She can do as she pleases: Portugal

Porto + Lisbon

Harrowing taxi rides. Freak outs over baggage. Near panic attack on the plan. I think I came close to killing Tild and myself that morning with all my stress.

And we arrived in Porto.

After Barca, Porto was quiet, almost desolate, deserted. Not sure if it was the season or just general unemployment dramas across the country. Porto felt empty. But then, it got to be ours. As if we were the only tourists there. The place is like Hobart, surrounding a river, creeping down into the sea, it smells like salt and it is small. Small. The city is piles of hills and loops up and down and winds in its tiny little streets.We explored he little hills and climbed the side near the biggest bridge, twisting up and up and then coming back down on the other side. You can cover most of the centre in about twenty minutes. It never took us more than ten minutes to get a place we wanted to go.

Except the four hours where we basically walked the coastline. You can take a tram along here, but the walk was nice. The tiny houses and under-developed areas giving way into a built up, more holiday area- which Tild compared to Sandy Bay. Filled with shops and cafes and expansive real estate, so far remoed from the sweetness of the inner parts of Porto. The coastline must be gorgeous in summer. Little boats were out on the water catching fish and the whole place smelt faintly of fish and the seaside. So many of the places that we went to in Portugal and Spain it felt like winter was fighting with them. The hostel was awesome, really relaxed and at ease. Quiet, like everything else there.

We found an incredible tea place, and went there both afternoons. We got caught in a thunderstorm and ate at two great vegetarian places, for next to nothing. One was a Hare Krishna place, we paid five euro for tagine, fried eggplant, soup, tea and something desserty that I can’t even remember. It was in this amazing place with a balcony and a bunch of cats, who all disappeared before the rain set in. We spent our last night with an American and a Canadian (who are living in Lille right now) and a Slovakian girl, who told us all about how Easter is celebrated in Slovakia (it involves girls being hit with sticks and having water thrown on them, charming). Went on the last day to a photography exhibit featuring Spanish photos in an old prison in the centre of Porto. Was beautiful. Also, free.

Chado- the tea place

Abandoned greenhouses at the Botanical Gardens

The bus ride to Lisbon was five hours and we arrived pretty late. Gorgeous hostel (we had a far bit of luck with them on this trip). It seemed to be staffed by gorgeous people who have no right working in hostels, far too stylish and good-looking. We explored our area, crammed to the brim with bars and people in the street trying to make you spend money in their bars. Crashed pretty early, but definitely made the most of Lisbon over the next two days.

We saw: a castle at the top of the hill, overlooking Lisbon in all its glory, really cheap soup at any and every café and restaurant. Took the tram to Belem and saw the free contemporary art museum (nuts, not a huge fan), the monastery and the Belem tower. And ate dinner at Fabulas (fairy-tale in Portuguese), amazing restaurant, with fairy lights and little winding passages and cute couches. We were placed under a fairy-light love heart and had brilliant food.

Spent the next day in Sintra. Wonderful Sintra.

Sintra is basically the holiday town of old nobles and kings from years and years ago. The place is crammed with castles and palaces and villas and… tourists. But it almost doesn’t matter. The whole place is so amazing. We walked up a mountain (basically) to a medieval castle, very windy, very cold. There were battlements and flying flags and the whole area is wooded and gorgeous. From here, you can look down onto the other fabulous places in Sintra.

You know, medieval castles are awesome, but my favourite place by far, possibly my favourite site that we visited (topping even the Alhambra, I think) was ….. A fabulous garden, filled with trees and flowers and winding paths. And underground passages. We got lost, running up stairs and ducking under branches. The passages begin at a tower, high up in the garden (it is all built sloping up a hill, away from the main house- which is cool, but pales in comparison), where the inside of the tower is a giant staircase that trips down down down into the dark. It is wet and dark and I was not wearing appropriate footwear. It got darker and darker and the tunnel coming from the bottom level was basically a black hole. Armed with the light from my phone, we trailed down the tunnel and came out the end behind a waterfall. There are stepping stones to get out. Stepping stones. So cool. Tild fell in love with the grottoes dotted around the garden and we both imagined just what it would be like to have grown up with this as your garden.