Portugal

On Mallorca I had been renting an apartment up In the hills on the west coast for about three months.

A taxi driver told me about the Rock in Rio festival which were taking place up on a hill in a park in Lisbon.

He picked me up at the airport and took me to a cheap hostel which I had booked in advance. The hostel was located in the city center of Lisbon and it had some nice pictures on the website but it turned out it was that cheap for a reason, of course. I remember the windows from the street were smashed when we got there and it all looked dirty and trashy as hell. That’s not how it looked like on the pictures when I booked it, I thought to myself. But hey, whatever. It doesn’t matter when I am traveling on my own. I said “This must be my suite!” to the driver and smiled.

Square corners and street views of Lisbon. The middle picture is of the street where the trashy, cheap hostel was located. 

Lisbon is a beautiful old city with old houses and trams. These old trams are also very short. Maybe so that they would be able to climb the steep hills in the city. There is lots of hills, so don’t trust that you can walk the roads with your bags by just following a map. The streets might be right next to each other, but with 20 meters in leverage distance.

The city center is literally covered in graffiti. The first two or three meters of the walls from the street has layers of sprayed art of various quality on it. It is like a natural manifestation of human liberation and the urge to leave a trace. Creativety and artistery flowing free and wild in the city, spreading like a disease. Taking over. Love it! Some of it is pretty impressive and awesome. Some of it is just bombing. On the way up to the castle on the hill in the centre, you will find some pretty good pieces.

 One morning when I was sitting on the terrace at Music Hall Hostel there was a young guy from Scotland sitting a couple of tables away from me. I started to talk to him and it turned out that he was on his very first travel abroad on his own. He was really excited about the fact that he had just packed his bag and caught a flight to Lisbon without having any plans nor done much research. That’s the way to go, I said. Taking it as it comes. There was a great atmosphere at Music Hall Hostel and we had a turn of a party in the evening there guests and staff all together. During my stay on Mallorca before I got to Lisbon, I had been spending a lot of time writing “Viljandi”. A handwritten book in paper with a leather cover, which I wrote and which  have gone lost and have been so for quite some time now. The second time I was in Lisbon was in 2020. And we all know how the world suddenly changed by then. I was only staying at places which could offer private rooms. However, I decided to go around and visit the different hostels I used to stay at last time I was here. To see if I could be that much of a lucky guy that I had forget my book there and that someone had just put it in the bookshelf and left it there. Of course I could not be that lucky. The mystery remained and I could see that the happy, party atmosphere at the hostel wasn’t there anymore either.

That German guy I met on that trashy “apartment-hostel” when I first arrived in Lisbon, turned out being a nice and interesting guy. We quickly got into pretty deep conversations there straight away when we met. Apparently we had the same taste of books also. There were a few books we had read, in common. It also turned out that he was a walker. He just spent his time walking from place to place. That was the way he travelled. The way he lived. He was also a writer and a philosopher. But he had stop writing now because it would take too much time from his walking. So he was recording audio files of himself talking as he was walking instead. He had just arrived back in Europe after been in Brazil walking for 6 months. He was now about to walk from Lisbon to Porto and he estimated it would take him about 3 weeks. I was out walking with him one day around Lisbon. It was a long day with lots of walking and he asked if I wanted to come along with him walking to Porto. I thought about it for a while but realized I wasn’t fit for walking in his tempo 8 hours a day, which he was used to since long time by now. I would have sore feet and probably get left behind, I said and laughed. To be able to handle anything it makes a whole lot difference if you are used to doing that, compared to if you are not. No matter what it is. I took the bus to Porto and told him I’ll see him there instead. He called me on the phone about one year later. He was in Cairo and I was in Bombay by then. Both of us stuck in cities like monsters. He said that it was like bombs going off everywhere all the time and that he had to get out of there. I could hear noise in the background over the phone and in my imagination this calm and quite guy who is all about the nature and balance in life, was now anxiously looking over his shoulders. I had a finger in my other ear to block out the noise of Bombay as I was coughing out pollutions another way. He told me he wanted to go walking in Israel. That’s the last time I heard from him. Maybe I should call him.

