Well hello! If you have followed our adventures in the past you already realise that things are different with this trip. No “get ready, we’re hitting the road” warnings. No pictures of passports and G&Ts. It’s because we are woefuly unprepared for this particular adventure. Given the chaos in our lives over the last few weeks (another post for another blog), we set off with plane tickets and AirBnB accommodations settled and that’s about it. No exhastive research. No language practice. We don’t even have the storied “book” that usually accompanies us. So let me tell you how well we managed our first day of making it up as we go in Portugal!
With the car safely ensconsed in an airport hotel carpark in Edinburgh, we were up with the sun (4.30am) and off to the terminal. It was first EasyJet flight – the only thing we did do research for. The UK discount airlines are notorious for their restrictive baggage requirements so we went out of our way to ensure that our cabin bags met the standards – even buying two new cheap wheelie cases that advertised their suitability for the task. And for this flight at least, it seemed not to matter. We had packed light and have everything for a 10 day trip in two small bags and others around us had the most obnoxiously large backpacks and bags. Cie la vie.
Another entertaining thing about EasyJet that I didn’t realize when booking our tickets is that they feel no obligation to seat two people on the same reservation anywhere near each other. Don’t know how I missed that but Frank got his “extra legroom” seat in the 1F – bulkhead row window – while mine was 13E – exit row middle. WTF? When we realised it and tried to change it, there were no other options available on the website. Of course when we boarded, the seat next to Frank was empty (!?!) so I was able to sit with him. But a family of 3 with a little girl wasn’t so lucky and Emily was very sad that mommy was sitting about 8 rows in front of her and daddy. 😦
But we arrived and nearly on time sort of. We picked up our hire car -booked just days before we left because…. unprepared – and drove into the sunshine in Lisbon. Our apartment is one of the few with parking and we met our host in the top story flat in the Alfama area. It’s an adorable little place with everything we could want. We parked, unpacked, showered and went out to explore. First, some real food. We went to a lovely little crepe shop on Rua de Graça called Maria Limão where I had a yummy buckwheat crepe filled with proscuitto, mozzerella, tomotoes, and rocket. Frank began with a salmon crepe which would be a bit of a theme for him today.
Then we walked. And walked. And walked. Up and down hills but it felt like it was mostly up. Around our neighboorhood, past the castle (queues were too long) to the church and tower by the castle – where you pay 5 euros for entrance and get a glass of wine! Down to the harbor to watch a cruise ship pull out. Down to the pink street and Time Out Market. Back up and up and up.
Eventually we knew we had to get some more food and a decent night’s sleep. Unfortunately, Portugal appears to be one of those amazing places where lunch is at 3 and dinner at 8 or 9. Well that certainly wasn’t going to work for us today. So we joined the other tourists eating at the ungodly hour of 7pm. Frank continued his salmon quest and I had steak portuguese – which in this establishment was a something that resembled beef with ham, cheese, and “mustard sauce”. Very interesting but certainly not gourmet. A lovely bottle of vinho verde made things much better. Then a little more walking and back to the flat. Where we did actually try to do some preparation for the next few days. Then we went to bed after sunset for the first time in months. The days here are MUCH shorter than in Aberdeen: sunrise at 6.30 and sunset at 9pm instead of 4.30 and 10pm. We’ll try to make the most of it tomorrow.
Here’s your culture for today. Some of the street art in Lisbon:
And the tiles that are EVERYWHERE. Now we know where Azul gets their ideas.
But what is a travel blog post without data? Here’s some numbers for today:
- Steps taken: 26,532 – approx 13 miles
- Equivalent flights climed: 51
- Number of different drinks tried: 4 (iced coffee with cinnamon and lemon, Portuguese rose, vinho verde, and a dragonfruit cocktail!)
The Cannon Family's travel blog 