackers asylum'.
It's quite small, has a kitchen, a living room with an outside part and a few dorms.
But this is not the point. The special thing ist the staff there. So friendly, so near, so heartly.
Someone is always around to hangout with you, if you want.
In the evening nearly the whole hostel went to a warehouse party.
It was kind of a underground party location with the appearing of an warehouse or a flee market. Really special! Everyone there was from Erasmus exchange or from a hostel. And nearly everyone was on some drugs or drunken, but this is normal for Portugal. You can get any drug easily on the street. I stayed until 5 o'clock and had a good time there.

Day 14

After a really long sleep I visited one of the islands of Faro: the lighthouse island Farol. Imagine a 1 to 2 squarekilometer big island with a small village on it. It is so chilled there and the beaches a nice to reach from everywhere. You have some bars as well. A really nice place for a daytrip. The ferry only took me 2,80€! Really cheap, as always for Portugal.
After a chilled evening with a freshly cooked diner I went to bed and my travel was almost over for this time.

I was sad to leave but I will come back for a longer time, I promise!

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