Portugal Stories
It is no coincidence that September 1st is a Friday, because September is an inspiration, a month for contemplation, for travel, for warm days and cold evenings, a time for ourselves. It is no coincidence that we chose today to tell you our story about Portugal, because we believe that summer is a way of life and it never ends. Today is #TRAVELFRIDAY !
A very long awaited trip. We have wanted to go to Portugal for many years, but something else kept coming up. This year, however, I received one of the most amazing gifts - a ticket to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Lisbon.
The suitcases, the dresses and there!
How did we get here?
There are still no low cost flights from Bulgaria, but to our great joy from March 2018 this will not be the case, so plan dates after that . Therefore, we had to find the most optimal way to travel and our adventure began like this: a night bus to Bucharest (if you think it will be luxurious with air conditioning, you are wrong), coffee and then a direct flight to Lisbon with Wizzair. We did not go by car to Bucharest because we had to return exactly in 5 days, as Milencheto had a birthday and there was no way we could miss it, and Wizzair did not fly on that day. Therefore, we returned with flights Lisbon-Pisa, Pisa-Sofia on Ryanair, it was a very peaceful and pleasant trip, we even had lunch of Italian pasta and wine in Pisa and saw the leaning tower
Step by step
We arrived in Lisbon, immediately rented a car and headed to the small town of Sintra. It turned out to be easily accessible by train from Lisbon, just 30 minutes away, and there you will see great castles, small streets and incomparable romance.
Stay overnight in Sintra. After 6pm, everything seems to die down, people leave and this lovely little place is left to you. We slept in a great hostel and I highly recommend it.
Our idea to stay there in the evenings was to take a walk to the sea.
One day we were at the westernmost point of continental Europe, Cabo da Roca, and then we found the fabulous town of Azenhas do Mar, had lunch in a small restaurant and bought fruit from a grandmother, drank coffee in a village, like from a movie?!
The next day we went to Ericeira, one of the most famous surfing destinations in Europe, with huge beaches, lots of wind and surf shops, but if you are not going to surf, then I advise you to just walk and invest your time in the smaller places. Sintra is less than 1 hour from Ericeira and with our little stroller we passed through some amazing places.
Portugal turned out to be very small. When you leave Lisbon, which is huge, of course, the roads become small, everything around you is hilly, there are not many highways and it is full of small beautiful towns and villages. It reminded me a lot of Ireland, where everything was very hilly and wild, and here, leaving the city, you will immediately encounter the real charm of Portugal.
After three days in the countryside, we returned to Lisbon. It was no coincidence that it was one of the dreamiest cities, everything there is great. You must take a walk in Bairro Alto, spend a whole day in Alfama, even two, get on the famous yellow trams (the place for photo cards is Elevador da Bica). One tip: when we arrived at the airport, we took 10-trip cards in the metro, which are cheaper. After that, each vehicle with them costs you 1.20 euros, and if you don't have such a card, the lift (which is a tram) will cost you 3.60 euros. Lisbon is very colorful, painted with graffiti and incredible views. We climbed the Santa Justa Lift at sunset, a structure that takes you above the entire city. You can immerse yourself in the atmosphere of these places through the video by Stani below.
Food, Coffee and Wine
Great coffee, everywhere. They have typical bakeries with croissants and other delights that are very cheap and our morning coffee with 4 croissants (I admit one salty and one with chocolate just for me) cost under 7 euros.
The food is not bad, but it is quite monotonous. In every typical restaurant the menu is the same: tapas with tuna, eggs, bread with butter and olives, octopus salad, it is mainly fish, octopus or sausages and of course grilled meat. That's it.
But the red wine, even though it was summer, was right on point. It's quite mountainous in Sintra and I was freezing to death (I only wore a jacket for the air conditioning on the planes), but the red wine was on my side.
We couldn't wait to show you the video of our experience:
We now have a Vintage Summer video channel on YouTube, where we will upload all our stories and videos and we would be happy if you subscribe to it, support us by “clicking Subscribe” for future videos.
We hope you like it.
Greetings,
Annie and Stani
#travelfriday #portugal #freedom #vintagesummertravels
