We arrived in Porto at about 11pm after a long days travel, we hadn’t booked accommodation but had general directions to a hostel that was close to the train station. We wandered aimlessly trying to decipher the directions, when a knight in shining armour came to our rescue. A young Portugese bloke asked if we needed any help – which we clearly did; and rather than pointing us in the right direction he walked us up and down streets trying to find it. 20min later and having asked a dozen different people, he lead us to the front door, and with a wave he disappeared into the darkness. Such a lovely change from the northern Spaniards.
The following day I decided it was time to get a haircut. Of course, you can only find hair dressers when you don’t need them, so now that I did, it was quite the task to find one. A solid few hours sightseeing and shopping all the while keeping our eyes open for a hairdresser and we landed in a cool market. The amount of birds in cages (for eating) was a little off putting for Alison, and as I was in the middle of my birds are harmless speech I got shat on by a pigeon.
In the evening we wandered down to the main square and watched Portugal play their first world cup game which was exciting and great to be a part of, yet at the same time one of the most boring games I’ve seen in my life. Later in the day Brazil played, and the entire Portugese-Brazilian community flocked to the main square. The Brazilian fans were going crazy, banging drums, playing trumpets, dancing and screaming through megaphones. The world cup in 2014 is going to be epic.
The next day we did some more sightseeing in the morning, and more shopping, and then POW! we found a hairdresser and I was able to shed much of my mop. I was happy as Larry. Alison had been eyeing off “clown pants” for the preceding few days and finally mustered up the courage to buy her first pair. We named them ‘travellers pants’ but that was just a euphemism for clown pants.
We both really loved Porto, but we decided to head South to Lisbon to see what all the fuss was about. So we hopped on a train and headed down. We were on one of the super fast ones, that have a TV screen telling you the speed – so I kept myself amused by saying to Alison every few minutes “what speed do you think we’re doing?”. After 20minutes of this, I was given the evil eye. So I kept myself amused by asking myself (in my head) “what speed do you think we’re doing?”. Time flew, sometimes at 220km/h.
We arrived and made our way to the greatest hostel. Upon arrival we were given shots of some variety and then fed dinner. The place was spotless, had free breakfast (and dinner) with pancakes, free internet and a huge projection screen set-up for watching world cup games. I was overly impressed with the place which was one of the top listed in the country - although Alison said (and justifiably) that the place was too perfect, and the staff tried so so hard, it was almost fake, and you couldn’t feel completely relaxed there. Having said that – it was super nice and only 12€ a night.
It had been a long wait, but finally we had; A) sunshine, and; B) a beach nearby. So after getting vague instruction we disappeared on the search for the beach. We ended up finding some people with towels in hand, and followed them. Some would say ‘genius’, others ‘stupid’. I’d say genius because we arrived in one piece. We lazed in the sun, and splashed in the icy water (it was unbearably cold) before making our way to the bus stop. Unfortunately the people we had followed on the way to the beach were nowhere to be seen, so we had to work this one out on our own. We eventually did, but the bus stop was a 5min walk in another direction, so it wasn’t a smooth process. We still have no idea which beach we were at.
It had been a few days since our last drinking session, so we thought we’d test out the pub crawl. Can I just say firstly, that all pub crawls should start at 9pm. We got home from the beach at 5:30pm. We bought food, made dinner (then got given dinner) and by 7:30 we were sitting there waiting. The pub crawl started at 11:30. So we thought we’d make an early start with a few others. By the time 11:30 rolled around, (and I emphasize rolled) Alison and I had polished off 2 bottles of red – I say Alison, but really it was 80% me. I was hammered. We were taken to a number of spots, given drinks and shots left right and centre. After a few bars and only 6€ spent, it was home time for me. We opted against the 8min walk and caught a cab.
It was a slow start to the day. An equally slow finish. We slept in, then woke up and made an impressively good batch of spag bowl. Then went sightseeing through Lisbon in the afternoon. We walked around, went up to the castle where I got yelled at by security for walking on top of the castle walls, the other 47people doing it were ok though. We got ourselves a handful of some of the Portugese egg tarts – awesome, then headed home for an early night.