Lisbon or Lisboa, as it is called in Portugease, is the largest city and the capital of Portugal. It has a population of about 0.5 million people in the inner area and the metropolitan area of Lisbon have a population of about 3 million people. It feels like a pretty big city even though the city center is not full of skyscrapers. It is an old city rich on history but I wouldn’t say that it gives a specifically glamourous impression. Although it is full of very old and nice houses and the city has everything to offer which you can expect from a capital of a country. My impression is mostly stimulated about how lively it is. It lean more towards the colorful, free and easy going side of things. 

 First time I was in Lisbon there was a lovely night life (even if that’s not depicted on the images, those are just some cozy evening pictures). But second time I visited Lisbon the corona crises kept all the lovely people at home. 

The main trouble during my second visit to Portugal was that it was 2020. It was the Covid-19 situation going on. Portugal had handled the situation pretty good and most of the world had already had their lock downs. Portugal was open to enter from a list of countries in Europe, and I was clear to enter. Not even a health declaration form was required when arriving by bus, which were something that surprised me. It was early September by now and in Spain it was strict requirement to wear a mask at all time while out of the home. Unless you were sitting down by a table for eating or drinking. But that was a massive improvement considering how hard they had been suffering. They had a hard hit of the crisis. In Portugal on the other hand you only had to wear a mask when you enter inside to a store or a restaurant or any place like that. As long as you were outside you didn’t need to wear a mask. My concern was how to travel during covid, of course. It is impossible to avoid masses of people at all time. When I was in Spain just before I arrived in Portugal, I didn’t dare to use public transport. I rented a car at one place, to drop it off at another. Except from when I was traveling from Spain to Portugal. Then I had to take the bus. But I called the bus company to check what their precaution routines were like. When they said that the entire bus is sterilized between each operation and that only every second seat were in use and everyone gets sanitizers and have to were a mask. I felt like it should be ok. I was wearing a mask and sterilized my hands frequently and so were everyone ells. When I was in Portugal I soon got to know that they had the same routine on public transports there. But I only used it in between the towns or cities. Locally I used Uber if I had to (like from the train station to the hotel, if it was too far to walk).

When I went to Portugal the second time, I arrived in to Algarve, crossing a bridge from Spain. My first impression of Algarve was that I thought the landscape looked pretty boring. It was dry and dusty. Gray, yellow and light brown with not much vegetation. It was hot outside. It was early September. You could see the coast line from the bus on the highway for most part of the time. But it looked far on the map. The bus stopped at the airport in Faro. This is where I sat down for lunch and booked myself a room in town. Then I took an Uber to the place which I were to stay at for three days. It turned out being a small apartment with a few small rooms which were used as Airbnb. The front door was tiny followed by a steep stairway. It was so tight that hardly a lean guy like me could get in. It was an old house but my room had a huge and cosy decorated terrace. Bellow was a little restaurant where the locals go. They said they wanted to capture that “grandmother feeling”. And it looked pretty traditional.

Faro has its own airport but you can also travel from there by train, bus or car of course. When it was time for me to leave Faro, I did it by train and it was to Albufeira. Albufeira is known as the holiday resort for the Brits. It is a small town with lots of bars and restaurants and it has a nice beach. I stayed at an Airbnb place where I had a private room and private bathroom. It was pretty much like staying at a hotel. In the mornings I was running on the beach for exercise. Then spending my days in the sun, swimming, finding different locations to go filming with the drone, eating good, writing, reading and editing. They say Albufeira is known to be vibrant, lively and crazy. Which wouldn’t surprise me if it is full of brits. But I didn’t see its night life due to my own safety precautions for Corona. I spent my evenings on my own. I did see the, since decades, Europe-touring Apache Indians with there massive sound system and speakers, playing flute and dancing in feather crowns by the square. As they did in Copenhagen six years ago and in Stockholm ten years ago. Me and my friend had a conspiring conversation over the phone that they, not only might not be real Apache Indians but also might not even have any interest for that culture which they are imitating. It’s a complete sell-out! We had a good laugh about our fake thoughts of these guys.

