lisbon

lisbon is one hilly town.  i experienced this hillyness as i got lost on the way to my hostel.  probably the worst wrong turn you could make which involved me walking down about 50 cobblestone steps with my backpack on, to ask a kind portugese granny where my hostel was, and then to be directed back up the stairs.  uber. fail.  not to mention i slipped on the cobblestone and almost ate shit on the way down to the hostel.  not my finest moment.  it would've been quite the sight for everyone at the viewpoint to see around me.  

however, the tides turned once i got into my hostel, and i met not one, not two, but THREE oregonians!!  these were the first oregonians i've come across during my travels.  two guys, brent and travis just graduated college and are traveling together, and kait, freelance web designer, quit her job and is going around the world for a year.  we all live in the eugene/corvallis/salem/portland area and are duck fans so we got along fabulously ;)

team oregon!

we headed to the main square to wait for our walking tour to begin, but our tour guide never came, so good ol' rick came to the rescue with his walking tours!  we followed one around town that took us to a nice viewpoint and a church that was built in rome, then taken apart and re-pieced together here.  it is the most expensive chapel in the world.  you can probably guess why!  kait was our tour guide for that walk and didn't even ask for a tip at the end.  kind soul. 

oldest beer hall in lisbon

pricey chapel

afterwards, we went to the gulbenkian museum and took advantage of the free entry on sunday to see the exhibits.  this museum housed paintings/artifacts/everything from different cultures throughout history.  there was an ancient egypt room, far east, etc.  there wasn't anything there that was absolutely mind blowing but it was still cool to check out.  we got out of there in about an hour which was perfectly fine with me ;)

brent knew this piece of art. proud moment.

the next day i headed to sintra to check it out after having it recommended to me by many friends.  it's unique because it's a unesco world heritage site with a lot of cool 19th century architecture.  it channels disneyland slightly if you ask me.  brent decided to come on this excursion with me so it was great having a partner in crime!

once we arrived there, we realized that everyone except for us got the memo that it was RIDICULOUSLY windy and cold there.  everyone had on windbrakers, scarves, fleeces, pants while brent and i rocked shorts and t's/tank tops.  it was brisk to say the least.

first we headed to the pena palace which was on top of a hill (read: extra windy) but it was awesome!  royalty still lived in the palace up until the early 1900's which i thought was really cool.  i loved how magical looking it was.  i could climb on top of the towers and pretend to be a guard back in the day.  brent and i definitely sprinted around the outside of the palace because the wind was blowing so hard. afterwards we headed to the remains of the moorish castle which is essentially the castle walls, or as brent put it, the great wall of china.  the castle was built 1,000 years ago!  you could walk around the wall which we did and i'm not going to lie, at times i was a little nervous because the wind was blowing hard enough to push me over a little.  yea yea, laugh it up.  by the time we were done with the castle, brent and i were 1.) starving and 2.) ready to return to warmth on the train!  we grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed back to lisbon.

pena palace

 

 

 moorish castle

 

 

 

 

on my last day in town, i went to a flea market in the alfama neighborhood that is only open on tuesdays and saturdays.  i feel like more often than not when you hear flea market these days, it's not really a true flea market.  but this one definitely is.  i mean i've never seen so much trash attempted to be sold before in my life.  i know, one person's trash might be another person's treasure but i really have a hard time believing that anyone wanted to buy a used pair of havaiana flip flops...it was fun though to walk around and see what people sold.  i'm sure half of the electronics that i saw were stolen from naive tourists.  the man promised me a good price, but i politely declined.

guillaume & hugo from the hostel

afterwards, i headed off to the belem neighborhood with guillaume from my hostel.  lucky me, personal tour guide!  guillaume is william in french, and his name is actually the portugese version that, but i can't pronounce it, therefore he is guillaume.  belem is a cool neighborhood west of the town center which back in the day, was the send off point for sailors to set out and explore the world.  there is a really awesome tower there and a monastery that was absolutely stunning.  

monastery

 

after walking around all day, i was pretty pooped after and headed back to the hostel to pack my bag one last time before heading off to chicago.  i cannot believe how quickly time has flown these past few months.  i have mixed feelings about leaving.  while i am tired of living out of my backpack and craving mexican food, i know that after a week at home, i'll be ready to go again.  thanks se asia and europe for an amazing three months.  i can't wait to come back!  ciao.

lagos

after porto, i got on a night bus and headed to lagos.  geographically it doesn't make much sense because lisbon is on the way but since my flight to go home is out of there, i had to go this route.  i arrived and was greeted by beautiful beaches!

