busther-travel-blog

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Cascais Day 3

Today was a day of rest I woke up at 11am not feeling well, soar throat and ichy/burning eyes and nose. This apartment is pretty kewl with a great location but it is very old. I think my allergies have had enough mold for now and finding a new place is essential to my health.

Went to the drug store and figured out they are more stricked here than in the US and definitely more steicked than Mexico. All, I mean all the medications are behind the counter and really expensive. 30 ibuprofen, 400mg = $7.41 and vitamin c with zink = $17.67. Anything stronger than simple nasal spray requires a Dr note. Oh well. Let's hope this does the trick. It's not to bad yet.

Spent most of the day sitting around in the sun researching my next stop.

I really wanted to see Nazaré, but in looking at the surf forecast and live cameras on the beach, there is nothing going on right now. Time is passing so fast and I it is so far out of my way that I don't want to deal with it.

I am really struggling with where to go next. I can't decide on North to San Sebastián or South to Faro/Lagos. This would have been easier if I would have flown in to northern Portugal and flown out of southern Portugal. Oh well, this is all new to me and there is a lot to learn.

North offers me great wine country and easy access to France.

South offer beautiful beaches with amazing views, and lots of diving opportunities not to mentuon access to Gebralter and mybe even Morocco. Lagos appears to be a divers paradise. Google Farol da Ponta da Piedade

The bigger issue is that these allergies are killing my sense of adventure. I've been pushing too hard and I don't want to get sick.

After a while of looking and trying to make the most of my time, I decided to take a night train to San Sebastián for 3 night (+2 nights travel time). San Sebastián was part of my original plan, so I might as well stick to it.

I will go there and come back to Central Portugal by the 13th. Hopefully ill feel much better in the next 5 days.

Booked my next trip and apartment and out to dinner I go.

Everyday, I keep telling g myself I deserve a good meal, that mentality is costing me ;-}

As per usual, I spent about an hour trying to decide in where to eat. I do this for every meal. I walk and look and I look again. Yea, I know, it shouldnt be this hard, but what else do I have to do.

I decided to have my first Portuguese steak. Top sirloin seared in olive oil and garlic, topped with prosciutto and a red wine reduction and a half bottle of house wine.

It was a bit better than OK. It wasn't the quality we get in the states but the flavor was really good. The wine is very cheap. This was a nice restaurant and that half bottle was only $7. Pretty good wine, rated a 3.4 in Vivino with an average price of $9.34. I really liked the wine. Perfect pair. My plate was perfectly clean when done.

They didn't take credit cards and luckily I had just enough cash to cover my meal. I need to pay more attention to this next time. Most places accept cards but not all.

After dinner I went back to my usual hang out, The Crow Bar. Flirted with the scarry bartender who has a big butterfly tattoo on the front of her neck and words written on her knuckles and more piercings than I can count. She looks scary but she's nice.

After a beer and a medicinal shot a nice young lady walks in who seems interested. I ordered another beer and a shot and contemplated my next move.

Yea, I know, lame. It was 10pm, im getting sick and hace a long, very long trip tomorrow, train leaves at 9:34pm from Lisbon.

So I went home to bed. :-(

[busther-travel-blog]

Cascais Day 2

Good morning! Well sort of. I didn't get out of bed until noon. Kinda depressing but hey, I'm on vacation and can do what I want :-)

Showered dresses and out the door by 12:30. Had my usual coffee and pastry for breakfast and headed out for a walk.

During my walk I realialzed I had made a HUGE mistake! It's 66 degrees, bright and sunny. An undershirt, long sleeve turtle neck and a jacket just ain't going to cut it. This is the first day I see such beautiful sun light. Back to the appartment to strip some cloths and get the much needed sun glasses.

Hopped the train east and got off at the first stop and walked back in.

Let me just say wow! Beautiful!! Beaches and beautiful homes all along the way.

Someone explained to me that during the world wars, a lot of royal and well to do refugees settled in Cascais and their influence is very evident on the coast.

I hate to tell you but I had to make a stop at McDonald's for an American sized large coffee to take in the go. What a mistake. Yuk and double Yuk.

I walked and stopped and walked and OMG, it is more than I expected. Rocky cliffs divided by open beaches and a hike and bike trail along the way.

Right now I'm sitting in front of the visitor center while they check to see if they can find someone to take me in a private tour of the city. Where the locals live and go. Well see.