This way it continued in the next town along the coast, which was Lagos. There I had a room at a place which were one of those cool backpacker hostels again. A private room again, of course. There were skateboards with cool motives all over the walls. Maybe fifty or a hundred of them. In the courtyard there was a nice piece of art depicting a massive octopus painted all over the walls with the tentacles reaching everywhere. The place was called Stumble Inn and it was run by a women from New Jearsey, USA and a guy from New Zealand. They were really easy going and cool people. So were some of the guests there also. I remember a German couple that liked to listen to Swedish trap music. I was told that Lagos was a great town to live in and that there are a great expat community. It is a town worth visiting just to see the rocks along the coast, by the way. I was invited to come to a party they would host the following month. I can recommend that hostel. Here is a link tp it.

After a few days I took the train up to the Lisbon area. Almada to be precise, which is just south of the river from Lisbon. I booked an Airbnb and once I got there I got to meet the host Serge, who is from Cameron and a really ambitious and nice guy. He rented out two rooms in the apartment where he lived. I was there for a couple of nights and it also turned out that he had another apartment close by which he also rented out and he said that I could get a deal to rent it for one months if I wanted to stay in the area. At this point I actually started to view a few apartment and was keen to stay in one place for a while. I felt like unpack my bag and just live rather than be on the road. Almada seemed ok to stay in for a while. It was more quite then Lisbon but the city was still near. I liked the geographical location of the area just from looking at the map. I guess that’s how I ended up there in the first place. I didn’t stay very long in Almada during my first visit there. Because I was planning to go visit a friend of mine and former colleague in Tocha where he lives and is from.

After my visit there I left Tocha for Porto. Porto is the second largest city of Portugal. First time I was in Porto, was that time a couple of years earlier. I use to stay at hostels back then and got to hang out with other travelers and we explored the city as tourists and went out to the pubs etc. At that time I also ended up renting an apartment for a week together with someone I met on the bus actually. Well, we stayed in touch a few days first. Then ended up taking an apartment together on Airbnb. The river that divides Porto has a very beautiful and famous bridge with two levels of transits. I think you’ll see it if you just google Porto. “Ponte Luis I” is the name of the bridge.

Street art in Porto.

The second time I was in Porto I spent most of my time being engaged in different kind of computer based work that I was doing at the time. It rained a lot, I was also doing a lot of research and didn’t go out much except for eating and filming a bit with the drone when the clouds looked nice and heavy but it was dry enough to fly. I actually managed to capture the lightning from the thunder on camera one day. Porto is a very nice and beautiful city which has everything needed. But they say it is just a few degrees plus and raining a lot in the winter time. The climate in Portugal varies a lot from the north to the south. The country isn’t that big but surly it has a big difference in climate across the latitudes.

Porto is famous for their sweet and strong wine well known as port wine, or just “Porto” or “Oporto” as the locals call this kind of wine here in Portugal. They have all the wine yards and breweries right there on the south side of the river in Porto. Sandeman, Ferreira and Graham’s is a few famous brands among others, which have really nice wine houses there. You can visit these places to learn some about the wine making process and taste their varieties of wine. Back home we usually only get one kind of port wine from each brand at the liquor store and we simply call it just “port wine”. But in Portugal the port wine is available in different grades between white and red. Some are quite light red and others more dark red and thick. I think most of the brands usually present their kinds as Ruby (red), Ruby (LBV), White or Tawny. Where Tawny was my favorite and the closest to what I had had back home. The white Porto is exciting and different. It is thick and fully as the heavily sweet desert wine as it is. Worse than any ordinary red wine when it comes to thickness but transparent in its color.