lagos is really neat because there are many cliffs on the southwest side of the town surrounding the beaches.  you can hang out on one beach for a bit then climb through an opening to the beach on the other side given that the tide is still low.  there really isn't much else to see in the city but i was ok with it because this was my last bit of beach time before heading home.  wah wah.  although the beaches and sun were perfect..the water was not.  literally i think my heart stopped beating when i forced myself under water to cool off.  i have never swam in water so cold before!  

on second day in lagos, i went hiking with soren and marije (two friends i made in the hostel) along the top of the cliffs.  we got to see a lot more cool rock formations and could climb down to whichever beach we wanted to hang out in.  there was an arch that soren and i were going to attempt to swim to but after trying to swim in the freezing water for 5 seconds i knew that there was no way in hell that was gonna happen!  

 

one thing that i will definitely miss in lagos, is pizza da luigi!  luigi, an italian transplant, opened up his wood fire oven pizza spot about 20 seconds away from my hostel 12 days before i arrived.  can you say dangerous?  the pizza was delicious and cheap.  i hit that spot up about 4 times in the 3 days i was there.  haha yea...don't judge me.

after three days in lagos, i left to go to my final destination before heading home: lisbon!  the ride was only 4 hours and the bus had wi-fi (yes, that's right...the bus) so time flew by.  time to up your ante, greyhound.

bom dia, portugal

i can't believe i am down to my last country :( i started off in porto, the home of port wine!  i'm really not huge into porto because i find it to be very sweet, but when in rome, right?  the city itself isn't all that large so it was really nice walking around.  however, there are a lot of hills so slippery cobblestone + hills = no fun.  i should also note that portugese sounds very strange.  in spain, they all spoke with lisps...well here everything sounds has a 'shhh' involved somehow.  as my friend anan put it, 'retarded spanish'.  i can't say that i disagree with that statement haha.
 

the first night i arrived i actually went to a bbq at the hostel owner's house.  my hostel is owned by two young brothers and they like socializing/making a few more euros off their guests so they invited us over and grilled up some meat paired with sangria.  i was ok with it because i miss bbqing a lot.

one of my friends anan met up with me in porto.  we had met in seville at the oasis hostel (best hostel ever if you ever go there!).  we walked around for a bit then headed down to gaia where there are lots of port wine cellars.  gaia is technically another town across the river from porto.  it is a beautiful area especially because you get a great view of the ribeira district of porto (essentially the waterfront).  in terms of tasting, we hit up three cellars: sandeman, taylor and croft.  sandeman is probably the most well-known one and the only one that cost money, but it was nice.  only 4.50 euro and we got 2 tastings.  taylor was personally my favorite.  it was on top of a hill and had a great view.  croft was great too and free!  each of the tours that they give you are similar so by the time we got the cellar three, i pretty much had the spiel memorized.  basically, for vintage ports, they need to sit horizontally and you gotta consume them within 24 hours after you decant them.  bam.

 bridge from porto to gaia

view of porto

anan had to leave later that afternoon so i was on my own again.  luckily i met some cool belgians who kept me company for a few meals!  there's your shoutout, bram!

the next day i wandered around the city following a walking tour from good ol' rick.  it was nice although porto is a very hilly city so walking up and down those hills kills you after a while.

 view from a church tower

inside of the train station

my time in porto was short, but i loved it so much!  the city was very charming and the people were so friendly.  people forewarned me that the portugese speak even less english than the spanish, but i've found the opposite--thank goodness!

morocco!

morocco wasn't really part of the original plan that pert and i devised when we plotted out our stops, but this one guy i met in my athens hostel just sold me on it.  after checking out ryan air prices, i had decided i just had to make it happen.  this was my second time in africa, (first time was egypt almost 2 years ago) so i wasn't too anxious.  more excited to speak french more than anything after playing the charades and limited spanish phrases game for about 3 weeks.  

i arrived and it. was. so. hot.  it put seville to shame.  i found my way to my riad (kind of like a hostel, but essentially an old building that is open with a central courtyard that goes for several floors complete with a roof terrace) and was welcomed with mint tea.  that is one thing i loved about morocco--mint tea is their whiskey.  everywhere we went we were greeted with mint tea, and my riad had awesome people working there who would make us tea at all times of the day.  oh how i will miss ibrahim.

i walked around and explored a bit on my own.  my riad was really close to the famous square place jeema el fna.  this square is huuuuuge and really came to life at night.  there were tons of food stalls everywhere, henna tattoo ladies begging you to go to them, and entertainers of all types including and not limited to...snake charmers.  those who know me well, know how big of a sissy (could substitute a different word here) i am when it comes to those things so you can imagine my discomfort walking around the square careful to avoid any areas where i heard the flute being played.

