Monday 9th July–Epic travel day into Morocco

Last night I dutifully set my alarm for 9am, giving us plenty of time to be ready for Jaimen’s orientation tour at 10am. We pulled down our roller shutter blinds and fell asleep – only to be awoken by noisy people in the hallway this morning. Thinking it was early, we glanced at a watch – five to ten, oops. Turns out I forgot to change my phone back to Spanish time. Oh well, I guess we weren’t going on the orientation walk then.

    

Andy and I got downstairs around 11am and had about 40 minutes to check out, grab some breakfast and do a mini walk around the still-pretty-by-daylight town. We soon met up with the group and headed to a tour of the famous winery in Jerez, Tio Pepe. The winery itself was really pretty, lots of vines and old barrels, including some big romantically lit function spaces and lots of barrels signed by famous people (Picasso, Spielberg etc.)…. there must have been big modern metal vats here as well but they strategically decided not to show us those! At the end of the tour there was a short wine tasting session. I was all pumped up to taste the famous wines/sherries only to discover that they weren’t very nice at all! Perhaps just something I’m not used to.

    

After the winery tour our epic travel day properly began. This included a 1hr and 45 minute bus, followed by another 30 minute bus. We stopped a while in Tarifa, grabbing some Sangria and Tapas and enjoying the view of Africa from across the water. At around 7pm we hopped on the ferry – a lot of this trip involved standing in line to get our passports verified, Andy bought a big bottle of duty free Vodka. Around 45 minutes later we were on Moroccan soil – and then onto another bus!

    

This bus took around three hours to get to Chefchauon, through the Moroccan countryside as the sun set. It was exciting to be in a completely different landscape, dry and hilly with white houses dotted across it. Clearly it is a lot more run down here, as expected, and by the time we arrived at our hotel after 10pm I think we would have crawled into beds of any state. But this hotel is amazing. We just all walked around with our jaws dropped – it is a little piece of paradise, with beautifully lit gardens, a huge pool, colourful Moroccan decor everywhere. After settling in quickly we headed downstairs for dinner. This was amusing – they brought us three huge plates of salad, which we thought was the whole meal. But there was also bread, kebabs, tomatoes, vegatarian tagines, chips…. it all just kept coming (and it was all amazing too). At around 1am we were in bed, exhausted but very satisfied and excited about relaxing here tomorrow! 

Sunday 8th July–Seville and Jerez

There is nothing quite like starting the day not knowing whether you are more sick or more hung-over. It was a pretty average morning, I could have slept many more hours! Nevertheless, I was downstairs with the others at 9am and we all headed back to the bus station. A three and a half hour bus trip followed, back into Spain again. We moved our clocks one hour forward and concentrated really hard on changing our ‘obrigado’ into ‘grazias’ again.

At 3pm we arrived in Seville and Jaimen gave us the option of staying there for a bit, even though it wasn’t officially on the itinerary. We ended up being in Seville for four hours – because it was 37 degrees and in the middle of Siesta time it was a bit of a ghost town. Still, I really liked it there – the little shopping streets, the flowers and trees, the cathedral, the old city wall. We spent sometime inside the big church and I dragged myself up the bell tower to see the pretty view. We also went to check out the palace which was beautiful – clichéd fairy-tale like, really ornate, covered in tiles and with its own little canal out the front. I really liked the town and would be keen to come back to spend some proper time there in the future.

    

At 7pm we were at the train station again, ready for some more travelling. This time it was an hour and a half train ride to Jerez – we arrived just after 9pm. Our stay over in Jerez is essentially just that – a stop over before we head to Morocco tomorrow. As such it wasn’t much of a surprise to find a quite run down unexciting town. We checked into our hotel and headed out to dinner at 10.30pm, working on a true Spanish schedule. Walking into the main part of town we discovered that this place is actually very cute and charming. We ate at a really beautiful dinner spot, outside amongst spindly trees, next to a lampost. The food was all very delicious, although Andy and I didn’t like this salmon coloured creamy pate thing so much. After eating a bit of it Jaimen told us it was “infected duck’s liver”…mmmmm. We arrived back to the hotel at around 12.30am to a very welcome bed – another big travel day tomorrow!

