Just some thoughts about Portugal…
1) Portuguese people speak exceptionally good English. Everyone told me otherwise, but they were dead wrong. They are uneducated bastards who were cruise-goers, and probably didn’t talk to any Portuguese people anyway.
2) Portuguese people are really nice. From what I can tell anyway. A needless generalization, probably.
3) Portuguese — at least Portugal Portuguese — sounds a lot like Russian. This was definitely news to me…
4) The Portugal portion of my trip was also the best part.
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[I'm continuing this post now, on January 4th, 2009. A little late, I know... but oh well, what can you do?]
So, there was some hesitation to go to Portugal especially since going to Portugal required lying to my parents about where I was going, since they would NEVER let me go on vacation to Europe by myself. Fuck em, though, I really wanted to go to Portugal, so I went.
Flew into Lisbon from Madrid and took a cab. I was unsure of whether people spoke English in Portugal at this point, so I tried terribly to converse with the taxi driver, and asked him if it would be easier if I spoke Spanish, too. I knew that it was supposed to cost about 20 euro but he charged me 35 euro or something. And I asked him why it cost so much, and he said some shit about how it was from the airport and how I had luggage, and I didn’t want to argue with him, cause how could I win? I asked for a receipt, and he said sure, but he just wrote up a pointless receipt and I wasn’t watching the meter unfortunately. I didn’t catch his name, either. :[ But then I HAD more money than I showed him, and I said I only had 30 euro or whatever, and he just said, “That’s fine.” Suspect.
Went into the Lisbon Lounge Hostel, where I would be staying, and I talked to the front desk worker who confirmed that I indeed had been ripped off. Really nice and modern hostel but I pretty much just wait straight to my room and didn’t really socialize with anyone. Luckily, my roommate Joaquin was from Northern Spain and we got along pretty well. He was in Lisbon for veterinary school, and when I first arrived, he was all shirtless and lying in bed, watching a movie. Surfer kid. We also got along strangely, because his English was pretty terrible and my Spanish is even more terrible. He attempted to speak to me in English and the deal was that I would attempt to speak to him in Spanish, but that’s just so confusing and I pretty much stopped speaking Spanish and just tried to understand his English. We used the Google “Traductor” (Translator) a couple times, but it wasn’t that effective for a lot of words. Anyways, we just ended up talking about random stuff, and he showed me pics of his hometown and of his friends, and was giving me shit for having no photos of my friends on the ASUS laptop I was borrowing from my parents, and that all my photos were only of “things” and “places.” He was only interested in people. Haha. I tried showing him some on Picasa but then noticed all of my recent pics WERE pretty much mostly of things and places and not so much of people ~__~
At one point, the two other roommates came back, as it was a 4-person dorm. They were two women from Germany, and Joaquin and I were talking too loud and one of them told us to shutup because they had to catch an early flight in the morning. They said it nicer than that, of course, and so we just stopped talking and went to bed.
Anyway, went to bed that evening and had to borrow one of his cell phones to use the alarm clock in the morning. I was only in Lisbon for the next day and then was leaving early the day after that, and I wanted to eat sushi, so we talked about meeting up to eat sushi. But I had a “date” with CouchSurfing people the next day to visit Sintra, so I was hoping I’d be able to get back in time. Joaquin also had a dinner for his veterinary school and he invited me along, and I said I’d try to make it, or at least I would make it after the dinner for the “party”. Ho ho ho.
(On a side note, I was retarded and had a really hard time figuring out how to unlock the door to each room in the hostel, and I think the worker thought I was kind of retarded.)
The next morning, I got up ass early and went past the Camões Square to the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. Of course, there weren’t any clear signs that it was in fact the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, so I kind of guessed and sat on the steps FOREVER, hoping I was right. Eventually a couple people, Joao, and Ingrid, showed up. Two other people were supposed to show up and did not, but they missed out big time. We waited a half hour for them and then said fuck it. We noticed that there was a guy named Rui who had left his phone number and said he would take us around Sintra, so luckily, right by the train station, there was a PC room, so we paid 1 euro for an hour or whatever and looked up his phone number really quick. We went on the train, which was super cheap to Sintra, like, 5 euro or so, and called Rui while on the train and told him we’d be there sometime soon.
Ingrid is Norwegian but living in Brazil, although studying temporarily in Lisbon for the quarter. She knew enough Portuguese to get by, evidently. Joao is from Lisbon, although he lives I think just outside the city limits with his parents. Joao was definitely a strange one, nice, but a little awkward, and definitely kid-like. Ingrid was really cool, but I could see initially that Ingrid was really kind of annoyed by Joao.
