San Sebastian - Spain

Our overnight journey wasn’t too bad, but we unfortunately missed our stop with the change in time zones so after stressing a bit, we got it sorted and made it to our accommodation. We really wanted to stay a while in San Sebastian, but as we quickly learnt, it was relatively expensive compared to other places we had been and also had a large film festival on at the same time, so nearly everything was booked out. 

We always enjoy our beach days, and spent the first day lazing on the beach followed by some Tapas and a beer that night. The tapas that night was beef cheek, and roasted duck, which was real yum. But the next night we got a bit more adventurous and had a shrimp dish and pigs ear. Louise didn’t mind the taste of the pigs ear, but the thought of the pigs ear put her off a bit! I was able to stomach it ok, and although it was pretty good too, it probably wouldn’t be my first choice.

Our second and last day in San Sebastian was great though. The surf was pumping the day before and although it had dropped in size a bit, it was still super fun the next day. So after a bit of searching, I hired a board and got stuck into it. So while I surfed for a couple of hours, Louise read her book on the beach. It was a good way to finish up as it was going to be a long day the next day catching 3 buses to our next destination, the tacky package holiday spot of Lloret de Mar.

Porto - Portugal

Arriving into Porto we crossed the main traffic bridge in town and got a stunning initial view of this picturesque city. It’s a quite a quant little city set on a riverbank with port distilleries dotting the waterline, with large bridges crossing the river, and a large monastery overhanging the bridge and city. My first impression of the city was a good one, and as soon as we dropped our bags we went for a wander and explored this UNESCO world heritage city. As with any UNESCO heritage city, the buildings were of historical relevance and are really beautiful. We finally stopped for dinner and I tried the local dish called a Francesisina. Im not sure if I got a dudd one, but it was pretty gross. Its Sandwich with sausage ham egg, with cheese and gravy on the outside. It had all the promises to be something I liked, but definitely missed the boat. 

The next day we had a pretty cruisy day…literally a cruisy day. We jumped on one of the local boats for an hours tour on the river. I thought it might be a bit of a let down but I actually really enjoyed it as you got a really great view of the city as well as all the little houses and port distilleries that dot the edges before making its way to the sea entrance then heading home. We were also lucky when one of the boatmen let me and Louise hang out down the back of the boat rather than sit up the front with the rest of the tourists fighting to take photos.

We then headed on home to do some planning for the next section of our travels as we are heading to San Sebastian in a few days time. But before we did our planning we needed some sustenance so Louise found a local sandwich place that was highly recommended in Lonely Planet. It was a pretty basic establishment that specialized in roast pork buns (they were as simple as they sound!), but although they were simple, we ate 7 rolls over the course of the next 12hrs, as they were so good! Needless to say we went back for dinner too. They were a really cheap eat, and perfect to cap the day off with a couple of beers.

Unfortunately on our last day in Porto we were let down a bit as our walking tour got cancelled at the last minute. So we had a lot of time to kill before the beginning of our train travel later that night. We were tempted to head back for more pork rolls, but Louise made the sensible choice of bypassing it. We headed to the Portuguese Photography Museum which I really enjoyed. I always love having a looking at photography exhibitions and they had some great works, including one that documented hunting traditions in Portugal. But as the day wound down we decided to grab some dinner before collecting our gear and heading to the train station. And what a dinner it was! This place was just up the road from our homestay/hostel and looked popular when we had walked past the night before. So we went and ordered a pretty basic order of steak, salad, chips, and salmon for Louise. Wow! This steak was the biggest steak I had ever seen let alone eaten, and it was perfect. Louise’s salmon was massive as well and cooked to perfection. We were worried that we had ordered the 2person portions instead of the 1 person portions,  so were guessing that our bill may have blown out, but when we got it, we were blown away – 26Euros for all that and 5 beers! Great way to load up before we were on our way. 

We collected our gears from our hostel and got a really warm goodbye from the family that run the place. Plenty of handshakes, and kisses from the old Portuguese lady who owned the place. We really enjoyed staying there, but we began the short journey to the train station to begin a bit 16hour mission to get to San Sebastian.