Saturday 7th July–Olhão

This morning I woke up still sick – oh well, I couldn’t think of a better cure than to take some random Portuguese cold and flu drugs, wander around some fruit markets and then sit on a bench on the waterfront eating juicy nectarines. This was the perfect way to start the morning – we also topped it off with some pastries from a nearby cafe before heading back to the hotel to meet everybody at 10.30am.

Today we were headed to the beach, which turned out to be quick the epic undertaking. We all walked down to the waterfront to catch the 11am bus – at 11.30am we disembarked on a nearby island and were then told it was still a 15 minute walk to get to the actual beach. Off we trudged with our umbrellas and towels, picking up a few snacks for lunch on the way.

    

And then… we sat on the beach for what ended up being around three hours. Not much to write about here – the water was freezing so the most I did was dip my toes in. I spent most of the time lying in the sun reading my book, occasionally eating chorizo and cheese hamburgers that Andy made up for me and trying not to get burnt. Eventually we all trickled back to Olhao in three groups… I went with the second group, catching the 3.30pm bus back and leaving Andy and Carrie behind (they wanted to stay until the next 6pm boat). I was back at the hotel just before 5pm, giving me lots of time for showering, relaxing and sleeping on my own.  I did attempt to walk around the town at one point but decided that there really wasn’t much to see – instead I read my book in the shade on the rooftop terrace for a while.

Andy came back around 7pm, we relaxed a bit more and then headed out with the group to dinner, to the same place as last night. I ordered a mixed kebab which looked very impressive, hanging vertically from a hook. A lot of wine was consumed with the food, plus some more Sangria and wine afterwards. Drunken home time was around 12.30pm – tomorrow we leave Portugal again!

Friday July 6th–Leaving Lisbon

Today I got sick, which meant the day was unfortunately defined by a zombie like, groggy quality. A sore throat, headache and two espresso shots yesterday meant little sleep was had – nevertheless, we were both downstairs at 8.30am ready to go to Belem with the rest of the group. This was a 30 minute train trip away and is basically not much more than a monastery, a few monuments and a pastry shop.

We headed to the pastry shop first – this district is actually where the first famous Portuguese tart came from and the shop here has a secret pastry base recipe that no one else can match. Our gourmet guide yesterday said we must have two, as one is too light and not enough, and we must eat them with either an espresso or a white dessert port. I wasn’t keen on more espresso shots, so white port it needed to be (never mind that it was 10am in the morning). These tarts were yummy, particularly the pastry – it’s easy to see why they are famous. The pastry shop itself is huge, with never ending rooms that are necessary to cater for the tour bus loads of people that pour into there daily.

    

After gorging ourselves a little we headed off down to the waterfront to look at the big monument there – then the group split up. Andy attempted to get some ridiculously slow Wi-Fi at Starbucks and then we both went to check out the monastery. This was pretty, but nothing super exciting or memorable. At 12pm we jumped back on the tram to town and had enough time to pick up pork sandwiches, more cod cakes, fresh fruit, black ham and a box of pastries before meeting the group again at 2pm.

    

Lots of travelling followed – after four and a half hours on the metro and train we arrived in Olhao, a small town in the Algarve. First impressions of this town weren’t really amazing… it is quite run down with a lot of graffiti. We checked into our pension before meeting the Australian owners on the rooftop terrace (they gave us free wine, beer, chips and a warm welcome). Then off to dinner down at the waterfront… here the city was significantly nicer, with a street full of trees, cafes and restaurants. For dinner I had a ‘Steak on Stone’, which was basically a steak served on a sizzling hot plate that I had to smother in butter and finish cooking myself. Andy shared a Caldeirada with Catherine, which is a traditional Portugese fish stew with prawns and mussels and all kinds of things. Food was enjoyed by all and we soon headed back to the hotel for an early night. Day of beaches tomorrow!

