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 1

I started writing yesterday but my battery died twice on me! Now I'm in a camping site's 'community room' where there are plugs and wifi feeding my body and my phone (cappuccino for €0.90!) 

Now about yesterday: the flight was usual- little leg room, crying babies; we also were almost late for it and they called C' name out on the speakers, how embarrassing! 😅 Upon arrival we had to wait almost an hour for a luggage to arrive so everything was 'out of schedule' (not that we had a schedule planned to the minute....). From the airport we took the metro to the station Oriente; I knew you could leave suitcases there in a nearby train station and the plan was to go to Oceanario Lisboa- one of the world's best oceanworld, which was just walk away.

The metro and train station are connected so the trains are on the upper floor. It was fun to get there with 2 suitcases, 2 backpacks and a little hand bag😂 and when we eventually get there, we learned that the locker room is actually downstairs, just behind the entrance to the metro station! We spend a while trying to find our way around as it wasn't well marked and not many locals knew where it is, but with help of a policeman we made it 😄 Suitcases in, 2 lockers taken, cause we had so much stuff, we decided to go and eat in opposite Vasco Da Gama shopping center. We had pizza in a lovely Pasta Cafe.

After quick wonder around shopping centre, off we went to find Oceanarium.

It was amazing! I really like nature and animals, despite fish not being my favourite pick🐠. But everything was nicely laid out, easy to take photos, not overcrowded and definitely educational! There was a big tank in the middle ('a big ocean') that you could see from different angles and sides, it had a wonderful variety of animals in there. There were also 'smaller oceans' representing particular ecosystems, including puffins, penguins and otters; as well as small tanks with selected, interesting species (jellyfish, octopus, crabs). There were also some educational corners for kids, but we skipped those...I try not to overwhelm you with the photos, so I'll post only few... But definitely recommend it! C enjoyed it as well despite being very tired and the fact that he only went there because I really wanted to see this place.  

After that we grabbed some icecream, 2 metros and 1 train (despite multiple changes, everything was quite close to each other and easy to find), we arrived to Cascais, a lovely town 40 minutes away from Lisbon. From there a taxi took us to our campsite, Guincho. We set a tent and went for a stroll to find food. I'll write some more about campsites later... And that's how we ended this extreme tiring but exciting day!