We awoke and caught the bus further south to Lagos in the Algarve district. We arrived and checked into our hostel quickly because Australia was about to take on Ghana in the world cup. We were starving so we thought we’d go down for a quick bite somewhere along the promenade. Quick bite. We arrived and sat down at a restaurant in front of a TV, still 15min before the game started. We ordered quickly (set menu) and had our first course come out almost immediately. Next course 5min into the game. Next course and last course, I requested as the half time whistle blew. We waited. As the second half started we received our coffee. At which point I requested the bill. 15min into the second half, I re-requested the bill. 30min into the half I re-re-requested the bill. (I wasn’t going to watch the game anywhere else now, it was simply out of principle). 40min into the second half, I watched as 2 tables adjacent whom had arrived at half time – received their bill. I was fuming, Alison was laughing – this didn’t help. As the final whistle blew, (including 5min of overtime) one of the nearby tables had alerted the waitress that perhaps our table would like the bill. At about 11 separate occasions murder was almost committed. But we received the bill for our ‘Quick Bite’, and I was on edge. It took Alison a few minutes and a few drinks to calm me down. In hindsight, it was hilarious. The comedy of errors could not have been scripted better. One day I’ll make a movie about it.
In the evening we went to Monkey bar and bumped into a few of our Aussie friends from San Seb and drank on with them. We also met some other cool travellers Katie and Henry. We had another Portugese style drinking session, cheap and hard. We ticked bar after bar off the list. Joe’s Garage, DC’s, Monkey Bar, Moon Rising. I have photographic evidence showing Alison dancing on the top of the bar shamelessly. Having said that, I was earlier sprung pole dancing on top of the bar – but that was cool. At about 2:30am, Alison agreed that the booze cruise the following day was a top idea.
I woke Al at 11am and informed her that we were to meet Henry and Katie in 30min, as she had agreed to a booze cruise. She had no knowledge of this. With her head hanging low, she begrudgingly accepted and we got ready. When we met the others, it was a unanimous decision that perhaps today wasn’t the best day to do a booze cruise. So we made our way to the beach. A beautiful secluded beach surrounded by rock formations and caves. It was our ‘spot’ for the next 5 or so days (looking back, I wish I was there now). In the evening we met Henry and Katie and went out for a traditional Portugese meal – I had steak and chips. After dinner we went back to Moon Rising because Henry had a mate working there, so although they were practically giving away booze, we thought we could get it cheaper. And we could. We hinted that the bar tender should play drinking games with us, and in exchange, no money was to change hands for our drinks. I discovered yet another thing that I was really bad at (or good at depending on how you looked at it). So I lost 3 games consecutively, and had to drink 3 beers – free. This game continued and Henry and I got a little wasted. I went to bed. In my bed.
Somehow (and I still have no explanation for this) the following morning I awoke in another poor travellers bed. It took me a few minutes to work out where I was, and how I got there. A few months on – I still haven’t worked it out.
After a few messy days and nights, we had a detox day at ‘our’ spot. The following day was also spent at our spot. I decided I’d had enough of watching all the other lucky punters with their mini racquets and balls, so I forked out 4€ and bought my own. Alison and I played enthusiastically for about 6min before my paddle snapped in half. Heartbroken we continued (somehow) with one paddle. 2 more minutes past before Alison’s paddle broke. Gutted we sat down. However, on the bright side, we still had the ball, and still do have the ball which has provided many hours of joy.
In the evening we made an Australian friend in the hostel. Frank. Frank was super cool and from Melbourne. We decided we would go out for a drink with Frank. However at about 10, Frank decided that he needed a nap for a minute. Frank was not seen again that night. However, Frank had some sidekicks that we met and hung out with. We went out and Alison went a bit crazy. We went to a bar and Alison ordered a cocktail (caipirinha). It was 2 for 1 cocktails, so rather than asking what I wanted, she ordered 2 for herself (a long island ice tea). You also got a free shot with your first drink. We’d been out for 20min and Al had smashed all three. The following two bars had a similar outcome. Al was drinking like it was going out of fashion. Eventually we headed home and Al was a little worse for wear.
The next morning Al was feeling a bit rough, and unfortunately we had to change hostels. So we moved on out and checked in. I went to a take away store up the street to buy Alison some food, I ordered fish and chips. I got chips, and a cold piece of fish – what the hell was I supposed to do with that? After eating Al’s chips, we went to the beach. We decided again to have a bit of a detox. So we chilled at home in the evening and recovered.
Next day was spent at our spot. We tried to do a kayak tour of the grotto’s but it was too windy. I didn’t notice any wind, but it was apparently there. We had another detox afternoon, although I went out to the bar to watch a bunch of the world cup games.
We opted to do the kayak tour the following day. It was a little overcast which was disappointing. The first overcast day since leaving Spain. The tour was amazing though, and kayaking was the best way to do it. We could have been taken in a speed boat, but that’s nowhere near as fun, plus we were able to go in and out of tiny little caves inaccessible to bigger boats. The formations were spectacular, and the photos don’t really do it justice. In the evening over a few glasses of wine, we decided maybe it was a good idea to keep on travelling. So we went to sleep early so we could catch the early bus in the morning. Unfortunately some unruly Australian neighbours made sure we didn’t get much sleep at all.
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