Portugal August Bank Holiday 2007

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August 29th 2007

Published: August 29th 2007

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B C vs The World

Lisbon

View from our first roof top terrace bar

Benny boy’s birthday is always on the bank holiday weekend at the end of August. So this year he organised a trip to Lisbon where a friend of his is from. She was lovely enough to put up all 8 of us in her Mum’s flat, and not only that, come and pick us up at the airport - What a champion!

I should forewarn you, this entry is mostly about food.

So we took a couple of extra days off around the b/h weekend and Ben, Baz and I landed in Lisbon on the Friday morning. After a quick stop at Eduarda’s flat to drop our bags and have the tour, it was time to meet up with Christian, who got there the day before, and find a bar! Eduarda took us to a gorgeous roof top terrace bar that looked out over the “Golden Gate Bridge” - I really don’t know what it was called but it looked like it’s American cousin, just bigger! - and the statue of Jesus Christ, like the one in Brazil.

The day was glorious, the sun was shining and pumping out some heat. So after a few local Super Bock

Lisbon

Funicular

beers and an introduction to Portuguese soup (which is super yummy, everywhere and always exactly the same!) we had a little wander around town past the parliament building and up to the hill where the ruins of the Castle of St Jorge are. On our way back down there just happened to be another little roof top terrace bar and since we had all worked up a bit of a thirst it was time for another beer - or 3, plus an introduction to Portuguese chorizo (which I wasn’t allowed to call a sausage) and these little yellow salted beans that are the perfect beer snack. Emory and Marcy joined us at the bar, they’d just come in from Oporto, and after a couple more drinks they headed back to Eduarda’s via cab with their bags and the rest of us walked home. Along the way we just happened to pass yet another roof top terrace bar, but this one had couches and most importantly, Mojito’s! So after soaking in the last of the sun we ambled home.

For dinner Eduarda took us to an Argentinean restaurant for their famous Argentinean steak. Barrie got to have traditional Portuguese salted

Lisbon

Roman Ruins museum

codfish & rice, quite risotto like - yum! Now Eduarda is the most patient girl in the world, she patiently translated the whole menu and ordered for each of us and she did this EVERYWHERE we went. Super star.

After that we did a little bar hop through the “bar area” of town, which conveniently enough was only about 10mins walk from Eduarda’s house. SO many people, SO much fun!

Our second day in Lisbon was a little overcast, but after a late wake up for everyone it was time to try Eduarda’s local café for hang over cure breakfast. I think everyone learnt “Toasta mista” - Ham & cheese toasted sandwich, and Obrigada/o - thank you. WOO HOO! They’re also big on croquettes and pies, little chicken pies and little meat and fish pasties and croquettes are the local thing.

After breakfast we met up with Christina, who’d just flown in, and took the tram along the coast to the monastery of St Jeronimo’s, which by coinky dink is where the famous original Portuguese tart shop is! It’s a great little place where you can also watch as they make the tarts. Apparently it’s a secret

Lisbon

CK, Eduarda, Ben and Christian at St Jorge's Castle

recipe and the general workers only know the part of the recipe that they deal with…apparently. They’re pretty damn good tarts though, and I’m not a sweets person. The last time I visited Lisbon I was a bum traveller living on mostly bread and cheese, so when I came here I thought I’d buy 12 tarts and spread them over the days (you can only buy 6 or 12), but then I sat in the park in a little patch of sunshine, started writing in my travel diary and before you knew it, all 12 were gone!

So, fearing that his piggy status might be challenged, Barrie decided to buy 12 for “us”. I had 2 and Big Bad Bazza inhaled the other 10.

After everyone had reached saturation point on the tarts we took a wander through the monastery, which is gorgeous. And I’m pretty sure it’s been cleaned since I saw it last, although I’ll have to check my old photos to confirm.

After that everyone else was hungry, as we’d all only had a couple of tarts each. Baz on the other hand, was frustrated that everyone wanted to stop to eat, as he

Lisbon

View from St Jorge's Castle

was unsurprisingly quite full. But once it started to bucket down it became quite clear that getting indoors was a good idea.

We had lunch at a great little Brazilian restaurant where they only have 2 dishes, a steak dish or a fish dish. But it’s all you can eat. So they just keep bringing grilled steak or fish until you say stop - mmmmm. And you get great sides, potatoes, salad and black beans with a semolina type flour…

After lunch we headed back to the flat so we could all put on some warmer clothes. The idea was that since we’d had such a late lunch and since it was so big, it could also be our dinner. So we’d go home, chill for a bit, get changed then hit the bars again and go clubbing. When we got home the rain persisted and there’s really no better way to warm up than from the inside with a cosy port - which Emory & Marcy had kindly bought a case of in Oporto! After a few red & white ports, Ben decided to break out the bottle of tequila he’d been given just before we left

Lisbon

Baz & CK in the towers of St Jorge's Castle

London and make margaritas! As you’ve probably guessed, we didn’t make the club. We did make it out though, back to the bar area of town for a few drinks and Christina and I even managed to drag Ben and Baz, nearly kicking and screaming, to a bar for a boogie.

