Portugal is full of surprises

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Warning: This is our most ridiculously long entry ever. We arrived in Faro after dark but when we found a map Dan navigated us to our hostel with ease even though Ashley looked at the map and could only see a jumble of windey crazy streets. Our first experience talking with a local was delightful. The receptionist at the hostel was one of the friendliest, most helpful people we've encountered (family members not included) so far; it was hard to get out of the conversation so that we could get settled. Once we were settled in our room she directed us to a lovely family run restaurant not far from the hostel. Dinner was amazing. We had appetizers, 2 main dishes, a ‘jug’ (not a pitcher or a bottle) of wine, 2 espressos and dessert for only 22 euros. We were really pleased with the cost of such a local, delicious meal. Dan ate a local dish comprised of all kinds of meat and seafood and cabbage; it seemed almost German with the amount of meat and cabbage. And Ashley enjoyed her Sea Breem; although, for a few minutes she debated how to eat it since it came in tact, head, fins and all. It's a good thing we'd already had a glass of wine or she may have been a bit more hesitant about this fish.

Ashley had made a tentative itinerary for the trip; the first time in the last 8 months. It just goes to show that even if you have an itinerary you need to be flexible. We went to the bus station the next day hoping to get a bus to Evora which supposedly had some amazing Roman ruins Ashley wanted to see. She was also keen to do the self-guided walking tour she read about in her Rick Steeves' Portugal guide book. The next bus was 2 1/2 hours away so we bought the tickets and decided to explore Faro a bit. We went to the Church of Bones; the actual church itself isn't made of bones but there's a small chapel in the back made of bones. It was creepier than the Catacombes in Paris because every surface in the chapel was covered in bones. We also walked into the 'old' part of town inside the town walls which we didn't find overly impressive. All the buildings were very plain; although, some of the boulevards were really wide and had loads of room for driving. Dan's favourite part was the rows of orange trees which he desperately wanted to pick from but Ashley wouldn't let him for fear of severe punishment and never being allowed to leave the country. Wait a minute, perhaps that wouldn't be so bad. Another thing we noticed a lot of was storks (at least we think they were storks). They were everywhere and they made massive nests on top of power poles and churches. It was time to head back for our bus but we needed to stock up on groceries first. We saw a store near the bone chapel that looked sufficient. We were really strapped for time so we flew through the store, Ashley stressing the whole time that we'd miss the bus. We walked toward the bus and it was getting really close. We had about 5 minutes left and Ashley decided it was time to run. We made it by the skin of our teeth. The bus was actually pulling out of it's gate when we found it. Lucky for us, the driver was feeling charitable and pulled back in to let us on. That was certainly a lucky one.

So, we thought this bus would take a couple hours at most. To look at a map, Evora looks no further from Faro than Red Deer is from Edmonton. Unfortunately for us, we were on the milk run bus and it stopped everywhere so it took about 4 hours. When we finally arrived we were happy to get off and we headed toward the old town. We followed the walking tour which took us to City Hall which has an excavated Roman bath on display. You can also see the archeological dig that's ongoing beneath City Hall. Both of us thought it was really neat. Near the end of the walk we saw an old Roman temple too which is used as a backdrop for many theatre events. The columns were still mostly intact. There is a bone chapel in Evora as well but it was too expensive to go in. At least we saw the one in Faro. The last bus to Lisbon was still a couple hours away so we began to walk around the city and that's when it happened: our first good soaking. The sky opened up and it poured down rain. We took cover under a tree for a while but we thought we could run for cover. Except when we ran for cover the rain came down even harder and we got soaked; head to toe dripping wet. We were really hoping it would rain for only a few minutes and then we could be on our way. It did stop raining after 15 minutes or so. We were both cold and wet so we decided just to walk back through town and back to the train station where we could warm up and dry off while waiting for our bus to Lisbon. The bus to Lisbon was an express so we it only took 2 hours. When we navigated our way into town we walked around aimlessly for a while hoping to find a hostel. Nothing jumped out at us so we succumbed and went into a nearby Starbucks, bought a coffee and used their WIFI. Here's a tidbit we didn't know about Lisbon before we came to Portugal: it has the best rated hostels in the world. The top 3 hostels in the world on HostelWorld are all in Lisbon. We thought that this is our time to experience a really nice hostel and we found one that was just down the street from Starbucks, the Yes! Hostel. It turns out the hostel was really nice and they had space for us. That night we only had a quick bite of fast food for dinner and then hit the hay.

