Highlights…
· After two weeks at ‘home’ with Cushla and Alan in London (having the comfort of my own room, not having to ‘move-on’ each day, eating home-cooked dinners and healthy food - and generally enjoying being back into a more routine day-to-day life) I was dreading being back on the road again. So, I was really lucky on my first night in Porto. The hostel that I’d booked online was BEAUTIFUL: The lounge looked like someone’s home (someone with real interior design taste that is!), the bar downstairs opened open a nice courtyard, and the floorboards and interior staircase were in polished wood. The dorms were big, with good lockers, the bathrooms were clean, and the reception staff were lovely, and helpful. Even better, another NZ girl (Anya) arrived at the same time as I did – she was only passing through for the night, but we headed for dinner at a local restaurant, and checked out some of the main town squares – the buildings were illuminated beautifully at night. So, all-in-all I didn’t have any time to dwell on the fact that I was ‘alone’.
· I quite liked the town of Porto, it didn’t feel too big (apparently it has a population of 1.1 million – so clearly the suburbs spread out a long way from the ‘historical centre’!) I described it to myself as ‘attractive, but slightly dishevelled’ - there are new-streets right around the corner from older ones, some of the older buildings are in varying states of decay, and the streets do crazy things – it’s quite steep in parts, so they tend to zig-zag up the hillside. The closer you walk to the river, the more attractive the buildings – many are decorated on the front façade with beautifully painted tiles. Walking along the Douro river itself was pleasant, lined with cafes and nice buildings, and the opposite side of the river (which is actually a separate city: Vila Nova de Gaia’) has all of the old port-wine cellars. These old cellars have been converted into tourist destinations: almost all of them offer ‘tours’ (very basic information about the production of port wine) + tastings and some housed museums / displays / restaurants etc.
· One of my Porto highlights was eating a local specialty: francesinha (Francesca is the name of my sister-in-law, so I couldn’t help but think of her every time I saw this name – resulting in a total inability to pronounce the word correctly!) This dish is basically a white-bread sandwich, containing multiple types of meat (I think I had 2-types of sausages, steak, ham and salami – it was hard to identify them all), the sandwich is then topped with a slice of cheese (ON the top of the bread – not inside). The sandwich is then flooded in a spicy tomato-cream sauce, with chips on the side (also doused in sauce). The result is soggy chips, soggy bread, melted cheese and meat in a soup of sauce! It sounds terrible… it looks terrible… and the taste? The sauce was actually nice, and accompanied the meat well… but I wasn’t sold on soggy bread or chips (and I could have done a few vegetables with my dinner!)
· After Porto, I spent 3 nights on the quinta in central Portugal (Serra da Estrela) - under the hospitality of Cushla´s cousin (Peter) and his partner (Ute, pronounced ‘oo-ta’). It´s a very pretty area, with small towns, high mountains / hills (the highest peak is 1993m), and great weather (although somewhat too hot in the middle of the day!) Peter and Ute were wonderful hosts – we spent one day driving around all the little villages, up to the peak, we picnic’d in a pretty reserve, went swimming in a mountain lake, and tested some of the local wine (apparently everyone makes their own wine… and some of it is pretty rough: but very cheap!). I spent a few hours helping to weed the vegetable garden (it’s been a very long time since I’ve done any gardening work… so I probably wasn’t the fastest of workers). The area reminded me of Victoria in many ways ; they are constantly at risk of bush fires in the hot dry summer, and therefore spend a lot of time clearly the perimeter of the land and removing undergrowth. The Serra da Estrela Natural Park looks like some of Victoria’s alpine region – it’s a ski field in the winter, but in summer is dry, with evidence of bus fires (and grazing cows!)
· I spent a few hours in Coimbra (en-route from Nelas-Lisboa). Coimbra is a university town with an AMAZING library building - covered in gilded or painted wood - and, reportedly, a colony of bats, which eat any insects - thus protecting the books! (I heard a tour guide assure her group that this was completely true...)
· I ended up spending four nights in Lisboa (Lisbon) – however I wasn’t sure that I actually liked it… Like other big European cities, it has a lot of big squares and nice buildings (although almost nothing is left from before the massive earthquake/tidal wave and fire in 1755 – which destroyed most of the city). It didn’t seem to have as many ‘green spaces’ as some other cities, and they really hadn’t developed the river/harbour area (it was impossible to run or walk along the full stretch of coast –as there appeared to be buildings in the way). Overall, it was ok, but I didn’t love it (I still can’t decide if I am being unfair to the city – but I guess it’s all about individual experiences).
· It was also at this point in my trip that I started to reflect that travelling alone in the bigger, more ‘Western’ cities can be a lot harder – I got the impression that there were more ‘group’ travellers (rather than individuals), and the locals are less likely to interact with you (they don’t need to in the same way that people in the tourist business in Nepal / Turkey do), also – I was surprised that a lot of people don’t speak English.
