well, the weather was warmer, but not warm enough for poolside days. it hovered somewhere between 64 and 70 while i was there. i left early friday morning and luckily due to the expensive flight i bought, was kindly admitted to the british airways lounge where i enjoyed breakfast and was shielded from the extremely over crowded airport. it was nuts in there. after breakfast, i boarded my flight where i had a classy little lunch of fine portuguese meats, cheeses and fruits. i really need to stop flying at levels above my pay grade. it gives me illusions that i can afford flying like that all the time.
i landed in lisbon and took the airport shuttle to the main train station that would then take me to cascais. after some negotiating and translating of portuguese into spanish at that was the nearest language i could conger up at the time, i managed to secure a ticket and was on a train headed up the coastline. if you ever go to cascais i would recommend taking the train. it winds up the coastline, is cheap, and only takes about 30 minutes from lisbon. trains run pretty much every 20 minutes during the day and overall it was a really easy public transport experience once i figured out the ticket thing. and what was i greeted by along the coastline but a mini-golden gate bridge!!
we actually flew over it on the way into lisbon so i was excited when the train went right by it and i could snap a picture. about 30 minutes later i had arrived in cascais and after pulling up the hotel in my gphone (google phone) with google maps (don't know how i traveled before smart phones) and it was about a 20 minute walk away. being as it was sunny out and i had spent most of my budget on the flights for this trip, i hoofed it. i quickly came to realize 1.) cascais was a small town and 2.) pretty easy to navigate. i knew the hotel was near the water so i just walked along the coast until i found it. one thing that is tough about walking anywhere in europe though is the cobble stoned streets. really does havoc on a wheely suitcase.
arrived at the hotel unscathed, but can't say the same for my suitcase. i was amazingly surprised that travelzoo did me a solid - the hotel was amazing!! i couldn't have asked for better. and again, i need to stop getting myself in situations where i think this is how i can afford to travel regularly. here's the view of the atlantic from my room.
after soaking up the fact that i had a giant king bed, sitting area, balcony, soaking tub, steam shower and view of the atlantic all to myself i decided to head out and explore the town. i realized i had actually seen most of it on my walk in but wandered in and out of some of the little streets and through some of the shops. i walked down to the lighthouse and around town some more.
i ended up dining at a cute little restaurant that overlooked the lighthouse too. had grilled sardines that were delcious. also, have to send a special shout to out to friends like diana and rachael who have both made me eat sardines (or at least try them) on seperate occasions. i never would have ordered them otherwise and they were amazing. once you get over the image of the greasy things come out of a can, actual real ocean sardines are great.
saturday morning i woke up to grey skies. i wanted to rent a bike later in the day so walked in cascais again wandering through more alleyways and hidden streets. i also got to try the most famous gelato in all of cascais. i had walked by this place the day before but the line was literally at least 30 people long so i passed it up. i happened to be walking by the next day just as they were opening and snuck in before the crowds. it definitely lived up the lines.
the grey skies didn't deter me from renting a bike and heading up the coast. cascais actually has free bike rentals at multiple locations to encourage people to bike instead of drive alone the coast. there are also nice roads and trails. and to be honest, it reminded me LOTS of the oregon coast. the bike guy actually told me when i turned the bike back in or at least that he gets told a lot that its like oregon and california. proof below. in the end it was raining too much to make much of a day of it and i gave up after about 2 hours of biking. i headed back to the hotel, changed, and of course as the sun had come out by this time, i decided to head into lisbon and check things out there as i was now without bike.
lisbon was great as well. lots of cool streets and amazing sidewalks. i think it's a thing in all of portugal, but the sidewalks are paved in these amazing patterns and are different on almost every street. this was probably one of my favorite things about portugal. it just seemed so unique and beautiful.
i spent a few hours wandering, had dinner, and then trained back over to cascais just in time to catch a few night shots of the city.
this one might be my favorite from the trip, but it's hard to say.
sunday was fairly low key. as a part of my travel zoo i had free access to spa facilities so spent most of sunday morning in the steam room (i know - my life is hard) and then down by the pool reading my book before having a small lunch at the hotel and walking back to the train station to begin the journey home. of course the saddest part was walking to the train station during the sunniest/warmest time of the whole trip. i then had the saddest sandwich ever on the economy flight back - a cruel reminder of the flight status i can afford. :( all in all it was a great trip. i really loved portugal. would definitely go back, but also think if anyone there is jealous - just take a bike ride down the oregon coast like my dad did. :)
full album here.