Because we went to bed relatively early the previous night we were able to get up bright and early the next day. That day we walked all over the place. First we took the tram to the Alfama neighbourhood. We were looking for the Thieves' market, which is a huge market of all sorts of random knick knacks, just the sort of thing Dan loves. Unfortunately for us we missed the stop and ended up taking the tram all the way to the end of the line. We did see the sign to Saint George Castle which we thought we'd go see and the walk took us back up into the Alfama neighbourhood. It was 7 euros to get in; way to much money in our opinion so we decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood. We ended up in small roads that were too small for cars to drive through with shops and flats towering above us so the entire street was in shadow. We found a store that sells a random assortment of items like cleaning supplies. We found an Italian espresso maker there. Since we had been enjoying fancy coffees back at the hostel lately, we decided that the coffee maker was worth 5 euros. Especially since we saw the same size in Inverness for 25 pounds. Ashley used this opportunity to brush up on her Portuguese. Low and behold, in a short 5 minute interaction Ashley asked for it and paid. We also found a small store where oranges were only 35 cents per kilo! Since that was such a good price we couldn't resist and boy was it worth it. We continued walking down through Alfama; that's what we forgot to mention, Alfama is on a massive hill. Well, all of Lisbon is a mixture of hills and valleys. We ended up in a square by the water. While we sat and relaxed on the square there was a man drilling into the concrete. The funny thing was that there was a group of 4 men surrounding him watching him work and they obviously were not workers and had no safety equipment on. It says a bit about the type of society that exists in Portugal. As we continued our walk we came upon the Praça do Comercio which is a massive square looking onto the Tejo River. We took the the tram to the Chiado neighbourhood next. Dan saw an art store so he wanted to see if they had calligraphy nibs since he's been learning how to write in calligraphy lately. The store didn't have what he was looking for but the tram came back and we hopped on again. We went to the end of the line again and walked around in a large beautiful park. The hostel had a walking tour of Chiado and Baixa neighbourhoods in the afternoon which Ashley thought would be good to go on so we could learn more about the city and its history. There really is so much to know too. Our Peruvian tour guide, who learned Portuguese in Brazil and also lived in Spain and carries an EU passport, told us all about the history of the city. It gave everything so much more meaning than if we had just walked by everything passively. After the tour we got a couple bottles of Port with Cedric and Felix who were also on the tour. We sat in the Praça Dom Pedro IV for an hour or so sipping the Port and people watching and then headed back to the hostel. After Ashley had her best hostel shower in history she joined the boys downstairs. We chilled out with our wine on the beanbags. Ashley wasn't crazy about the port so she had a cheap bottle of wine which she shared with our new Canadian aquaintance Isaac, who has lived in the UK for 9 years. It was a great night of chatting, drinking and relaxing.

