Bon Dia Portugal
After booking an impromptu Groupon trip to Portugal, I spent a week in April 2016 in Lisbon, Fatima, Sintra, and Sao Miguel with my roommate, TL, and her mom. My roommate/friend knew I was having a hard time earlier in the year and I think she was kind enough to invite me cause she knew I needed a pick-me-up. (just a warning: even if it's just a courtesy invitation to go travel somewhere, I'll still take you up on it hehe). I spent the preceding week on Duolingo to learn some Portuguese.
We took the redeye from Boston, and landed in Lisbon early morning. Right after, my friend's mom Deb and I took the bus to Fatima, a place known for Mary apparitions and a general mystical religious place. Since it was the year of Divine Mercy, I thought it was apropos to go. When we got back, we had our first Portuguese meal. They're known for their cod, so I tried it... definitely a lot of bones. And it was a little tough, not flaky like salmon.
DAY 2:
Deb was really good about doing research and planning a DIY walking tour around Lisbon. Lisbon is set up with a lot of squares and plazas that are walking distance from each other. We saw castles, monuments, and most importantly a serve-yourself wine bar.
DAY 5:
We did some more driving the next day and relaxing. We stayed near the water for site seeing. We also checked out a tea farm which was cool.
DAY 6:
This was our last day and we had a mid-day flight back to Boston. There was this volcano/mountain top we tried to go but the forecast that week has been cloudy so we didn't want to take the chance to make the trek for nothing. So I instead went to a nearby grocery store and stocked up on that wine we had a couple times for dinner. My traveling companions weren't that crazy about the food, I tried to get local dishes and it was good, but I guess it wasn't something to rave about. Our favorite restaurant that we went to more than once was a cute little shop in Sao Miguel that had a farm-to-table feel, and probably more well-rounded cuisine options i.e salad, pasta, soup, etc. So not very local, but they had the cutest desserts (see above and wine)
All in all I would love to go back to Portugal, but check out their ocean cliffs and during a warmer time. Mid april was definitely an early Spring time weather - sometimes nice, a little chilly, mainly cloudy with random spurts of sunshine.
We took the redeye from Boston, and landed in Lisbon early morning. Right after, my friend's mom Deb and I took the bus to Fatima, a place known for Mary apparitions and a general mystical religious place. Since it was the year of Divine Mercy, I thought it was apropos to go. When we got back, we had our first Portuguese meal. They're known for their cod, so I tried it... definitely a lot of bones. And it was a little tough, not flaky like salmon.
DAY 2:
Deb was really good about doing research and planning a DIY walking tour around Lisbon. Lisbon is set up with a lot of squares and plazas that are walking distance from each other. We saw castles, monuments, and most importantly a serve-yourself wine bar.
DAY 3:
We booked a private tour to take us to Sintra. Our tourguide was a young hip Portuguese man with long flowing mane. Sintra takes castles to a whole other level. We saw a beautiful enchanting castle with nice luscious greens, and a creepy dark spiral for monks to walk down. Another castle that looks like it came out of a cartoon, with fun colors and shapes. And different castle made of..rocks. The formation has stood the test of time. We also saw an old monastery where monks stayed at.
DAY 4:
As part of the groupon, we had a flight to the Azores island Ponta Delgada. Before our flight, we took more time to explore Lisbon, looking at the Christopher Columbus memorial and their big cathedral. Then a short flight to Sao miguel
DAY 5:
We rented a car and drove through the east side of the island. We saw beautiful mystical looking forests, cool ocean cliffs. Ponta Delgada has hot springs, and there's an area of the island where they have pits in the ground to cook food from the heat of the spring. We also went to go to a hot spring spa which was awesome! After that we went hiking on this steep trail.
We did some more driving the next day and relaxing. We stayed near the water for site seeing. We also checked out a tea farm which was cool.
This was our last day and we had a mid-day flight back to Boston. There was this volcano/mountain top we tried to go but the forecast that week has been cloudy so we didn't want to take the chance to make the trek for nothing. So I instead went to a nearby grocery store and stocked up on that wine we had a couple times for dinner. My traveling companions weren't that crazy about the food, I tried to get local dishes and it was good, but I guess it wasn't something to rave about. Our favorite restaurant that we went to more than once was a cute little shop in Sao Miguel that had a farm-to-table feel, and probably more well-rounded cuisine options i.e salad, pasta, soup, etc. So not very local, but they had the cutest desserts (see above and wine)
All in all I would love to go back to Portugal, but check out their ocean cliffs and during a warmer time. Mid april was definitely an early Spring time weather - sometimes nice, a little chilly, mainly cloudy with random spurts of sunshine.
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