This is what you need to know about Portugal….Lisbon is the new Prague, Portugal is on sale and it’s raining men!
Let me explain.
Elena, Alex, Ken and I decided to take a few days and road-trip it into Portugal since it’s so close to Spain and also because someone on tripadvisor.com (normally a fail-safe resource), waxed poetic of the amazingly scenic drive through Salamanca in Spain and then south through Portugal on N234 to Lisbon, likening the scenery to Tuscany. We were just in Tuscany and, damn, if a drive though northern Portugal could live up to that, then it would definitely be worth the trip. We headed out from Madrid in high spirits, planning an overnight in the little town of Salamanca, and then a breathtaking drive down to Lisbon.
First stop, Salamanca. Salamanca is a very beautiful little college town in northern Spain. We made it there without too much trouble courtesy of La Tonta, the nickname given to GPS in Spain meaning the Dummy. Our only real almost setback occurred when La Tonta instructed Ken to turn the wrong way down a one-way street as we entered the city. Alex, Elena and I all screamed! We yelled at Ken to turn around! Couldn’t he see he was going the wrong way?!? You can’t listen to everything La Tonta says! It turns out La Tonta was right, we were not going the wrong way, and Ken was ready to dump everyone except La Tonta on the side of the road. Thus are the hazards of agreeing to be the driver.
As I mentioned, Salamanca is a college town, so we expected to find some activity upon our arrival, like maybe a variety of cozy restaurants, some bars, live music…but what we encountered was another story altogether. No one was in Salamanca. The main square, the restaurants, the streets were all deserted. I felt like we were in that Travelocity commercial, “Where is everybody???”. We finally found a restaurant that was not completely empty, ate a quick dinner and headed in for the night. Hmphfh. No worries. We would be rested and ready for our beautiful drive the next day. Here is the main square at night (may be a little blurry because the camera was handheld but it’s the best we have):
The next morning in the light of day I think we all developed more of an appreciation for Salamanca. It is full of old stone buildings and winding streets and has a beautiful central cathedral, all very picturesque. Here is a picture of one of the two major cathedrals (New Cathedral) in the area (it’s too big to get the whole thing because it’s tucked in to city streets):
And here is Old Cathedral (again, in part):
After a nice stroll around, we hopped in the car and were on our way to Portugal, woo hoo! Unfortunately, for some reason La Tonta was not cooperating. She did not want us to take N234 to Lisbon because it was not the shortest route, the most direct or the quickest. What does La Tonta know? We stopped at a gas station, bought a map and headed on our way.
The drive from Salamanca through the remainder of Spain was beautiful, farmland stretching as far as the eye could see. We passed the border into Portugal and the scenery became more mountainous and rocky, natural and wild. So far so good. And then we turned onto N234. Mistake! N234 is about as scenic as the New Jersey Turnpike. Actually, I think the Turnpike might have a thing or two on N234. The only scene outside the car window was factory upon factory with smokestacks pouring soot into the air. Unfortunately we were still three or four hours from Lisbon and the scenery did not improve at all along the way. We started a game of who could spot a scenic spot…a game without winners. To make matters worse, as we approached Lisbon, La Tonta, who apparently was bent out of shape that we had not followed her earlier advice, refused to direct us to our desired location. When we finally arrived at our hotel after some frantic searching on google maps with Elena’s blackberry, a failed attempt at getting directions from a gas station attendant and finally a call to the hotel, we were not in the best of spirits. To top it off, our hotel, which was a bit outside the city, informed us that, contrary to reports on tripadvisor, it did not run a shuttle into the city and we could either take a cab or pay 27 euros (approx $40) each way for a transfer. At this point I was seriously wondering whether this road trip would be a complete bust.