Lisbon - Portugal

Well the past 3 days have been another really great experience for us. We arrived in Lisbon and followed the directions to the house of Adelaide and Carlos. After we found their apartment block, we followed the directions to go up to the 1^st floor and take a right. When we got to that point we didn’t know if that was right out of the elevator or right out of the stairs, so we stood in the hallway panicking about which doorbell to ring. Then suddenly the lights went out, so Louise scrambled to turn the lights on, but in doing so accidently rang the doorbell for an apartment (The wrong apartment), as we heard a bit of chatter going on behind the door as they were probably wondering who the strangers were hanging out in the dark in the hallway. When we regained some light we heard a door open behind us to be welcomed by Adelaide and Carlos.

After short introductions we headed into the city for a quick look around. Lisbon reminds me (and probably a lot of other visitors) of a European San Francisco because of the trams that frequent the city centre, as well as the large bridge that is a replica of the golden gate bridge. We headed down to the waterfront where the cities gateway is – a beautiful archway and statue, before heading on the #28 tram to try and make our way to the castle overhanging the city. It was just a quick introduction to the city before heading back to Adelaide and Carlos.

Adelaide was a semi reitired professor in art history, and Carlos is a philosophy teacher at the local high school. They were a really lovely couple who went well out of their way to show us their city and culture of which they are very proud of. Adelaide spoke a small bit of English which allowed us to communicate relatively well, while Carlos spoke French, so was only able to talk with Louise. We definitely had a few funny moments trying to communicate during our stay.

The next day Adelaide said Carlos would take us for a trip around the city. We originally thought we were only going to have a look down by the waterfront and drive through the old town, but Carlos took us on a 8-9hr journey! Carlos's tour took us through the city as well as further up the coast stopping off at Cascais (a beautiful surf beach surrounded by national parkland), Cape Roca, and Sintra (A UNESCO heritage area with some beautiful palaces and a castle overlooking a quaint little town nestled in the hillside). We were just so grateful at the amount of effort he took to show us around as we were able to see so much more of the area than we would have if we had tried it ourselves.

We decided to head back to the old town to explore the city further, and joined another walking tour which we enjoy. The city has an interesting history (like most European cities we have visited, but one thing that stuck out to me was that in 1755 the city experienced a very large earthquake which struck on a Sunday while many people were at church killing many and then damaging the city with a large tsunami. They are also very proud of their explorer history and have statues and monuments dedicated to those that found travelled to other areas of the world in exploration.

We returned that night very tired after a big day walking the city, but were looking forward to having dinner with Adelaide and Carlos. We were also joined by a friend of theirs, Maria, who Adelaide advises for university. She was a really nice lady who we enjoyed chatting with. She was also able to help translate some things for us as her english was fluent, so it was nice to be able to get things across to both Adelaide and Carlos. Again we were just blown away by their generosity and we had a huge traditional Portuguese meal. The entrée was melon, with small sprinkles of dried ham on top, while the main was codfish on rice mixed with flour and beans. Being a big fan of seafood, I enjoyed it all. While enjoying some port, and red wine, we were able to show them a few pictures of home and teach them a bit about NZ. They found the art really interesting, in particular the carvings and tikis that maori wear, as I showed them a few of Goldies pictures.

For our last day they invited us to go to Ericeira where they have a bach. Ericeira was a really awesome place that is a world surfing heritage area because of all the various surf breaks – point, reef, and beach breaks, throughout the region. We had a bit of explore and found a spot that looked like a great spot for a surf. Unfortunately though it was quite expensive to rent a board for half a day, and Louise found the surf to be a bit big for her, so we just spent the day exploring and relaxing on the beach (which of course we were more than happy to do!). The beach reminded me a lot of the Maori bay/Muriwai back home, and while we were having a drink before Adelaide and Carlos arrived to head back to Lisbon the bar began playing music from The Black Seeds which was nice, but definitely made me feel a bit homesick for the first time on our travels. So after another wonderful Portuguese meal (this really yum periperi chicken) and good nights rest, we reluctantly said goodbye to Adelaide and Carlos and headed off to catch the bus to Porto the next day. 