I came back to Almada and rented another apartment through Airbnb from the same guy which I stayed at the first time I was here. Now I decided to stay one month and I went to get a rental car as well. So now I got myself a nice home to stay at for one month and got a chance to get to know the area better. It was a newly renovated apartment with three rooms, bathroom, kitchen and an 8 meter long balcony closed by windows. Staying here made it easier for me to get a lot better routine in my days. I could easier take my time for some exercise and cook my own meals etc. I loved my stay there and even though Almada is a whole lot more quite then Lisbon and not even considered to be a part of it and appeared to not have that good reputation, I still think it has something which appeal to me. I understand if this side of the river might be boring for some, but during my stay there I found it pretty relaxed and safe, which was something I appreciated at that moment. I wasn’t looking for any action.

Cascais is a recognized town in the greater Lisbon’s outer area. Located furthest out to the west from Lisbon. It is the end station on a commuting train line and this place, in contrast to Almada, has a great reputation all over. They have a marina with sail boats and it is an important tourist destination in the region. Cascais is said to have quite a few European foreigners owning property used as accommodation or holiday houses there. There is lots of well taken care of beautiful old houses, some of them look like castles. I think they also have a little castle actually. They have the smallest beach I have ever seen and a small cup of coffee was all of a sudden €3 instead of €0.70 or so, which is normal in Portugal. I had heard only good things about Cascais and I was strongly recommended many times to visit and so I did. It was indeed a beautiful place and the vibe was that it is a posh place. However, the girls from Cascais which I was talking with seemed to be a bit snobbish. They all kept on saying that Cascais was the best place and that it have everything that all the other places have but much better. But for me it is not the right place. I wasn’t particularly impressed by Cascais. Personally I think it is over rated. It is probably the reputation of being posh which makes it attractive.

On the other hand is much more my kind of place. It is located on the other side of the river from Lisbon, where we have Almada. Almada is like the overall general name for everything on the south side of the bridge. But once you are on this side Almada has a city centre which we call Almada. And there is other little towns around the area which have their own names. If you go out to the cost line to the west from Almada, you’ll get to Costa de Caparica. First time I got there it was fog coming in over the beach and it was very beautiful even though I couldn’t see that far. I was just exploring the area and found my way there by following the northern coast line from the bridge. I was on a motor bike and had just discovered another ferry spot where you could bring your car over to Lisbon from. That is from Trafaria. Which is close to Costa de Caparica. Then I followed the esplanade southwards through Costa de Caparica, where in the northern part of this town you first have the well taken care of park on your right hand side and lots of exclusive, beautiful villas on your left hand side. It was a great cruise and for the first time in a while I felt positively surprised about how gentle the environment felt. It was pleasant to be here and I felt like driving slow. Once I got closer to the central part of Costa de Caparica I turned right towards the beach. There was coffee shops along the sidewalks where people were walking with surboards under their arms. I was slowly driving by and by the time I reached the parking lot intended for the beach visitors, I straight away liked the layout of what I saw. It was like a big, wide stair which looked almost like an entire town square, but with steps. There were some public outdoor gym equipment at the top of the stairs and there were also a nice promenade along the beach were lots of people were running for exercise. Along the promenade were about 15 barrack look a-like kind of buildings which were restaurants, bars and surf clubs etc. There was also a huge area in the inner side of the promenade which were like a town square of sand. There were playgrounds for children and volleyball fields. On the other side of the promenade was the beach. It was a pretty fine grained sand beach with some dividing piers of rock sticking out from the beach into the water on regular distance intervals. In the water there were hundreds of surfers. Some of them were riding it really skilled. Others looked like they were struggling. The beach here is wide when the tide is low and it is remarkably thinner when the tide is high. It is the cold and mighty Atlantic ocean we got right in on us here, so there is most of the time decent waves at about over one meter. The beach is at a low angle and it is shallow enough to let each and every wave run up high on the beach and create this huge area of wet sand on the beach. I walked along the promenade, the view was crisp and I thought to myself. This is the Malibu of Europe. It already had my heart. Well, I haven’t been to Malibu. But still that’s how my thoughts went.