Thursday 5th July–Lisbon & Sintra

This morning was an easy start – we weren’t running on a schedule so had a time for a nice relaxed breakfast and some internetting. At around 9.45am we headed off to the train station to do our own little day trip to Sintra, a coastal touristy town just 40 minutes out of the city. There was an amusing moment when I was on the train and Andy almost got left behind, oops. The train ride was relaxing until about half way through when a whole class of little children clambered on board – then it was just amusing watching them play various hand clapping games.

At Sintra we jumped off the train and onto the tourist shuttle bus (our whole trip out here involved pretty much no waiting for transport at all). First stop, an old Moorish castle up on a hill with a view of the whole town. The castle was very pretty, sort of rambling across the hill top. We climbed all around the walls in the gale force winds that were blowing, past a lot of archaeological digs and renovations. Lots of exercise for us!

    

Next we headed up to the Palace, even higher on the hill. It was beautiful here, probably my favourite place in Portugal so far. The palace itself was a mix of red, yellow and blue tiles, with quirky architecture and a random assortment of shrubs and flowers. The inside of the rooms were also very interesting, with decorated vaulted ceilings and funky chandeliers. I enjoyed walking around here very much, particularly when the sun came out. We stopped quickly for a random assortment of foods for lunch, sausage rolls, almonds and a giant chocolate muffin, coupled with espresso shots and peach juice. 

    

At around 1pm we jumped back on the tourist bus and onto the train again. Once back in Lisbon the sun was out in full force and we strolled back along the main shopping strip to the water, stopping to look in at a few sales on the way (the usual suspects, H&M, Zara, Bershka…). Andy bought a t-shirt, I bought nothing :( As I wrote yesterday, Lisbon is the perfect city just to walk around and I enjoyed doing this very much. Eventually, back to the hotel for what is becoming our routine siesta – Andy is sick and I’ve got a sore throat coming on so we were keen to get some rest before the evening.

    

At 4.30pm we started ‘The Gourmet Walk’ by Inside Lisbon tours with Paulo as our guide – I want to write the specific tour name because I cannot rave enough about how much I enjoyed this. The tour was meant to go for three hours, it ended up going for five (for 25 euro, food included) and within that time I went from thinking Lisbon is a nice city to thinking Lisbon is amazing. It was a completely unique experience, learning about the history and culture of a city through it’s food. And the food – we didn’t eat anything that wasn’t incredible. It started with shots of cherry and cinnamon liqueur, moved to port wine with cheese and marmalade, then the famous Portuguese tarts with espresso, beer, beans, cod cakes, peri peri Pork, cod fish salad, flambéed chorizo, red wine…. so good! The guide certainly knew his stuff, we were hanging off his every word and I’ve added lots of little quirky facts to my knowledge base. We were happy to be leaving tomorrow but now we just want to stay an extra week to eat at all the amazing little places he showed us. Certainly reason to come back again.

At around 9.30pm we were back at the hostel. We were considering going out again to check out some of the places the Gourmet guide recommended… some of the others in our tour group were going out to bars too. However, my throat was now on fire and Andy still wasn’t 100% so we decided to call it a night. Overall, today was unexpectedly amazing – I have enjoyed this city much more than I thought I would!!

Wednesday 4th July–Off to Lisbon

Today involved a lot of travelling and sleeping. We met downstairs at 8.50am to go grab a quick five minute train that never came… oh well, taxi to the main train station instead! The train from here took around three hours and I slept for most of it, as is the general trend of me travelling long distances.

At around 1pm we arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. We were told we would have a city orientation at 3pm, giving us two hours to relax. For Andy and I this involved some blogging, reading and grabbing lunch next door. Our waiter was rather rude and unhelpful and kept bringing us things that differed from the menu (i.e. no mushrooms with my turkey and a whole bottle of red wine instead of rose!). Despite this it was yummy and we expectantly trundled back to the hotel to meet the others for the walk.