Despite our sunken spirits, we rallied, largely at the behest of Alexandra and Little Spree, and decided to head into the city for dinner. We called a cab and were pleasantly surprised when it dropped us off in the city center only 12 euros later, in an area, recommended by a friend of Alex’s, full of little restaurants and bars, and people! Our night was looking up! We sat down and had a really delicious dinner. We wandered down the hilly cobblestoned streets, into a bar, and ordered a beer… and like a lightbulb, it hit us, our first revelation of the evening as succinctly put by Alex…Portugal is on sale!!! I mean the cab ride had seemed remarkably well-priced and the dinner astoundingly reasonable, but the beer, the beer is just flat out cheap. Little Spree tried out our theory on a mohito, and yes, it too was cheap…here he is enjoying his drink:
And here Elena and Spree celebrate our newfound love of Lisbon (or of each other):
From then on the night only got better. We found ourselves in a bar with a band. The band was good. We started to dance, even though the rest of the bar was just standing around. Slowly but surely, other people started to dance. Before long, the entire bar was dancing and singing along at the top of their lungs. Alexandra demanded a shot. We asked for a lemon drop but the bartender did not know how to make it. Instead, he served up his own concoction, something with kahlua in it, poured it and set it on fire. Alexandra, who before our visit had never done a flaming shot, was about to partake in her second one in a week. And you know it’s going to be an eventful night when flaming shots are served spontaneously!
Suddenly Ken started making friends. First was this French guy in the striped shirt.
Then a group of local Lisbonites. Ken says when you are one guy traveling with three girls, making friends is easy. It goes something like this, “Hi, where are you from?” “Who are you traveling with?, “Oh those three girls…are any of them single?” “Which ones?”… And so just like that, we had made friends with the locals. Here they are with Alexandra.
If I have learned anything on our travels, it is that having a local guide is key to discovering the true character of the place you are visiting, and once again it proved to be true. Just like Mr. Lee showed us the true Chengdu countryside and Kelvin showed us authentic Laos, this group of Lisbon locals proved invaluable in giving us a taste of true after-hours Lisbon. When the bar closed at a shockingly early hour (shockingly early because it was not yet dawn), they took us down the street and around the corner, and “Voila!”, a club in full swing! The place was packed. Then, the band from the previous bar showed up. The cheap beer was flowing and I think Ken in his merriment invited all the Portugese boys to come stay at our house in NJ. We danced and danced. My toes went numb. As in Spain, we left the club in the early morning and the party was still going strong. We made it back to our hotel just as the breakfast buffet opened.
Here is Alex with Little Spree at breakfast (I think he pulled the “Switcheroo” on Elena and Alex):
Needless to say, the next day as we relaxed poolside over brunch, we had a completely different view of Lisbon and our road trip than we had when we arrived the night before. Who cares about the disaster of N234, when we had discovered the beauty of Lisbon…an incredible city with delicious food, cheap drinks and a fantastic nightlife. In fact, it was exactly what we had expected of Prague, only to be disappointed upon arrival by a overpriced, overtouristed city. Skip Prague and go to Lisbon! Lisbon is the new Prague, and for you single ladies out there, it is also full of cute, friendly single men…I have it on good authority.
Here is Ken posing on the bridge over the pool at breakfast:
Of course, Lisbon has a lot more going on than just the exciting nightlife. It is a very beautiful city with old architecture and castles, and is especially stunning at night. Alex’s friend and colleague Manuel was kind enough to take us to a couple of his favorite local haunts. We had a fantastic dinner in a restaurant and wine bar housed within an ancient aqueduct. Now that is ambience! Manuel also brought us to a speakeasy, at least it felt like one…it’s a bar with very eclectic décor and themed rooms. You have to ring a buzzer to get in and the windows are covered with lace curtains so you cannot see the interior from the street. Here is Little Spree in a room filled with military themed dolls. Spree felt right at home here among his people.
We also found the time to explore nearby Sintra, where we wandered around the former summer estate of the royals…beautiful grounds, a castle, many stone structures with turrets and lookout points, a huge old stone well with a spiral staircase all the way to the bottom, and full of hidden underground passageways. We also climbed an ancient fort built by the Moors and explored the former Royal Palace. Here is a picture from the fort:
And this is Pena Castle (very Disney-like):
And this is me in the well:
All in all, when it was finally time to head back to Spain, Portugal had completely won us over. This time we took the direct route home to Madrid, and the scenery was beautiful.
Here are the slide shows for:
Salamanca: http://flickr.com/photos/23884143@N06/sets/72157608367557226/show/
Portugal: http://flickr.com/photos/23884143@N06/sets/72157608229891171/show/
Next up, Greece. It’s already written so it should be up by tomorrow afternoon – there isn’t much to it actually. Mostly sitting around in Santorini.
Ciao