Lagos - Portugal

After a brief stopover in Seville we made our way to Lagos where we dropped our bags and went straight to the beach. Was great to see the ocean again. We quickly went for a swim only to find the water wasn’t quite as warm on this coast as on the Mediterranean coast! The cold Atlantic currents push past here making it not too warm, but still nice enough for a quick dip. 

Lagos is a small town near the southern end of Portugal. Our accommodation here hasn’t been too flash, but we have been able to save a bit of cash and enjoy making our own meals from the local produce and meat. We do splash out occasionally though, and went out for a basic meal at a family restaurant down the road, where I had a really nice Tuna steak.

Our 3 days here have consisted of just heading to the beach, reading our books, and exploring the caves and grottoes that surround the beaches. The cliffs and grottoes are pretty beautiful and create a neat backdrop to where we go to the beach. We had seen plenty of people kayaking and stand up paddleboarding so decided the next day we would head out kayaking. Unfortunately though when we woke the next day we were fogged in (just our luck after wanting to be at the beach for so long!), so after a big of haggling to get on the boat for the next day, we teed it up for 11am the next day.

The net day arrived much brighter so we boarded our larger boat to take us out to where we would do a kayak tour of the grottoes. There were about 20 others of different nationalities, and it was pretty terrible to be honest. People were crashing into each other as the ‘guide’ said we all needed to keep close and didn’t give a hell of a lot of instruction, nor much safety instruction. When one of the guys fell out of his boat, there wasn’t much urgency to help the poor guy. We would’ve helped as we were by far the most competent of paddlers, but we were penned in the grotto by all the other paddlers. There were also others on little outboard bowered runabouts that would pass just feet from us, or cut through the group without a care or worry, so we weren’t really impressed to be honest. I suppose it was cool to see the grottos as they were beautiful, and we enjoyed being on the boat and jumping off the flybridge, but probably wouldn’t give it too high of a rating. 

We are currently making our way to Lisbon where we have kindly been offered a place to stay through a old running mate of mine from Rice – Gianmarco. He’s a really great Italian guy who I had been in touch with, and he mentioned his girlfriend is Portuguese and said we could stay at her parents place for a few days which will be great, so we are looking forward to that. Although they do speak 3 different languages, apparently their English isn’t the best, so should make for a few interesting exchanges over the next few days I am sure!

Granada

After arriving in Granada from Madrid, we found our hostel accommodation tucked away behind the big cathedral and down one of the Morroccan-esque alleyways. We were to only be in Granada for 2 days but after both feeling a bit under the weather we decided on 3 days to get a better feel for the place after a bit of rest.

The main reason for heading to Granada though is to visit Alahambra. Alahambra is a large palace built for a Moorish king in the 1100s. It was a pretty fascinating place.

The gardens were immaculate after plenty of restoration, but still held the original feel of the place. The palaces and buildings were very intricate too, with Islamic inscriptions and symbols filling nearly all the wall space and arch ways. The most impressive aspect to Alahambra for me is where it is situated – It sits on the hillside overlooking the city and looking southwest over the farming plains beyond the city limits. Behind and to the east of it are the Sierra Madre mountains that would make some awesome mountain biking and road riding…it wasn’t far from my mind looking to the hills! 

We went on another free walking tour with a quirky English guy that now calls Granada home, and learnt plenty of interesting facts about the place. But the one that stood out were the beautiful old homes in the UNESCO heritage area that in 1995 were selling for 6000Euros each, and now sold for 150,000Euros. Everyone in our group sort of gasped, but Louise and I looked at each and though geez we should buy here instead of Auckland! At the tour we met a cool Aussie couple that had been travelling for awhile, and went and had a bucket of beers and some Tapas with them so we could get their advice on Morrocco, as the plan is to wind up our travelling there with Tim and Helena and head to the Moroccan coast for a surf camp. 