On our third day, after another yummy sleep in, we finally got off our butts and hired 2 cars so we could get out to the coast. We went to a beach that Eduarda always went to and had a wonderful afternoon in the sun, the water was pretty chilly but not deathly. Before the sun went down we zoomed to make it to an abandoned monastery on a peninsula a little further south to watch the sunset, and it didn’t disappoint. Then we kept driving south to a tiny beach that has 4 restaurants on the beach all serving fish caught by the boats in the water in front of you. The food was amazing, clams in a gorgeous white wine, garlic and herb sauce, grilled fish and lobster rice. The waitress was very sweet and insisted on de-boning our fish for us at the table, as

Lisbon

Christian, Ben & CK relaxing with a mojito on our 3rd rooftop terrace bar. What a perfect afternoon...

we didn’t look like we were doing it right. And as it was Ben’s b’day at the end she brought out a slice of cake with a candle and said to Eduarda “Make sure you have the camera ready, I can’t wait to see his face!”.

We headed back to Eduarda’s after that as it was about an hour’s drive and Emory & Marcy had to leave at 6.30am to get their flight. The idea was that we’d all get up with them and hit the road to drive down south to the surfing beaches. When I woke up at 8am, Barrie, Eduarda and Christian were up but Ben and Christina were still blissfully snoozing. We ended up heading out around 11am and made it down to the surf rental place to find the water was flaaaaaaaaaat. Not a wave in sight. The perfect conditions for floating around on your back doing nothing. Ben and Christian still thought it was a good idea to get a couple of boards though, just in case, and spoke to the guy about where they could get some waves. So after lunch on the beach we drove a bit further south to 2

Lisbon

CK, Ben & Christian at Eiffel's elevator

more beaches and settled on the second one, near a campsite that we intended to stay at. It was so wonderful to be on the beach, there were still no waves but that didn’t bother me at all. The water was pretty cold, but it was great to be able to spend some time in the sun, on the sand and go for a dip. The lack of waves didn’t stop Christina and Ben from getting out there twice and Christian and Barrie from getting out there once the “waves” started to come in. Bazza once again astounded me, not only does he pick up snowboarding like he was born on the slopes but he caught the first wave that came in and stood up! We were all very impressed.

After watching another beautiful sunset on the beach and moon rise over the cliffs, we headed to the campsite to set up our tents just in case it started raining or it got too cold during the night. We had intended to sleep on the beach but it’s illegal to camp or build fires so we weren’t sure how this would turn out. We pitched the tents and were

Lisbon

The bar area near Eduarda's

all pretty uninspired by the campsite as it was completely packed. After a well needed hot shower, we headed out to dinner to a great little restaurant that the surf guy told us about. It was another incredible meal; soup, grilled meats and fish and their very own desserts. We rolled out of there and headed back to the beach. After a little walk we found a sheltered spot near a rock and set down. Unfortunately it had turned cloudy so there weren’t any stars out, but it didn’t take long for the waves to lull everyone to sleep.

Everyone woke pretty early the next day as we had to drive Eduarda to meet her family who were on holiday at the next beach. We stopped off for breakfast and met Eduarda’s sister.

And then we were on our own. The boys were quietly confident that they knew how to navigate, but after driving around the town three times it became apparent that they didn’t. We finally managed to find a petrol station though, unfortunately we also bumped into Eduarda “What are you guys still doing here???” “Er, just cruisin’. You know, taking it easy.” :P

We

Lisbon

Sculpture at the Parliament building

managed to find the campsite again, packed our stuff and decided to head back to the beach where we’d hired the boards. We got there and found it was flat as a pancake so no one was too worried about returning the boards there and then. But we decided to play around on the beach for a couple of hours till we had to leave. A bit of beach soccer and volleyball later, we’d managed to work up a bit of warmth and splashed into the water a few times. It was then that we realised that the geothermal plant that was behind the beach had ensured that the water in this beach was about 5-10 degrees warmer than anything we had been swimming in the previous day. It was like a luke warm bath! It was pretty hard to get out once we’d gotten in. But unfortunately Christina had a flight to catch, and so did we. We stopped at a little town for a quick lunch (a last Portuguese soup!) and headed back to Lisbon. We got Christina off just in time and then had to navigate our own way back to Eduarda’s. Thankfully she’d marked it on

Lisbon

St Jeronimo's Monastery

a map and Christian has a great sense of direction!

For our last stop we headed to the roof top terrace bar where we started on the first day. It was nice to finish where we started. Ben was nice enough to drive so he drove us back to the airport.

It was such a fantastic weekend, exactly what we needed. A very generous helping of sunshine, mixed with some sand and sea and a good splash of RnR and some bloody good food!

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