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.