· Probably the highlight of Lisboa was a day-trip out to Sintra – it contains the 15th/16th century residence of the kings of Portugal, and numerous other fantastic estates of the rich (according to Google, Lord Byron described it as the most beautiful village in the world). As I was on a day-tour (arranged through the hostel) I had limited time there: the village itself seemed to be a small area of narrow streets selling local products (touristy, but attractively so). The tour was somewhat disorganised – the regular guide wasn’t available, so the hostel had pulled in a replacement (friend of the owner I think). He was a lovely, friendly guy – and as the day progressed we managed to engage in more conversation with him (during which time he told us a story about knowing the owner as they both had Latvian wives; who they met on a website… it sounded very much like a ‘Russian-bride’ scenario… although it could have been a Lost-in-Translation situation). Anyhow (I digress), the guide drove us to Sintra, dropped us in town, and said ‘see you in a few hours’. As we were on a ‘tour’, none of the five of us had done any research on what to see / do there – so we had to head to the tourist office for map and information. Based on some pictures (and the fact that some of the residences were further from town), we agreed to go to the ‘Quinta da Regaleira’ – which I mentioned in a previous blog post (gothic-style palace and gorgeous – but slightly quirky – gardens). We also visited Monserrate Palace – a Persian pavilion-style place, with enormous Pohutukawa trees on the front lawn (not in flower though, unfortuneately). It was fabulous, but I did later discover that the number 1 tourist attraction in Sintra is the Pena Palace a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the seven wonders of Portugal… and we missed it!) Regardless, what we saw was fabulous – and if I ever return (or if any of you go), I would recommend staying a night in Sintra… in order to visit multiple places.
· From Lisboa, I travelled to Évora (central Portugal again). Stupidly, I thought it might be cooler there – having some bizarre concept that ‘central’ might equal ‘higher’… it is NOT!!! Évora was actually unbearably hot in the middle of the day (at least Lisboa had some sea breeze). When I arrived in the middle of the day the first thing I did was shower – and start sweating again! I had two other room-mates for the night: Dennis (from Holland) and John (from USA). The three of us sat in the dorm room – with the window shutters closed (and eventually figured out how to turn on the air-con)– it was just too hot to move! Eventually, we ventured out. Évora is very small, and it didn’t take long to walk around. The most fascinating thing in town is the ‘Capela dos Ossos’ (Chapel of Bones). The walls are –literally- made of bones (apparently from the town’s people): limb bones were stacked in different orientations to form patterns, and skulls decorated the borders around archways… very weird (and bizarre that it was possible to obtain these bones… can’t see getting permission to do such a thing these days?!). I have since Google’d the explanation of this place - “The Capela dos Ossos was built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk who, in the Counter-Reformation spirit of that era, wanted to prod his fellow brothers into contemplation and transmit the message of life being transitory. This is clearly shown in the famous warning at the entrance Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos (“We bones, lying here bare, are awaiting yours).” Evora was also a Roman town, and has the ruins of a Roman temple (not especially impressive relative to all the others I have seen), and a very impressive Roman aqueduct – which apparently extends for 9km.
· The highlight in Evora, was actually a coincidence in timing: there was a huge local fair going on. The population of the town is only about 50,000 – and a lot of the town must have been on the stalls, or enjoying the fair that night. There were stalls for all the local services and clubs (hospital, scouts, hiking clubs, police recruitment, and many others I couldn’t determine), there were handicrafts for sales, people raising money for various charity, a huge section of clothes, shoes, handbags etc, carnival rides, and countless options for food and drink (mostly fast-food Portuguese style). I spent a very companionable evening with Dennis, eating our way through a massive antipasti platter of olives and meat (about 4 different types of cured meats!), drinking beer and Sangria (unfortunately for John, he is a vegetarian who doesn’t drink!) For a Sunday night, the town was definitely out enjoying itself… there were still people eating and drinking when we headed for home just before midnight.
· My final stop in Portugal was Faro – the capital of the Algarve (Southern portion of Portugal). It is a very small town, and not especially exciting – I saw most of it in an evening. It was however, my last chance to try some local Portuguese food – I opted for a restaurant with one other group dining inside (they looked like a typical business dinner: which I hoped would indicate a certain quality of food). I was not disappointed! I order the razor-clams with rice (which someone else on my travels had told me NOT to eat, saying they’d heard they were disgusting… I like a challenge!) Razor clams are not an attractive food – they look like small phallic objects! But the dish was incredible: like a sloppy risotto, with an intense savoury flavour – I ate so much that I couldn’t physically manage any dessert (very disappointing).
· Another note on food in Portugal… I tested out several ‘pastéis de nata’ – also just called ‘natas’; Portuguese egg-custard tarts. I included a pilgrimage to the original bakery in Belém (a suburb of Lisbon) where they are served hot, sprinkled with icing sugar and cinnamon… Mmmmm!
· I spent my final few hours in Portugal taking a boat tour out from Faro to the ‘Ihla Deserta’ through a natural marine park. It turned out to be a bird-watching tour (not quite my thing, but parts were interesting, and the scenery was pleasant): the tidal area provides mud flats for the birds to feed on, and the area is host to a wide variety of birds. The island itself was lovely – unlike other beaches in Portugal – which are excessively overcrowded – there were very few people. I managed a quite dip in the water – a really pleasant temperature, and then had lunch at the restaurant overlooking the beach. I wish I’d had more time, but I had to hop back on the ferry to catch my bus to Spain – I probably couldn’t have handled any more time in the sun anyway (there was no shade on the beach unless you purchased a palm-frond umbrella + lounger for 20 EUROS!!
And finally - a link to other photos: PORTUGAL photo album
And finally - a link to other photos: PORTUGAL photo album
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