After waiting for a bit we noticed a sign saying the meeting had been postponed an hour – ok, this meant a chance to have an afternoon siesta. At 4pm we arose again, ready for the walk, only to receive a phone call – oh look, the meeting had been postponed again. More sleep ensued. At 5pm we were finally downstairs again doing some more waiting. It turned out that one of the girls needed a doctor, causing the delays. At 5.30pm we finally headed out the door.

    

Our orientation walk involved just strolling around the hilly streets – we walked down the main shopping mall, down to the waterfront (to see the bridge copied from San Francisco and the statue copied from Rio) and then up the hill to the castle. Lisbon really is just a stroll around city, I’m not aware of too many must see landmarks. It is funny to compare it to Madrid – Lisbon is so relaxed, the streets just kind of amble along and have a rather run down quality about them. We enjoyed the view from the castle – the cloudy sky and setting sun gave us lots of sun-bursting-out-on-to-buildings moments, perfect for photos.

Once we we were back at the hotel we met up with the others for dinner… this involved heading to a rather touristy streets with a large number of waiters trying to spruik us into their restaurants. This was actually quite confronting (a warm up for Morocco) and we eventually chose a place with one of the least pushy staff members. I ordered ‘grilled pork feather’ which seemed to be a mix of pork chop and bacon, with the huge side of chips and salad that seems obligatory here. We enjoyed sitting here for quite a while, listening to a busker play an annoying mix of Western songs including ‘Land Down Under’ and ‘Tears in Heaven’. As it was rather cold, we all headed back to the hotel for a relatively early night of 11pm – a more interesting blog tomorrow!!

Tuesday 3rd July–Coimbra

This morning was a pretty easy start of 8am – we grabbed breakfast and headed downstairs to meet most of the others. Jaime was going to show us where to catch a bus to some roman ruins 14km out of the city, a little day trip as such. We all clambered on the bus which wound it’s way through local street for a rather long time before rocking up at ruins.

    

The ruins – well, not too much to write about here. They were rather small and unimpressive, although there was some very pretty mosaic floors still in tact. It took us less than an hour to wander around and see them all. The most memorable moment was when we found a little wild bunny rabbit and spent a while chasing it with a camera. After stopping for a quick drink and a quick stroll through the museum we ordered a taxi back to town.

    

The first thing we did once back was to buy tickets for a big Fado concert tonight – there is a celebration on here at the moment because one of the old Queens of Portugal has recently been declared a Saint. While we were there we bought tickets to wander through the university – the most interesting thing about this was their old library, it was very grand and elegant with huge walls of old books. After spending about an hour there we wandered back down the hill to grab lunch at a buffet restaurant (a mix of Italian and Portuguese food) before heading back to the hotel to spend a whole four hours sleeping, blogging and reading (hence this is a really exciting blog today).

    

At 7pm six of us headed out for dinner at the top restaurant advertised on TripAdvisor – we had tried this place last night but it is tiny and there was a very long line outside. As it was, in the forty minutes we stood there before the restaurant opened another line snaked along the alleyway (luckily this time we were at the front of it) – clearly this place was going to be good. At around 7.45pm we were herded in to the small space – the walls were covered in pieces of paper from their clients, plus boars’ heads and other animals skins. On the chefs recommendation we ordered a plate of mushrooms and pork as a starter (yum), then pork ribs with rice and beans (yum) and slow cooked goat (also yum). We all enjoyed it there very much indeed.

    

Then it was time to head off to our Fado concert – because we were lazy we caught a taxi up to the top of the hill…only to find a huge line that went all the way down the street. It took us a while to find the end it was that long. Luckily, once they opened the doors it moved very quickly and we were soon settled into our plastic seats with our smuggled in bottles of wine. The concert itself went for around two hours and, well, it was a bit boring. There was a lot of speeches in Portuguese, lots of choral songs and two apparently famous men singing lots of ballads. The other three gave up at 11.30pm but Andy and I stuck it out. The last half hour was actually significantly better, with everyone singing together and then fireworks!!

Then all the way down the hill again to our hotel. It’s been nice relaxing here for a day and a bit but we are happy to move on to Lisbon tomorrow, there will be plenty to see there!