Seeing as we had had a big day we didn’t really feeling like cooking, but didn’t want to spend too much money at a restaurant we didn’t really want to visit. So we decided another kebab was in order to hold me over. We walked the streets and past two thinking there would be some closer to home…wrong! What felt like 2 hours of further weekend, I went to bed after snacking on the leftover bread. When we stopped over in Seville the next day I was still a bit hungry and all I could think of was a kebab, so we went in pursuit of another kebab place. After walking for a little while I was getting a bit Hangry again, but in the distance Louise excitedly pointed out a Turkish flag which was a surefire sign for a kebab place…wrong! It was the Turkish Consulate! I couldn’t believe it. Fortunately 30mins later we stumbled upon another kebab place which was lucky as I was about to have a meltdown. All loaded up and happy with my kebab fulled stomach, we packed for our bus trip to Lagos.

Madrid

One of the great things about travel in Europe is the ease and cost of which to cover large distances. It was a 4 1/2hr train trip from Valencia to Madrid, but it is so easy and gives me some downtime to work on my photos/videos, and write blog posts etc too. We arrived in Madrid to another rise in the temperature, with it maxing out at 37C the day we arrived, so we immediately took it upon ourselves to celebrate the greatest of Spanish past times – the Siesta.

Travelling with a foodie has the great benefit of knowing you get to try all sorts of different dishes (both good and bad) wherever you go. So after a visit to the Plaza Mayor we went searching the best Tapas district in Madrid. We found a really great spot at about 9:30pm and got stuck into a few different dishes that were recommended to us from our Spanish friends in Kilchrenan. I tried the Tortilla (which was like a giant piece of cake filled with potatoes, cheese, and ham), but wasn’t game enough to try the baby eels on bread. The one problem I have with eating here in Europe is having to adjust my body clock to last until 10 to have dinner each night like the locals do, after a few episodes of getting a bit hangry we have made the adjustment of arriving about 30mins before the locals do.

 

The next day we strolled the streets, and visited the beautiful city park where we again observed siesta and had a picnic in the shade. But the real event that day was going to the bull fight at Las Arenas. We weren’t 100% sure what to expect, but if im honest I actually quite enjoyed it. I was prepared for the gory aspects to it, but I found the whole thing to be captivating, and intriguing. Bull fighting is on the decline here in Spain as the younger population revolts against the tradition, and sees it as being cruel, so unfortunately the crowd was small which took away from the atmosphere slightly. We weren’t quite sure of the proceedings, but there was 5 fights over the course of 2hours, where teams would help their Matador overcome and eventually kill the bull. The biggest surprise for us was the use of horses that had some kind of armour around them, as the bull would slam into the horses (which were blindfolded as well) before the horseman would land the initial blows with an iron rod. Then over the next 15mins the others would then land colored spears into its back before the Matador would wear the bull down before landing the killer blow with a knife. But throughout this process, I enjoyed witnessing all the traditions, as well the finesse and grace which the matadors and their team went through to eventually subdue the bull. It was definitely something Im glad I went to once, but would also say its definitely not for everyone e.g. we had a couple of Indian guys in front of us leave after the first fight, and yell out that it was cruelty.

But one of the great things we have found in Europe are walking tours throughout the cities we are staying in to learn more about the history and the characters of the city. Palermo was definitely a highlight for this, but in Madrid we joined a free walking tour for 3 hours and it told us all sorts of tales, and pointed out aspects of the city that you would otherwise just walk past without a glance. The free tours are a great idea, and the way it was structured would make for a great little business idea in Auckland too. The highlight of the tour was the Grand Palace because of its size and grandeur, but hopefully the pictures below (that I went back and took later that night) will do it more justice.

For our last day we just had a quiet day as we had both been feeling a bit under the weather, but managed to muster the energy to hit up the markets to buy some more Jamon. Jamon is cured ham that goes through quite a process of drying out over a period of 3years (?). Other delicacies from Madrid we have tried have been the churros (dough like stick that you dip in chocolate), and calamares (squid ring sandwich…but with really nice calamari).

As we had seen the city come to life late at night, we decided we would try and sample the nightlife and decided on heading to a Jazz bar (how cultured!). The trio were called the Ignasi something trio, and were really incredible on the piano, drums, and double bass. It was something that I really enjoyed believe it or not. But rather than stay up till all hours with the locals, we headed back to pack before heading to Granada the next day.