Portugal (where we spent 6 days of our vacation) was quite possibly my favorite place in Europe.  It had such amazing landscapes, people, cities, and culture.  Because if I were to chronical our stay there in a more normal play-by-play fashion it would last pages and pages, I’m going to do this in memory form…:

  • Maggie and I were scheduled to have a 10 am flight out of Paris-Beauvais to Porto.  However, since Beauvais is 1.5 hours outside of paris, you have to catch the special shuttle that leaves 3 hours before your flight.  It costs around an extra 15euro (yay ryanair) but if you miss the shuttle, it costs a 140euro taxi.  NEVER MISS THE BUS.  Unfortunately that’s what maggie and I did. We ended up sharing the taxi with a brazilian couple who, in the end, had only 40euros on them, total.  So we ended up paying an extra 50euros that morning. sigh.
  • We met up with Grace in Porto and made it from the airport to train station. We had time to kill, so we decided to walk up the city, up a steep hill (not fun with heavy suitcases). However, when we reached the top we happened upon a beautiful church and graveyard.  The view from it was fantastic. And even though we accidently were taking photos of the church while there was a funeral going on (didn’t realize it until the casket came out of the church), the beauty of the place is probably my best memory of Porto.
  • Our walk from the Lisboa train station to Afonso’s house (our couchsurfing host) was slightly torturous.  We walked for an hour with our heavy packs, and we thought it’d be a 20 min easy walk. To let everyone know, there’s a metro for a  reason. Lisboa’s a lot bigger than I thought.
  • Speaking of Afonso and his flatmates’ apartment, their elevator has no door. It’s freaky watching the floors go by.
  • Part of the reason our stay in Lisboa was so memorable is the fact that the time of year was perfect. It had just stopped raining and there were flowers everywhere. It stayed in the 70s all week long, too.
  • My portuguese vocabulary is random.  Besides numbers 1-10, good-day: bom dia, hello: hola, and thank you: obrigada, I know how to say chicken and turkey (frango and peru, respectively), pastry: pasteis, and multiple ways to order coffee.  You can see what was important to me: besides basic communication, just food and coffee.
  • Speaking about the language, it sounds russian.  By the end I could pick out some differences and start to recognize some words because we figured out more of the pronunciation, but it sounded unlike anything I expected.
  • The countryside is gorgeous. just gorgeous. The houses and countryside slightly resembles Italy in places, but in general it’s a little wilder and less perfectly manicured like Italy.
  • The trains there feel like a rollercoaster. I’m not sure why trains in france or italy don’t tilt around as much, but these were bizarrely unsettling.
  • In Belem, there’s the monument devoted to Vasco de Gama, and amazing pastries which taste like the best french toast you’ve ever had (but in small pastry form)
  • Going out was a completely different experience.  I mean now that it’s warmer here in Strasbourg, people hang out outside at night, but it’s still normally at bars or with your own alcohol. There, everyone has plastic cups and no one stays in the bars, but buys drinks and then mill around outside.  It’s fantastic to see, stretching out in front of you, the enormous crowds packed on the steep, cobble-stoned street.
  • Portugal has fantastic (and lesser known) wine and olive oil. Of course we all know about Port coming from Porto, but did you know that the original word ”marmalade” came from there? Marmalade was “discovered” by the greeks, but the actual name we use today came from Portugal, where it means only a preserve made from Quinces (a fruit that I never knew existed really before this semester).
  • Sintra was like walking into a garden of the gods.
  •  While the castles and gardens were touristy and organized in that there were signs, tickets, tours, and maps, they weren’t as controlled as all other places I’ve been (keep in mind, I’ve only been to places in America and Europe since I was old enough to remember).  The tall moorish castle ramparts didn’t have handrails drilled into them, but rather just dropped off 40 feet, and the caves you can explore in the gardens of the Quinta da Regaliera didn’t have lights strung throughout them or ropes blocking the water’s edge, but were rather pitch black.  It was this feeling of “not enough americans have been here to sue the place for lack of stupid people safety features.”  It was a wonderful feeling.
  • The bus ride from Sintra to Cascais was about the windiest craziest and most beautiful ride I’ve been on.  We waited 1.5 hours for the bus from Sintra to another beach, and then just took the one to Cascais instead. I think the only reason I didn’t get violently sick on the bus was because I was simultaneously struck by the incredible beauty outside my window and the intense fear that we were going to hit people, cars, and ancient stone walls.  But the intense contrast between the bright green hills of rolling grass, the blue of the ocean and sky, and the white-washed walls and terra cotta roofs of the villages made the ride well worth it.
  • The people we met there almost all spoke english and were always nice with us and each other. They seemed like an amazing group of people to get to know and live among. There was one instance when the person who asked us for money was kind enough to give us directions in english, and he and the people in the store seemed on great terms. Plus, the only cashier seemed to think nothing of abandoning the grocery store to come out and help us as well. 

I realize that we came at the perfect time of the year, but that doesn’t lessen the magic.  It was like a non-touristy Italy that has the vegetation of Portland, except warmer, and is all coastline. The fruit is fantastic, the people are incredibly nice, things are less expensive, and bright colors are adored.  I almost considered not writing this post just to keep it more of a “secret.” But then again it was named Europe’s top destination of 2010 — and with good reason. All I can say is that it completely took me by surprise, and who knows, someday my life might lead me back…