Day 7 & 8: chill & kayaking

Last 2 days I'll describe in 1 post... They weren't super busy but very nice nonetheless...

Day 7 was at our friends, Seana & Harry, at their lovely house close to Oliveira de Hospital. We spent the day chatting, making friends with their dog Bella and 2 cats- Minky & Lily, exploring their beautiful garden, swimming in the pool, eating lovely food, more chatting, wine drinking and generally chilling and resting...

The next day we went for an adventure... The company Rock and River, run by Harry & Seana's friend, Matt, organizes a bunch of outdoor activities, including kayaking trips and camping in wilderness... something right up our street. Matt picked us up in chosen spot, organized the equipment, explained the route and dropped us at the starting point... It was really hard and frustrating on the beginning, the boat kept turning all directions except the one I wanted to go and it was really really hot! But after a while I got the hang of the paddling and it became really enjoyable. We had 2 stops on the way, 1 on an uninhabited island, 1 on the shore, had something to eat from our extensive pantry full of rolls and had a dip in the clear waters of the river Mondego. We encountered schools of wild fish,flocks of red kites and a myriad of different insects...

 We wanted to get off the boat and onto the shore to find a place suitable for a camping but...there was no such place!  The shore was at a very steep angle, almost impossible to pull up the kayak, not to mention setting a tent! Eventually we found a good spot- very secluded and quiet. After clearing the ground of branches, we set the tent, had a snack and we decided to paddle back to a nearby restaurant... I got changed, packed a few necessities, threw my phone on the seat (as I wanted to take some photos of the river at the dusk... I started getting carefully into the boat, not to wet my sandals, and then everything started to wobble... And the kayak turned over and off I went to the water...with my phone! Got it quickly and turned it off, and we asked for a bag of rice at the restaurant to dry it up... And the old trick seemed to work! 

On the way back from the dinner (I had grilled salmon, C had grilled chicken, both very nice and staff very helpful) we kayaked back to our tent, it was getting quite dark and pretty scary! I wouldn't have made it back without C. But when we settled back, we actually started to appreciate how beautiful the place was- myriads and myriads of stars, very quiet except for the crickets and the occasional fish jumping out of the water, and just the two of us... There is no one else I would rather be with at this particular moment in time... I'm so blessed 😍. No more photos tho as the phone was dead for that night... Maybe that's even better?😉

Day 6: travel, travel, travel

Day 6 started with packing up our impressive equipment and checking out of the hotel. The place, Pensao Prata, is on the Rua de Prata, brilliant location at the heart of Lisbon. When we first arrived we were a bit shocked- it was just a block of flats, one door bell marked with the name of the place. When we rang the bell, the door open and we were invited by a very steep flight of stairs and no lift or reception to be found! Up we went to the third floor (once again I'll remind you about our excessive luggage), where we were welcomed by a small reception. Despite the first shock, the whole place was really nice- it was like a large apartment converted into hostel/ b&b; there was a kitchen and a 'living room' to be used by all the guests. Our bedroom, tho quite small, had a comfy double bed and a bathroom with a powerful shower- what else do you need? The window went out to a quite busy road, it could be a problem for some light sleepers, but luckily not for us! And due the height of the apartment, there were no intruders peeking through😉 All in all, we were delighted with this place!

We left our suitcases at the reception and went for a last walk around the town, we re-visited Time Out Market, stopped in one of those kiosk-pubs for a glass of sangria and we grabbed out stuff and went to the bus station to catch a bus to our next destination- a village near a town Oliveira de Hospital. 

The bus we were hoping to get was full! We had to take the next one, 3 hours later! With the luggage we couldn't really move around freely and the station was quite far from all the interesting attractions...except the zoo. We managed to persuade a lady at the information office to hold on to out stuff, the station had no lockers! It was really nice of her. 

The entrance ticket to the zoo costs about €20 each so we decided to skip on this one😅. The place had a lovely park with a lake? Ducks wander around and a little monkey island which we could admire from the outside. We also grabbed some snacks and read books- just a chill before a 4-hour long journey...

Just before 11 pm we arrived to Travanca de Lagos, a village (close to Oliveira, not too far from Coimbra) where a family friends own a house...

Day 5: Alfama

Day 5 started quite late. We tried to find a  breakfast place, I quite fancied a cup of cappuccino and a chocolate croissant, my usual morning routine here as it seems. Near our hotel all the restaurant look the same- few tables outside, a waiter quite aggressively tries to 'invite you' to sit in and shows the menu with photos of the offered food. Most of the menus look pretty much exactly identical, have quite weird combination of ingredients (they seem to love putting an egg on a steak here) and I suspect are not gourmet quality... Since when did I become so picky with my food?😂 The problem arises if you want to add something in or take out of the offered meal option. C doesn't eat cheese, which I think is quite bizarre but Portuguese waiters found quite shocking.😃 Nonetheless, it is possible to find really good food in Portugal, we really enjoyed another visit to Time Out Market and a pizzeria Dama E Vagabond (near Praca do Rossio) but definitely you'll be in heaven if you a seafood amateur (which we, sadly, are not fans of).🐙🍤

