Christoph and I spent 10 days venturing around Portugal this past February. Here's how it went down:
Day 1: Reunited at the Lisbon airport, we got the rental car then hit to road--Aveiro bound. After a short ride, we checked into a hostel, grabbed a bottle of wine and hit the town for some evening exploring.
Day 2: Since Aveiro is quite small, we spent only a short part of our morning doing some exploring by day. We visited the market, where we bought fresh fruit, olives, olives and oh ya, olives. Then we were on the road again, this time Porto bound. We decided not to take major highways, since toll prices were rather high and taking alternative routes through the countryside would give us a closer look at local life- this was a good choice. It began to rain about half way on our journey to Porto and when we arrived in Porto the rain did not let up. We decided to stay in, make dinner and get a long sleep.
Day 3: Finally the rained cleared and we were able to enjoy our day exploring Porto. Porto is a unique city-- rustic, mysterious, lived in and even tropical. After a full day in Porto, we hopped in the car and continued our journey towards the north of Portugal. We arrived at our destination, Peneda Geres national park quite late before deciding to call it a night.
More olives? But of course!!
Day 4: 07:00 Rise and Shine!! After waking early we grabbed some food from the "mini mercado", made our way to the trails of the national park and spent the day hiking. Silence, nature, and one another made for a refreshing day in the park. Later that evening, we began the long trek to the Algarve- we made it half way before decided to crash in a hostel in Lisbon and call it a day.
Day 5: Taking the scenic route by avoiding major highways, we finally reached the Algarve. This was our first of three days there. We explored the town of Lagos, went for coffee with our newly made friend (a hitch hiker we picked up) before seeing the sunset on the famous Marinha beach.
Day 6: Waking up just before the sun, we watched it rise on the beach before cruising the coast and beach hopping for the day. Surfers, rocks, waves, sun, breeze, salty air, and endless beaches- the Algarve is marvelous. At the end of the day, we set up camp alongside a bunch of hippies on a secluded beach, watched the sunset and called it a day.
Day 7: Rising with the sun, we frolicked around the beach before packing up the tent and hitting some more beaches. Day two in the Algarve was quite similar to the first: beach hopping, warm breeze, sunny skies, oh and sand...lots of sand...everywhere (I'll leave it at that)...We visited a quite unique beach recommended to us by our hitch hiking friend-- a beach littered with sand dunes, it made for a lot of fun. Later on we grabbed some groceries (yes of course we got more olives), parked the car on a beach and enjoyed the sunset, each other and a couple of beers before calling it a day and hitting the hay.
I made a few new dogs friends
Christoph stuck in the sea...
Day 8: One thing about traveling that I love is living by the sun. Waking and resting to its never-ending rising and setting. It's something constant in nature that my body begins to adapt and connect to, a connection that I often forget and lose in the business of everyday life.This was something I began to experience again during our time in the Algarve.
We were on the road again-- Lisbon bound. After we returned the rental car, we explored the city for the afternoon and early evening before heading to our hosts place. We chatted with and got to know our host, Rodrigo who then took us to the city center to experience the Lisbon by night.
Testing out this tree bed
Day 9: Our last day was spent exploring the west part of the city before watching the sunset at Miradouro de Senhora do Monte (a lookout point over the city) with our host and another surfer. We decided to call it a day pretty early on as we both had early flights the next day.
Chilling
Day 10: Departure day, or at least an attempt...Christoph flew out in the early morning but my flight was delayed 4 hours which meant I would miss my connecting flight in New York, ultimately putting me back 20 hours...I was thankful to at least have a hotel and meal coupon from the airline and after flying in some TINY planes I was finally back in chilly Toronto on Monday afternoon at 14:00.
Bye bye Portugal!!!
9 people on the flight....
"I travel not to go anywhere. But to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."
Photo credits- Christoph Beck :)