On Sundays, all the of the national monuments in Lisbon have free admission until 2pm. As such we wanted to take the train out to Belem (a suburb of Lisbon about 10 minutes away by train) to see some of the its sites. Unfortunately for us, it was raining and it was raining hard... again. We ended up missing the sign for Saint Jerome's Monastery and walking around the massive block before we found it, getting soaking wet in the process. Do you sense a pattern to our trip yet? Anyhow, we went in to see the monastery; because it was Sunday morning the cathedral was closed for service. But we did see an archaeological museum that was attached. We also went to the Maritime Museum because Dan was interested in the boats and naval tradition. We were debating which monument to see (the Monument to the Discoveries or Belem Tower) because it was raining so much and we wanted to avoid being outside as much as possible. Much to our happiness it had stopped raining once we went outside so we visited both towers. The Monument to the Discoveries was across the park from the Maritime Museum and the Monastery so we went there first. It memorializes the age of discovery that made Portugal a rich country. Since it’s not considered a national monument (in other words, it’s not owned by the government) it wasn’t free on Sunday so we decided not to go up it. But it is an interesting depiction of Portugal’s golden age. We headed over to Belem Tower next, which was free so we decided to give it a go and walk up its four stories. The tower itself was not very dazzling; it’s the view from the top that is beautiful. However, for anyone who decides to pay the tower a visit beware of the human traffic. There is only one very small staircase going to the top so there is a lot of congestion and waiting in small spaces. It’s not for anyone who is claustrophobic as you may have to stand in the stairwell for 10 minutes trying to squeeze against the wall while a line of people goes in the opposite direction. After that we thought we deserved lunch and a treat so we wandered back through town for a bite to eat and a Pastis de Belem which is a creamy sweet pastry in filo. Apparently the recipe is so secret that only 4 people know it and each person only knows part of it. Even though this treat is sold everywhere in Portugal, the original is from Belem and only Pastis da Belem knows the recipe; all the others are knockoffs. Ashley didn’t enjoy them but Dan thought they were ok. Judging by the line in the café most people love them. Is it that they’re the best or just the most famous? Who knows but good marketing doesn’t hurt. The sun was out but we were both feeling dozy so we spent the rest of the afternoon back at the hostel reading and napping. That evening we thought we’d try the hostel dinner that we heard was pretty decent. It was an extra 8 euros each for an appetizer, bread, main course, dessert (which Ashley is pretty sure was chocolate cake batter under the guise of chocolate mousse) and 3 drinks. Dinner was actually really delicious and we thought it was worth the 8 euros. However, we did find we could still make a cheaper dinner by cooking for ourselves so we bought our own food for the remainder of our stay.

Another thing to keep in mind about Lisbon is that all the national monuments are closed on Mondays since they are open on Sundays. Thus we took a train west to see the beauty that is Sintra. Everyone said we had to go there. Much to our chagrin, it was raining again. We stopped first at Queluz which had a palace. We agreed that this palace was one of the most beautiful we’ve seen to date. From the outside it’s unassuming and painted a drab shade of pink. But inside it’s marvelous. It’s very much like Versailles minus the overwhelming crowds. It felt like we had the place to ourselves. We could really take our time and enjoy the place. After exploring the gardens a tad we went back to the train to finish our journey to Sintra. There was a bus from the train station to the main sights in town but we didn’t know that until we’d already walked to town and seen the National Palace. The National Palace was really nice as well. Not quite as grand as Queluz but still not overly crowded. It had what seemed like smoke stacks coming out of the kitchen so the outside had Madonna-like cones towering overhead. We walked through the pedestrian zone of town to get to a bus stop and the town is really cute. It’s supposedly one of the most romantic places in Portugal and we were there on Valentine’s Day. Of course it was raining so we mostly hurried through the streets. We caught the bus up the hill to the Moorish Castle which dates back to the 9th century. Initially we thought we could walk to the castle. Unless you want a death defying (looked like the only way up was the road) hike out of the deal, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s farther than it looks on a map and it’s all uphill. The Moorish Castle was one of our favourites. It sits high atop a hill and the archaeological dig is still going on. We went up every staircase and there were no railings to prevent you from falling off (Portugal is obviously a few years behind North America‘s obsession with safety). We also went further up the hill to Pena Castle which sits majestically above Sintra. It’s got an interesting paint job and looks as though a lot of different buildings were smashed together. If you don’t have a Lisbon Card which gets you a discount it may not be worth it to go to the castle. With our discount we still had to pay 6 euros which we debated over for a few minutes before deciding to just go see it. That was the end of our trip to Sintra and Ashley was really looking forward to going back to the hostel and getting warm since we’d been in the rain all day. Ashley really wanted to see some live Fado which is the local music. It's really mellow music like jazz but, as we were told by our tour a guide a few days earlier, the singers aren't professional so they can only sing 3 or 4 songs at a time. The first Fado singer ever was actually a prostitute, so it took a while to catch on with the upper class but it made it. That night we found Tasco do Chico in the Chaido neighbourhood where some locals were performing Fado. It was really interesting to see. Even though we didn't understand what they were saying we could feel the music. And the tour guide was right; each set was only 3 or 4 songs and a different man performed every set. Near the end of the night we ordered a chorizo sausage because we were peckish. Little did we know it would come to us on fire. But it made it so delicious.