We got to the train station and didn’t see anyone who looked like Rui, so we went across the street to this coffee shop and ate a little something something and drank a little something something and sat outside, hoping he would show up. He did show up and we all recognized each other immediately. He sat for a while and talked with us and immediately it was obvious he was damn interesting. He also lived in Sintra and kept rambling on about how Sintra had good energy — no matter if we believed that or not — and that he would show us cool places. We had planned to see some things, but instead he acted as our tour guide and basically took us around. And it was great.
We started at the Quinta Da Regaleira, which was some place some rich dude built with his excess moneys. It IS a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it was one of the coolest places I’ve been. Above is a man-made grotto, and at the sides, man-made caves.
From Wikipedia:
“The palace is also known as “Palace of Monteiro the Millionaire”, from the nickname of its first owner, António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro. The land that is nowadays Quinta da Regaleira had many owners through time. But in 1892 it belonged to the Barons of Regaleira, a family of rich merchants from Porto, when it was purchased that year by Carvalho Monteiro for 25,000 réis. Monteiro wished to build a bewildering place where he could gather symbols that would reflect his interests and ideologies. With the assistance of the Italian architect Luigi Manini, he designed the 4-hectare estate with its enigmatic buildings, believed to hide symbols related to alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar, and the Rosicrucians. The architecture of the estate evokes Roman, Gothic, Renaissance and Manueline architectural styles. The construction of the current estate commenced in 1904 and most of it was concluded by 1910. The estate was sold in 1942 to Waldemar d’Orey, who used it as private residence for his extensive family and ordered repairs and restoration works for the property. In 1987 the estate was sold once again, to the Japanese Aoki Corporation and ceased to serve as a residence. The Aoki Corporation kept the estate closed to the public for ten years, until it was acquired by the Sintra Town Hall in 1997. Extensive restoration was promptly initiated throughout the estate, which opened to the public in June 1998. Cultural events also start to be organized in Quinta da Regaleira. In August that year, the Portuguese Ministry of Culture classified the estate as “public interest property”.”
Walking through the man-made caves. Rui knew this place like the back of his hand, so we would huddle up and hold hands, and walk through the pitch black with him leading. There were also some puddles on the ground of the cave so we had to take care to try and avoid those. Rui would also try and scare people around dark corners whenever possible. Unfortunately, he didn’t really get a chance to get anyone really good this time 
Ingrid had a DSLR she didn’t know how to use, so Rui was trying to teach her and tried to teach me how to shoot in low light and I said, “Don’t worry, I’m pro!” and he said sorry, and later asked me if I was REALLY pro and I said I was just kidding but that I knew how to basically use my camera. Haha.
Cool plant.
A well, if it actually really IS a well. Probably the most photographed thing here, I’d guess. Rui said some stuff about how we had to go down first and then go up, because that is better energy flow or something. No idea, but we did it.
Rui, Ingrid, and Joao mimicked accents at some point, and it was really fucking funny. I think Rui did the majority of the accents.
So this here is my favorite thing of all. It’s a lake, not a piece of mossy grass, which is what I originally thought. But it’s a lake, and on its surface are tons and tons and tons of teeny tiny little leaves, so that when you break them up, they crash back in together. It’s amazing. I had a good time throwing stuff in at it and then I said I wanted to poke it, and Rui said that I should, but I didn’t want to until he did, and then I did. Haha. SO COOOOOOOL.
After poking!
A dilapidated greenhouse.
What’re you doing here, Illuminati?
Cherub inside some former residence of one of the former owners. I dunno.
Creepy hand knocker!
After leaving Quinta Da Regaleira, we drove further away and ate some sardines for lunch, which were DELICIOUSSSSS. I dunno why I didn’t take a freaking photo of our lunch?!! There was much chatting, and during chatting, Ingrid told us that Usnavy is a popular Columbian name because Columbians used to see American Navy ships and named their kids after it. Or something. Hilarious!
I also went with him to one of his friend’s houses, and they were uberrrrr hippies, with lots of art and instruments everywhere, and Rui was going to go smoke some pot, and asked me if I smoked, and I said I would and I did sometimes, and he said he was glad I went with him to his friends’ house while Ingrid and Joao went to the coffee shop, because he knew they didn’t smoke pot and knew that I might. Ha?
