When I booked my tickets to Portugal I was
very happy and excited. Finally, I thought, I will return to the country that
has is all and will be able to enjoy the sun, sand sea, great food even greater
wine and will have an amazing time.
Well that is almost what happened.
I was in luck when we landed. The plane was a little
delayed but not too much to miss the last metro into Porto. The city welcomed
me with the rain and even though I had two sweaters and a rain jacket on me, it
was still unpleasantly cold.
By the time I got to my hostel it was around 2 a.m. so
without further due I just went to bed and waited for the sleep to come get me.
Eventually, it did.
First day in Porto - I was excited and full of energy
to go everywhere and see everything. Even the angry clouds in the sky did not
scare me - I can take them. Map in hand and so I went. I walked without a
purpose or a destination really, just exploring the city - I walked to the
other side of the river, I visited the cathedral and small hilly endless
streets with very Portuguese tiles, mostly blue and white, making it look more
like a walk in the past.
In the evening I took an advise of the hostel worker
and went to the `bars street` for dinner. I was promised best food lives there.
I am not sure about the food, but wine was definitely delicious - red, spicy -
an absolute delight. I may not know much about the wines, but this one, even
though `only` a house wine, was really good.
The next day, even more rested I have decided to go to
the Atlantic. Salty water, sand, endless beach and the feeling like you are at
the end of the world - is something that is too good to pass. I took a bus
closer to the Atlantic and then started walking. Unfortunately that is when
rain decided to start going too. Only a little at first, more and more as I
walked. already a little wet I jumped in one of the coffee places on the beach
for the tea and a high hope that the rain will give up.
Do I really need to say that didn't happen?
I waited long enough for my tea to get cold and over
and the moment the rain slowed down, I started walking again. How bad can it
become, I thought? Well, it became pretty bad. My shoes were soaked, I was
soaked, my papers in my bad were soaked, I was cold, tired and just wanted to
curl into the ball and be woken up when September ends. It felt as if the rain
will never stop, so I took the bus. Even though cold wet and miserable, I still
wanted to go to the what they called `best sea food restaurants` in the whole
Portugal. By the time I got off the bus the rain stopped [but of course]. I
tried to keep my spirits up, but by then I lost even my appetite. And so off
back to the hostel I went.
In there I met another girl in the same/similar
situation and we bonded over the heater trying to dry our shoes and clothes and
warm up our insides. We managed, or at least we almost managed. But we did a
good job, because by the early evening/late afternoon we were dry'ish and we
went out, since sun decided to show up as well.
We walk a few rounds around the city checked out the
most important things of the city and by the time we were both hungry and
thirsty for wine, we found a place for food. And it was
great. Or maybe just we were very hungry. Either way - we enjoyed it a lot, we
found a lot of things in common and plenty of topics to talk about.
In fact we bonded well enough to hang around next day as
well. It was raining in the morning so we firmly decided to stay in and not
even risk to repeat yesterday's fiasko, but at arounf mid-day it surprisingly
stopped. We went Port wine tasting with chocolate, walked along the water and
then she left. She left and I continued with my book. It was the last night in
the city and was quite excited to leave this rainy and cold place - only hoping
that the next place will be better in that sense.
The next destination - Aveiro - was a pleasant surprise with
sun and +20 something temperature. It is a small but cozy town, a little
touristy if you go to the very center, but very inviting if you just take a
turn to a little side street. Taking those few layers off my back and not
freeze was something that made me believe that Portugal is actually in the very
South of Europe again.
That was until I went to Coimbra - where the cold and
rain returned. It was almost as if someone up there did not like me too much.
Or just has a weird sense of houmor. Either way, Coimbra was cold when I got
there. And it did not get too warm afterwards either.
Looking back I can say that Coimbra is a big old town,
very nice to be in, however I did not get to enjoy it too much, because half
the time I was forced to look for the shelter from the rain. Even when I went
to the Botanic garden they have, after two paragraphs of my book I was forced
to close it and run for the pub next door. I got a beer, so I guess it could
have been worse.
***
°You
should have seen by the look in my eyes
That
there was something missing
You
should have known by the tone of my voice°
****
Next destination - Peniche. I had big hopes for it. To
begin with - I was hoping for some sun and beach time. Also - I already had
myself signed fore the surfing class and even though I was terified, but I
knew that I need to do one thing that scares me at least from time to time.
Surfing had to be it.
And it provided everything that I was hoping. Portugal
was finally giving me a break. I walked around the peninsula, I tried
surfing, I walked along the beach. Surfing was real fun. I only managed to
stand on a board for no more than half a second, but it counts. And I was very
happy to do it.
Finally I went back to Lisbon. It's been like... 11, no
12 years, but Lisbon did not change much during those years. Still amazing
city, great little streets and trams in them, amazing beaches, beautiful
Sintra. I even managed to meet some really great people back in the hostel
where we exchanged stories, laughed and talked until midnight. I went to Belem,
an amazing ex monastery, I visited a colourful, almost like from the cartoons
palace in Sintra and walked miles. Literally miles on the hills, down the
hills, around the hills.
And then almost at the very end of my trip, something
trully amazing happened. I was already sitting in the train to Porto, to catch
my plane back to Denmark when someone else sat down next to me. I looked up
from my book and there I see her - Aušra, a girl from
my university that I first met on my way to Lisbon. It was such an incredible coincidence
that we ended up talking the whole trip to Porto. Catching up after twelve
years and talking about our life stories and wines of Portugal. Thanks to her I
got some tips on what wine to buy and bring back to Denmark.
It sits there on my shelf now, a very good wine that
is now waiting to be tasted.
***
I cannot stop listening to three songs now. And just
like that, completely unexpectedly, youtube plays another not forgotten sound -
Daughter - Youth.mp3.
It brings me back. To the happiness. Of some sort.
°You don't die from a broken heart. You only wish you did°
***