We were trying to decide what to do for our last 2 days. We could return to Faro straight away and see the beach and relax or we could try to cross the boarder and go to Seville in Spain, which was recommended to us on the flight in. Or we could just stay in Lisbon. Then a guy we had shared a room with a few days earlier came back to Lisbon. He had gone to Lagos for 2 days and mentioned that it was beautiful. After showing us pictures from his cliff walk we were convinced. Back south we went on the bus. At least we knew it would take 4 hours this time. We got to Lagos in the afternoon knowing there was a HI hostel somewhere (Ashley had even made a reservation the night before). That's when it happened; the biggest surprise Portugal had to offer. Ashley couldn't believe her eyes when she saw him walking down the cross street in front of us. It was Geoff, a former longtermer at the Inverness Tourist Hostel who left a few months earlier. Geoff showed us to the hostel, where he was also staying and spent the rest of the day walking around the town. Before we knew it, it was getting dark so we went to the grocery store, went back to the hostel and ate dinner. Ashley cooked up an amazing meat free meal for only 3 euros. This is about the time Dan thought it would be good to start a reduced meat diet because it's so much less expensive. Ashley was hesitant at first but came around soon enough, especially when Dan made it clear he didn't want to go full on vegetarian. We spent the rest of the night in the kitchen talking to other guests who were regaling us with their adventures.

We also met a Canadian girl who had done some cliff hiking that day in Sagres which really appealed to us. The next morning we headed to the bus station to catch the Sagres bus. It only took 30 minutes and we were dropped in the middle of town. Well, there was only one main road through town so we figured out where we had to go rather quickly. We headed toward the cliffs and the lighthouse and stopped at a small beach. It was so windy Ashley lost her footing a couple times. We literally were having a hard time standing up the wind was so strong. And of course, like every other day it started to rain. Coupled with the wind we were in for pure torture. Taking the chance that it would continue to rain and we'd end up soaking wet we turned back. There was a fort close by so we thought we'd see what it was about. Instead of doing the cliffs going to the lighthouse we walked along the cliffs at the fort. The sea battered the cliffs below; it was absolutely stunning. As we walked along it got windier and windier; we even resorted to walking while we were bent over to be more aerodynamic. At one point in the fort we were in the chapel whose door faces away from the sea. The wind was so strong it blew the ocean spray around the chapel and into it. It was absolutely unbelievable. The cliff were beautiful and well worth seeing. Plus, we learned more about Portugal's role in the Age of Discovery. Portugal is now recovering from being the poorest country in Western Europe (which is why it's cheaper than many other European countries); but in the Age of Discovery Portugal was a very rich and bountiful country. As we walked back to town we missed the bus back to Lagos and there wasn't another one for an hour and a half so we went for a coffee in a local cafe. When we finally got back to Lagos we walked along some of the beaches and cliffs in town. There were some really beautiful rock formations especially when the sun shone through the clouds and highlighted them.

It was time to return to Inverness a day, 2 bus rides, a flight and a train ride later. We want to go back some day though. We missed out on a lot of the hiking and the north (Douro Valley and Porto). There's a ton to see in Portugal.

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Photos

Dan's first dinner
He actually finished it all too!

Storks in Faro
Nesting on a church.

Evora
Roman Columns used as a backdrop for theatre.

Alfama
Typical street in the neighbourhood.

No glasses!
Really, you can just look into a hole in the street?

Lisbon
Shot of Lisbon from the Baixa (hill top) neighbourhood.

Belem
With the monastery in the background.

Monument to the Discoveries
Dan's discovering the new world.

Queluz Palace
The resemblance to Versailles is uncanny,

National Palace in Sintra
Yep, the cones are part of the palace.

Moorish Castle
Built up from the natural rock formation.

Tasco do Chico
Listening to Fado with a couple guys we met at the hostel.

Fado
Singer and guitar players.

Sagres
Cliffs around Sagres on the southwest coast.

Lagos
Some of the cliffs around Lagos.