Rui drove us to this beach he likes and then to the “Easternmost Point of Europe,” which was just a view into the endless ocean. Which was kinda cool. There were TONS of tour busses there.
Then we drove to some park and forests where Rui said had good energy, and we walked around to the top of it, where there was a nice view and old houses. It was VERY windy, and we jumped around on some rocks and stuff. I needed Rui’s help because my leg’s weren’t long enough to get me across some of the crevices. But it was COOL. Super refreshing.
Then we drove somewhere else and took some hiking trail for a really strenuous hike with very little water. This is us, taking a break, and talking about being naked and screaming off the mountaintops. Joao and Rui screamed, and I kinda wanted to, but didn’t. I told Rui next time I was there, we would scream naked off mountaintops while eating stickbars (which is what a sign said they called popsicles ).
Not to downplay the hiking, though. It was fucking epic. I was also wearing skinny jeans, which was a fucking bad idea for a near vertical climb. It was definitely a lot easier to hang onto tree roots and climb than to use stupid stairs, though, so I’m glad the stairs were only for the lower third of it.
This is the view at the top of it:
By the time we got up there, it was unfortunately too late to go IN the castle and they were kicking us out of the portions we could get to too (via megaphone off another mountain peak). Haha.
Rui was shouting off some mountain peak and below us there were some kids who were smoking pot and offered some and Rui asked them to come up to us… eventually they did, but there was no smoking. They were friendly, though, each of them introduced themselves and shook our hands :0 Had to speak English to me, as I was the only asshole who couldn’t speak Portuguese.
Ingrid, Joao, Rui.
When we were heading down, the gates were locked, and we all had to climb through a barbed wire fence to get out. IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!
We stopped our car at the beautiful hour of sunset, to take some photos.
I really like this photo.
We stopped by Rui’s favorite dessert place, which was packed with people, on some small narrow alley. It was pretty good I guess. Pastries.
Then we went to collect some water from this communal water fountain area. People would just save up plastic jugs and come here and fill up their water bottles. The water was really clean, fresh, mountain water. It’s so damn cute.
So afterwards, Rui said he wanted to cook dinner for us, so we agreed and I decided not to go eat with Joaquin. We stopped by Rui’s parents’ place and he was in there for fucking EVER even though he said he’d be quick, so me, Joao, and Ingrid were like, “WTF, DID HE DIE?!!” Finally, he came out, and we drove back to Lisbon and went to the supermarket to buy some fancy schtuff.
Yogurt that comes with weights?! Don’t mind if I do! All of vegetables and fruits were really fresh, and each of them would say where they were imported from, and a lot of it was local Portuguese stuff. I thought it was cool that it said.
We then drove to Rui’s house, and let me tell you, Portuguese people park WHEREVER THE FUCK THEY WANT. Sidewalks = parking lots. It’s fucking awesome. Anyway, Rui was going to cook us curry and we had all sorts of delicious vegetables and spices in it! No meats. I like the cut of the jib.
Rui’s house and his MINI STOVE.
There was some wine drinking over Dinner and Ingrid practically finished the whole bottle of wine by herself haha. It was awesome!! We joked that she could do that because she’s a huge Norwegian warrior!!! Joao was totally weird and not really enjoying himself the whole time, but occasionally, he would go into these random fits of laughter and we would all be like, “What the fuck?” because there was no reason to why he was laughing so crazily. He’s like a kid, who has never really traveled anywhere. Peculiar. Really peculiar.
Anyway. Afterwards, Rui agreed to drive me to Joaquin’s school party, which was in the sticks. He drove Ingrid home and then dropped Joao off at this station where he was going to catch a cab. Rui let Joao out, told him to check if it was an OK place, and then Joao just ran off! Without saying goodbye! And we’re all like, “Uh, okay, bye, I guess?!”
The drive to the “party” was far and boring when we got there, and Joaquin’s friend was having some kind of crisis, so he had to go talk to her and could barely talk to me. It was awkward and weird. Rui and his friend attempted to score some weed but to not much avail. Haha.
Then Rui just drove me back to the hostel and I was going to stay at his place because I was afraid if Joaquin wasn’t there, I wouldn’t be able to wake up in the morning. Rui and his friend waited outside in the car for me while I got my stuff, but Joaquin was there, so I decided to use his alarm clock in the morning and told Rui that I’d just stay at the hostel. They gave me besos, as is customary there, but I, American girl, still find it awkward.
But man. Portugal. How I love thee.
