Evora & naps

Joshua had been in Portugal working for about a month when I flew over to meet him. I was really excited to get to meet him in Evora, the cute old town surrounded by huge stone walls, aqueduct running through it, no tourists, where he had been staying.

The 3 days I spend there went something like, wake up and have a mini espresso, Joshua goes to work, I pick 1 thing in the little town to go see, see it, find an outdoor cafe in a park to drink wine/beer/coffee, read my book at said cafe, realize it is now to hot to exist outside and go back to his place made of thick stone to take a nap. After nap Joshua comes home, we go out to dinner with his coworkers to some cute restaurant where the Portuguese coworker orders us carafes of wine or tiny glasses of port and food, we meander the cute streets at night to Harmonia (a members only bar that is super old in a beautiful building with peach walls, a terrace, live music or a movie playing, and a sassy bartender that will only speak to us as if he were a cowboy) and head home to repeat tomorrow. 

It was the most glorious 3 days!!!

One of my day adventures I went to the Chapel of Bones. It was made as a place to confront and accept your morality. The leg/arm bones are installed longways, so the walls are literally an entire thickness of bone. It was nuts.

                            

                         

                         

I also took a day wondering around a huge park they have. There were some old ruins, bunches of peacocks, and weaving paths that kept leading to spaces tucked into the landscape to sit or eat or relax.

I already loved Portugal from our trip there a few years ago but getting to hang out in a town off the beaten path was amazing. The whitewashed walls where somehow the whole town agreed upon using the same 3 accent paints on the outside, cobbled streets, that we happened upon a music festival one night, that everywhere has an outdoor space and cheap amazing wine. It was truly a treat to get to spend this slow time with Joshua after having been apart for a month and for gathering myself the right time zone.

Alas, after 3 days it was time to go, luckily it was to fly to Norway!

Sintra Day Trip

 

Sintra is only a short train ride from Lisbon so after being out until 4ish am we woke up around 9 and headed out. Forgoing the bus we walked a mile or so up some winding roads into the Moorish Castle. Since it was early it was fun to run along the top and climb all the little nooks alone. The sun was out in full force and the views back to the Atlantic ocean and countryside were really welcome after being inside big cites the last few days. They have a little café that we ate mozzarella & tomato sandwiches at while looking back up at the castle walls.

 

 

Next we took a path along the hillside that wound through a lush forest and spring flowers tucked into big rock faces. It ended at Pena Palace which is all candy colored goodness. The palace is full of whimsy and color and happiness. The tilework and things like carved stone coral made this stop a lot of fun. The way the views were framed with attention, gah, we hung out here for awhile

 

 

 

 

Then we went home an took a well deserved nap :)

 

Next we took a train, then a bus, then a car down to Tarifa, Spain.

Lisbon Rocks!

 

Our train ride from Porto brought us into the most beautiful train station, I won't force all the photos I took of the place upon you. Lisbon was really exciting for us because Joshua had been here a few times on his stints working in Evora, Portugal. It was fun to let go and have him know how to get places where to go and what wasn't worth the visit. Also we stayed at a hostel he had stayed at. I've never had a real hostel experience and he promised me one- and nailed it, more on that later.

After we roamed around and did shots of cherry liquor out of chocolate cups on the main square (legal to drink on the streets) we woke up and went to the Sao Jorge castle that stands above the city. You can wander it's outer walls, no railings, and stand in the overlooks and lean out the arrow shooting holes, technical term. The grounds were really beautiful with old tangled trees and roaming peacocks.

Next we headed back into the city and up a tower to get a look back up to the castle. Then we went into an old cathedral that had been victim to fire and earthquake but instead of restoring it they left its bones bare and turned it into an open air ancient ruins museum.



But oh those Lisbon nights, we always took a nap before dinner to gear up. Our hostel had two lovely people from the UK + Porto make us dinner with 6 other comrades of the hostel. We had a crowd of people from Madagascar, Netherlands, UK, Portugal + Spain, very luckily for us they all spoke English. Our UK cooks took us out for the night where we were handed light beers and fluorescent colored shots (they were very weak, promise :) We started a dance party at his DJ friends club, drank beers outside in the streets and ended the night with some live music and hitting bed around 4:30am. Honestly in no way could I have wished for a better group of people to spend a few days with. Hanging out with all of them made Lisbon our favorite stop.

To add to it the next night we were at a very cool market for dinner where we ran into a hostel mate and went to grab a drink with her after. Then we were headed back home when we ran into some people from our hostel out for the night and they swept us up and we did it all again the next night.

photo from one by our new friends

We also did a day trip to Sintra while in Lisbon...

Obrigada Porto

After a short flight from Paris we landed in Port and took a little train into the city. Surprise- our Air BnB was a room in someone's house (which from the description we did not gather) but it was a lovely young family and whew couldn't beat the location. We dropped our stuff and headed out into the rain. We thought Porto was a small tiny colorful town near the water and on the goolges it looked like the area near all the port wineries was green- nope it's way more roads than google said and populated by little shops and restaurants. Our plan was to bike the countryside but that now looked daunting so we roamed the cobbled streets and walked across the bridge for a 2 mile walk to the winery which actually was a better idea anyway.

 

Since port wine is made here it was only right to start off at a tasting. We went to the oldest one and since no one else was there we got our own private free tour. It got better, their best wine in decades was the 2011 and a bottle was over $100, we casually said that's the year we got married and they gave us a glass to taste for free (it really was the best one!) Then we settled down the by windows with a view and tried our tawny and ruby port flights while feeling lavish in our own private giant tasting room.

 

Then we strolled a bit and I drug us into the Livraria Lello Bookstore which is said to have inspired J.K. Rowling, she lived here a few years!! (If you don't know her shame on you - she wrote Harry Potter) I was slightly giddy.

The next day the sun was out and we walked through lots of small cobbled streets to discover beautiful full face tiled buildings and cute little shops that were old and hand carved details abound. All the people were so lovely and inviting. We had egg desserts with a little cinnamon sprinkled on them and beers (there aren't options you just say you want a beer and they hand you whatever is on their one tap)

 

 

Before we left we went to the Majestic Café which was elaborate and very classy (apparently it was all the rage and the place to be seen in it's early days) We ate the Francesinha which is a traditional porto dish - we describe it as a 3 types of meat sandwiched between bread topped with dripping cheese floating in gravy served with french fries (everything in Portugal seems to be served with french fries) You can be skeptical but our mouths were so happy!

 

Lastly we packed our backpacks and walked through Porto to catch our train to Lisbon.