We manage to eat something, then we decided to go to Alfama, one of the most recommended Losbon's districts, full of little streets, beautiful tiled buildings (azulejos), local crafts and arts and charming electronic taxi cars, running everywhere where there are tourists. We decided to take the famous tram no.28 to access the castle and other tourist areas, but it was extremely packed! (In fairness the guide book had warned us). So we walked back to the previous stop  hoping it would be less busy...and we went back 3 stops in total! No luck! Eventually we decided to take a taxi to the first stop on the line... About 20 other people had the same idea, in fact a taxi dropping people showed up at least 3 times since we arrived🚖... And we waited and waited for the famous tram🚃... After about 30 minutes we gave up and took a taxi directly to the castle! I have probably taken more taxis during my stay in Portugal then during the rest of my life combined 😅. In retrospect I think what happened is some trams went to the final stop where we waited, but quite a few finished their run in Estrela, a few stations before. I just realised when we passed a few trams with Estrela sign on them, contrary to what the schedule suggested... 

Ride to the castle was something else- Lisbon's streets are very narrow and steep, quite scary to walk around, not mentioning driving! Our driver must have been really experienced, since he managed to overcome traffic, turn in apparently prohibited streets and speed up the hills, all while talking on the phone!

The castle(Castelo de Sao Jorge) was truly impressive- it was built over a thousand years ago and during its history  was conquered multiple times...at this stage only the walls of this monumental building are left but even now it seems unbelievable that someone would be able to conquer it, particularly before the times  of powder guns and cannons! 💣 The view of the city is breathtaking, and it's really worth visiting, especially because they accept student cards😉

After the castle we walked to Sé Cathedral, and wandered down the streets of picturesque Alfama. 

I even managed to get something from my 'cosmetic shopping list'- we found Kiko and Sephora😍

And at night time we went for our last 'Lisbon by night' excursion and we found an amazing ice cream place- Amorino- you could pick as many flavours of the ice cream as you wanted and they made a rose out of it. Ours consisted mainly of chocolate😃 It was delish! 🍦 

Day 3- Cabo da Roca

Day 3 started with same lazy coffee & croissant, when I could catch up on social media, charge my phone and have a little 'me time' when C was still asleep. We definitely have different body clocks, he's a typical 'owl' (I'm just a sloth), but we learnt to live together and adjust accordingly 😉

After a breakfast consisting of hot dogs with cold sausage (our campsite was really nice and I'm going to write a bit more about it but the restaurant there was not their finest part) we went to Cabo da Roca. With limited internet we thought the route would be quite difficult, but except 2 quite obvious turns it was straight away, along the main road. The walk was about 3 hours with a break for a drink in Malveira da Serra (nicest lemonade EVER! 🍋)

The walk was definitely quite a satisfying achievement however there were few things we didn't quite expected. Firstly, the road- despite the area being a national park, there were not official trails directly to Cabo da Roca. Supposing lt we could have taken slightly more picturesque walk down the coast, but it did not connect as one route so it would take a long time to get to the point. Instead, we walked a (luckily) not-so -busy road with very limited sidewalk and even more limited views. Secondly, despite the coast and our campsite being quite windy (one would could even call it 'cold'), the route we chosen was more mainland, and hence roasting hot ☀️🔥. Who would have thought? 😅 That leads me to the final point- 3 hours is relatively short time, particularly if you slowly strolling around time, shopping, reading a book or doing any other pleasurable activity... Walking in full sun is not one of them😂

Nonetheless, the effort was entirely worth it- we reached the furthest western part of continental Europe! 😃 And the view of the lighthouse, cliffs and the ocean was absolutely breathtaking! 

After a quick snack in local overpriced restaurant, we caught the bus to Cascais, walked around and had a dinner, and ended up another beautiful day in sunny Portugal☀️

Day 2- beach, dunes and Cascais

So I'm starting today the same way as yesterday, coffee & croissant, trying to catch a bit wifi and energy to charge my phone. C is still asleep... I quite like my morning routine:)

Yesterday we went to the beach. The camping site is directly by the sea (the back of it) but the entrance is in the front, which means that we have to all around in order to get to the beach. It was quite windy which almost made us feel cold!😨Still wearing summer clothes tho;) 

We stopped by the closest restaurant and an eductaional centre, something to do with dunes. Although food did not blow us away, the views and the interior design were quite impressive.

The beach was almost empty, I assume due to heavy wind, blowing sand on us- cold and painful! Nonetheless I'm super happy to smell the sea, dip my legs in it (it was too cold for anything else) and we ended up finding sand grains EVERYWHERE😂

Then a quick dip in a camping swimming pool, nicest shower ever and off we went to Cascais! (By taxi)

Cascais is a town to which we got from Lisbon by train the day before, but we didn't really have a chance to walk around. It's truly lovely- sort of sea resort with interesting stone architecture, squares with loads of restaurants and touristy shops and...tourists:) I really like the vibe of those towns, you can find them in Spain, Italy, as it happens, Portugal too. Not many photos, because the phone kept dying😥, but I managed to charge it in a Buerguessa, place we had dinner at (burgers, surprisingly😉). 

And then we just wondered around inhaling local atmosphere, getting a bit lost and grabbing a pint in Irish pub (can take Irishman out of Ireland but can't take Ireland out of him😉)🍀🍻