the souk at jemaa al fna

spice market

i went to a tannery to check out the leather making process which was a very interesting experience.  i had to bargain with this old man so he could show me around because these are family owned establishments.  after getting him to 10 dirham (~$1.50) from 50 dirham, he shoved in my hand a few stalks of mint and off we went.  why mint?  because the leather process can be very smelly and this was supposed to mask it.  it didn't really.  from what i gathered, after they skin the animals, they wash it in the vat looking things, then at some point, pigeon poo (excrement de pigeon en francais) is involved because i think some chemical reaction happens and it helps the leather somehow, then they let it dry, then dye it if they want, then let it dry again, and voila: leather.  i wouldn't really take my word for it because homeboy tried to speak english and tell me what the process was, but it was so bad i told him to just do it in french and well, my french isn't what it used to be soo...yea.  in the end they got me to buy a bag.  i probably paid too much despite bargaining.  i don't want to talk about.  but whatever, i'm on vacation, right?

i signed up for a 3 day excursion that started the next day.  i was really excited to do a tour because for a few days because i wanted someone to do the thinking for me.  i wanted someone to tell me when to get into the car, when to get out, when to eat, when to sleep.  i considered it my little break before portugal :)  this excursion took us through some berber villages, the atlas mountains and then you ended the second night by spending the night in the sahara desert!

a lady in the berber village

todra gorge

after the first day, i definitely thought to myself 'what the eff did i sign up for' because there was sooo much driving.  after driving for a while, the unfriendly driver who wore absurdly bright paints with the country of africa printed all over them, would tell us 'PHOTO' and then yell 'LET'S GO' when it was time to get back into the oven.  yeah, that's right...we were traveling around in freaking africa, in a minivan with NO AC.  


this made me very angry because i had specifically asked on the phone before doing the tour if there would be AC.  i was told yes, then homeboy tells us there isn't AC which i found it hard to believe because, well, we are in africa.  the weather's not exactly moderate here.  it was on the second day when i was sweating from sitting that i decided to ask if there was AC again to which he replied yes there is and i yelled are you shitting me!?  that's when homeboy told us he wanted us to pay him an extra 150 dirham EACH for him to turn it on.  fuck. you.  i was so livid but being my stubborn self i was not about to give into this game.  i was half yelling at him in french and english to which he replied he had two children at home.  NOT MY PROBLEM, DUDE!  yeah...we never got the ac in the end.  however, we stopped to get gas and somehow all this gas ended up all over his body which was karma at its finest.

le asshole

anyway, back to the tour, we stopped at a berber village which was cool to check out.  all the buildings there were made out of clay.  i noticed that about the parts that i saw in morocco...all the buildings were the same color perhaps because they were all made out of clay.  although these villages are cool to see, i really question if people really live there, or if they're just tourist attractions.  i mean...these places were in the middle of no man's land.  


the highlight of the tour was definitely the sahara.  we got the zagora and then rode camels to the tents that we would spend the night in.  we got there, then climbed a huge dune to attempt to see the sunset, to realize that there were a lot of other dunes in the way after we got to the top.  oops.  but we still took some nice pics.  we had some good tagine for dinner and then listened to the berber men play drums and sing for us before sleeping outside.  it was so quiet and peaceful there.  i really enjoyed it.  i woke up every now and then because of the wind, and at one point i looked up in the sky and the stars were amazing!  the moon had moved enough that you could see the stars so well, and there were so many.  i was a happy camper.  the next morning, we woke up early and watched the sunrise which was also cool.  the it was time to head back to marrakech.  at the end, i will say that the tour was worth it becuse i got to see the sahara and had a great night there.  homeboy didn't even try to ask for a tip because he knew better.  i kind of wished he would've though so i could've laughed in his face.

one thing about marrakech that was annoying was you didn't know who you could trust because everyone is always after your money.  i couldn't walk more than 10 seconds without someone either telling me 'kinochiwa' or approaching me to ask where i'm going.  they always wanted to lead you somewhere so that they could get you to tip them in the end.  i will say there were some people who out of the goodness of their hearts helped me with directions, but for the most part, everyone just wanted my dirhams!


on the flip side, one thing that i will miss about morocco is the fresh squeezed orange juice!  for about $0.50 you could get a glass from the square.  it was so tasty and refreshing especially in that heat.  the tagines and couscous were very good as well.  that's all i ate the four short days i was there.  it was definitely a nice change eating vegetables again after all the jamon i consumed in spain.  spending only four days in morocco was definitely very short, but i'm glad i fit it into the itinerary.  i won't lie though, i'm pretty excited to go back to europe, but sad that portugal is my last stop :(