Portugal 2016

I somehow don't have time to post stuff these days. That's why you are reading about my trip to Portugal from September now when it's not even the same year. But better late than never, right? On the bright side, I won't remember as much as if I was writing it right after coming home, so I'm going to keep it short.

Good thing I managed to save my Instagram stories, otherwise I would have no pictures to show you. I mean I would have but they would bore you to death since they are just azulejos or gargoyles and grotesques. We could call it a selfie story because I'm in an unhealthy amount of pictures. :-)=

So here is me being bored at the airport on the left (yes, my love of avocados is endless and if you say 'cados are tastless boring fruit, I'll fight you to death). And on the left you can see Lisbon at night. Pretty, huh?!

Our first steps (apart from finding our hotel) weren't in Lisbon, however. I managed to persuade my colleagues we all needed to see Coimbra - a picturesque university town. I heard no complaints so that made me happy - it was all just my scheme to see one of the coolest libraries in the world. And that I did. It has its own bats! And on the left you can see a pic I managed to take while the security was busy telling other people not to take pictures. Apart from the unique library we walked around the university complex (more tiles for me, yay) and we enjoyed almost getting lost in the little streets surrounding the university. Unfortunately our time was running out and we didn't visit the botanical gardens which is a shame but the train timetables are what they are. 

Oh, that reminds me - the public transport - from the centre to the station looks like it exists but the times written on the noticeboard are just for fun and for tourists to have something to complain about (not just in Coimbra, everywhere we went) and don't have to apply for the particular bus stop - we were sitting at one but the scheduled bus was leaving from a stop 50m up the road so that we barely managed to get on our train to Lisbon.

What's this? Sorcery? :-)=

Anyway, we got back to Lisbon and went for a walk through the streets (more azulejos, yay!) and got to eat some really delicious food (basically everything I ate in Portugal was fish or sea monsters so naturally I had difficulties getting in my pants on my way back home).

Selfie with a giant. Let's count my chins.

The next day we were picked up by our Portuguese colleagues and basically went round Lisbon from one restaurant to another while staring at sites (so we saw the main stuff

and I even waited in a looooong line to get to a tiny elevator to walk narrow steps where two fat people can get stuck while passing each other by to get to the feet of JESUS! 

As I learned he was built later than the one in Brazil so that was a bummer but I pride myself on the fact that I'm the only one of our group who is not claustrophobic or isn't afraid of heights so yeah. I went. They didn't. More food followed, I feel bad knowing some of the species I ate are on the brink of extinction but how can I not eat them?!

Anyway, the next day we were taken on a tour round the coastline (which is very dramatic and full of rocks and the beaches are good for surfers but the normal swimmers might die there.

Yes, I have a sushi sweatshirt and I'm an adult.

Before I went to Portugal, I had been instructed at home not to swim in the sea since the end of September is already too cold for swimming. 

Well, maybe for the natives but not for us... but as a joker I am I was dragging winter clothes with me all day so that I could send some pictures home, saying no one should worry, I have winter clothes for swimming with me :-D= . I must admit I was a sight putting on gloves and a hat wherever we went. Everybody laughed at me. And on one beach, there was a guard because the waves were too high but I needed a pic with my feet in the water and they kept whistling at me to get out of there. So I did. After a big wave came to my unsuspecting self and kissed my butt. Yup, my dress was wet that far up.

It was a good thing that we then went to Cabo da Roca where it was windy and my dress got dry. But I had to hold it down al the time.

Sintra followed. The downtown was packed with tourists even at this time of the year and we soon went up the castle. Now that was something. It looks like a weird hybrid of sorts. Each part is a different colour and there are so many azulejos! And wind :-)=

The days which followed were work-based so I don't really want to show pictures from our meetings and pubs though as I was getting bored at one restaurant, I acquired all the shells around me and started building a tower from them. The waiter looked horrified when he saw it, took it away and then I saw him taking a picture of it. I hope I didn't commit a crime or anything.

Pena Palace

A view from Sintra Castle (Pena Palace)

This also reminds me-one night our hosts took us to a different town to have supper. One of them borrowed that 8-passenger vehicle from a local basketball team and took us there. Since the South isn't famous for people's driving skills, everybody was afraid to sit next to the driver (in Czech we call it a Seat of Death BTW) so I had to sit there and witness it all from the front seat. But the drive to the town was uneventful. What was full of events, however, was the time when we entered the town and our driver got a call that not everything was ready so he had to make the ride longer. He proceeded by entering the oldest part of the town despite all those road signs prohibiting vehicles to go there. It was up the hill to the casle and the streets very soon became unbelievably narrow. We reached a place where it was impossible to turn left or right because the street was made even narrower by scaffolding on a house. So our driver started to go in reverse down the steep hill. He scratched and dented one side of the car because he didn't hear my scream warning him of steps on the right, he hit a flowerpot right after and so he decided he had to go up the hill again. We were desperate to get out of the car but he had none of it and somehow managed to turn left around the scaffolding and get to a place where he could turn the car. Needless to say we all jumped out of the car and never wanted to go with him again.
We walked around the castle for a while and then he got a call to get us to the restaurant but he said he needed to go for one of his friends first so we were left at such a small square where we decided to hide and give him some trouble for our suffering. We hid behind a stone wall and waited. There was an old man sitting on a bench a observing everything with interest so we made a "psst" sign not to tell on us. Soon we heard a car and José asking the man but the man didn't tell him. Of course, we had to get out of our hiding after a while because we didn't want to be left alone in a foreign town but it was funny how eight absolutely mature (or at least adult by age) women can have childish joy from this.

Tejo River boat trip

Afterwards, we were greeted by gin and tonic picnic (that's why we had to drive around and almost die) - that was super awesome and I think we all got a little tipsy from the stress. But that's how our hosts were - full of mysteries and cool surprises.

Oh, and one more thing apart from my expanding waistline, I learnt to eat olives! I hated them till Portugal but as they were fresh or were pickled in a better way, I realised I loved the black ones. The green ones are still not a hot thing for me but I'm getting there :-)=