Portugal

So, just before moving house, more on this one at another day, Rebecca and I decided that we should go on holiday. The rules were simple, no long flights, had to be somewhere we both hadn’t been and had to be warm. We ended narrowing the decision down to Portugal and Morocco, but with my lack of desire to see more deserts, Portugal was the absolute winner. We decided that we would go and see three different places; we would go to Albufuria on the south coast, Lisbon and then Porto. At first we planned to only go to the first two and skip Porto, but after reminding Rebecca that Porto was the home of Port. I was able to convince her that we should go there as well.

The trip started roughly. Usually when going to a place we would look up at least the basics in the language so that we would be able to get by, but this time, mostly because after going to France and Holland where English was spoken by everyone, we didn’t even think about it. So, we got there and were quickly shocked that the only language spoken was Portuguese. Now, reading that you go, Sean you moron, of course they speak Portuguese in Portugal. Trust me, I felt like an even bigger moron there. Trying to act out that you would like to purchase gas without being able to speak the language has to be one of the things I never want to try again in my life. But, after quickly learning the word Cerveja (beer) we were able to fumble our way through it all.

The Beach in Albufuria

This became even odder when we arrived in beautiful Albufuria. We stayed at a resort right on the beach which was lovely. However, we only arrived in time to eat at the hotel restaurant and then go to bed. The next morning we realized that Albufuria was not quite what we expected. We started the day with some beach time and then slowly made our way into town looking for some good Portuguese food to eat. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. While the weather and the major language proved otherwise, I would have sworn I had travelled back to England. If I wanted to get a steak and ale pie or fish and chips that wouldn’t be a problem. Cheap, crappy fake Italian, yup no worries, anything remotely Portuguese, no chance. After some time however, this began to make a lot of sense why. While there, we didn’t see a single local there other than working in the shops. The only people there other than us were retirement aged Brits and North Americans getting shnockered on the beach. Needless to say, not quite what you would be hoping for, but the weather and views were nice so there was nothing to complain about. So we did as was expected and drank with the random other tourist and watched the English league cup football final.

After a couple days down in the south we traveled north to the capital of Lisbon. This was where Rebecca was most excited to go see.  It was the place with the laundry list of things to see and do. And to be truthful, we did them all, and they were good. But the best parts of Lisbon for us ended up being the unplanned things that happened in Lisbon. First, of all the places that we ate, some recommended, some researched, the best meal we ate ended up being the first place in Lisbon that we went to. Not the acclaimed Fado music place, not the restaurant on the side of the tiled pedestrian street. Nope, tired, randomly wandering the streets in an unknown area of the capital we stubble upon an amazing  small Portuguese restaurant. Isn’t that always the case? We ended up eating “Portuguese” style steak in this great little place and if I’m honest, it’s probably the best food I’ve eaten in the past month. The only problem is that I doubt that I could ever get back there or even what its name was. From there we ambled back to our hotel where we ended up passing a little shop with a painting in the window. Odder still, both me and Rebecca really liked it. So, what does one do when in a foreign country and sees a full size, four-foot long painting that they like. Obvious isn’t it? Because we are flying a budget airline with zero baggage allowance and notorious for ruining bags, we bought it. I mean it was on sale and you need to live in the moment and not worry about the problems of tomorrow. So we go into the shop and talk about how we want to buy their painting.

Me and Rebecca must have eaten our
weight in these suckers. 

 Excited, the shop keep gets the painting and asks us how we are getting it home. Mentioning that an airplane was involved the shop keep who we now realize is also the painter was a little anxious so the painting ended up wrapped in all the tissue paper they had, some random Christmas wrapping paper that was lying around and some cut up plastic bags. It was glorious. Let’s go back and remember that we were slightly/really lost. Yeah, now we’re lost with a large painting and still have all of our time in Lisbon and a whole other city to visit. While walking around looking for our hotel, it definitely crossed my mind, I really need to start writing down all the terrible decisions that I make and try to learn from them, but then again, what would I have to write about if I did that. From that first night we then went to go on and do all the list of things mentioned earlier and honestly, outside the Pastis de Nata which were recommended by a friend and were fantastic (Thank you Ross) the rest was unremarkable. I know that’s a bit harsh, but I don’t know, I simply wasn’t too fussed about it. Still, the painting, the first night’s meal and the Pastis de Nata still made Lisbon worth the visit.

From Lisbon we then continued north on to Porto. Although our GPS (Maya (yes sis, it’s named after your cat, I figured it was the only other thing I have ever encountered that after my first time dealing with I will distrust forever)) decided that it was going to be a major bitch and continually try and make us use a tram bridge instead of a car bridge to get across the river (even making us take back alley dirt roads to get to it) Porto completely made up for it. And while the rest of Portugal was good, nothing amazing and I’m happy to have seen it the once, I would go back to Porto any day. Sitting on the bank of the river you could sit and eat a really good meal and look across to all the port cellars all lit up.

View from our restaurant on the first night in Porto

 Then actually going to the cellars and doing their tours pushed it over the top. On the first full day we had in Porto, we decided that we should go see three port cellars. In Scotland we saw three whisky distilleries and we felt three gave a good spectrum to feel you have seen the lot. Also, from our experience in Scotland, we decided to spend the extra 10 euros and get the enhanced tour where you got 5 ports to try. That may have been an unwise decision in retrospect. We go to the first cellar, and because it’s off season, we were on the tour all by ourselves. This was nice because it meant that we could ask a lot of questions and actually feel like we really learnt how port was made. Then at the end of the tour the guide would tell us to sit and they would bring us our samples.  Expecting 5 small tasters we sat eagerly, but as they arrived we both realize we may be in trouble this day. With 5 very large glasses of port placed in front of us we realize that, at around 20% each, we have a lot of booze to drink. Not wanting to be disrespectful and because we both found that we really like port, 

Our first set of Ports to taste

we drank it all like any good guest should do. Slightly intoxicated, food would have to be in order before the next one, so we sat and ate before moving to the next cellar. This process repeated itself for the next two cellars and if I’m to be entirely honest. Walking back to the hotel was going to be a bit of a problem. Thankfully, we weren’t walking to the hotel at that point. Nope, we were going on a river cruise. The nice gentle rocking of a boat to ease the stomach after filling it full of alcohol, that sounds like a good idea, right? Yeah, as you can expect, it wasn’t the best of plans. However, while it wasn’t the easiest things to sit through it was still really nice to do the river cruise of Porto and if the only complaint you have visiting a city was that you got yourself too intoxicated to really fully enjoy the boat cruise (also because of a bit of better planning could have resolved this) then you know that you have had a good time there.

In the end, we got back to London, painting as well (with only minor damage marks from both the airline as well as the Gatwick airport baggage system)  and crashed before the big move the next day.