No luck. This is definitely not Cozumel. It's actually hard to pay someone to just take you around town and show you where the locals go. I am not about to pay 100€ to show meseums and old ruins and all the tourist stuff. I wanna know where the locals hang out, where their favorite food and entertainment is at, the rest I can figure out on my own. Oh well, no biggie. So I decided to head west from downtown on the hike and bike trail I started on this morning. The trail took my by the old fort on the water with its super high walls, the marina and the yatch club. Totally worth it for me since I got to see some kewl boats.

A little further took me to the light house museum and some small Rocky cliffs right near downtown.

Kewl enough but I kept going. Every few minutes in the trail I'd run into something that would keep me going a little further. I finally made it to some real cliffs that I wanted to get a photo of.

Then I found a place I could get a really good picture. The fence ended and there was a good place to hang off the fence and get a good selfie. Trust me, this was way out of my comfort zone but then again so was this whole trip. Great pick don't you think?

Here are a few more taken at a place called Boca Do Inferno (Mouth of Hell). Sorry Oasis in Austin, this is an awesome sunset.

Well with the sun going down, it's time for me to head back before I freeze my butt off. I'm sure the night breeze will be a little cooler than the day.

During dinner tonight, it is important to remember that some things are lost in translation: sub sandwiches turned out to be Mini Subs, about the 4inches . Shaved Spanish ham and bri 1.5€. Chorizo Português 2€, the two most expensive on the menu. Beer 1.5€. Really, really good and really cheap. Can't complain.

[busther-travel-blog]

Cascais Day 1 Dec 5, 2018

Made it up and out of Lisbon by noon with no problems. Backpacking my giant back down to the train station was not the easiest but manageable.

I stopped for one more cup and a pastry before I left and found the one person I am sure didn't like me because I didn't speak Portuguese. The look and expression said it all. Anyway, off I go to my next adventure.

The 32 minute train ride takes me along the coast and right into downtown Cascais. This fishing "village" is more like a pretty good sized city and seems to have all the benefits of a major city while keeping its charm as a fishing village. The tourist center is made up of a pretty substantial number of shops and restaurants, probably 5x5 blocks.

I made it to my apartment and everything is as expected for 17 bucks a night. We'll better than axpected. It's a really kewl place. I bit old and moldy, driving my allergies insane but it's again right in the middle of the tourist zone, with a 5mins walk to the beach.

2nd floor center

The food, let me tell you about the food! Of course there is plenty of seafood to be had but there is also a lot of Persian and Italian food.

I found a mall and a grocery store just off the city center so I decided to explore prices. OMG! Pretty cheap and a huge selection of fish but what I found most exciting was the fresh Cabrito, Goat, Rabbit and Duck! All way cheaper than the states. My mouth is watering as I wright this.

I continued exploring downtown and I could not resist the Indian food and had to stop in for some Lamb Vindaloo (a real test for my ulcers). It was amazing!

I spent most of the evening walking around an found a nice little nondescript catholic church with Mass about to begin. Trying to be a good Catholic and missing Mass in Sunday, I felt obligated to attend and it's only a Wednesday mass, usually short, and it was. Even though I couldnt understand a word I could easily follow along.

After mass and a bit of an emotional moment, I continued to explore and found the Crow Bar. A mostly American looking bar with of heavy metal band perdenalia decor and yes there was one drunk American expat leaving as I arrived, inside from him it was a few young Port women minding their own. Outside of the heavy metal music, it is a quiet place with free Wi-Fi. Stuck around for a few beer.

Home to bed around 10pm where I thought I would get some sleep. Nope! Still have needy clients. I am putting my phone on airplane mode from now on. If there is no internet there is no problem.

Tossed and turned all night.

[busther-travel-blog]

Lisbon Day 4

Well shit! Spent a little time working last night and woke this morning all kind of stressed out. Really! That sucks. It's all I can think that caused me to be in a bad mood all day. I've been dealing with a client I've been working on for 2 years and now she's ready to sell her home and buy a other. Well shit, of course she is, I'm on the other side of the world.

Anyway, got up around 10:30 and had another of my favorite breakfast

Today I was fully expecting to do a city tour. Of course I couldnt easily find a tour guide (I didnd feel like searching the web) so I decided to use my metro card to take a cross town bus to the end and back. That was 2 hours and I got to see all kinds of people and places:

I conclusión (this is my last night until I fly out) Lisbon reminds me a lot of New York City. This is a big city with lots of busy people. Lots of hills and no time for pleasantry. Stay out of the way and don't talk to me I've got things to do. Prices in the city are not much different than Austin except that it's in Euros. In a bar a beer is 3€ and a typical dinner place is at least 10€, sounds cheap until you do the math. Don't get me wrong, it is less expensive than New York. You can really find inexpensive but you gotta look for it.

All and all, this is a huge city with amazing history. The food! OMG the food and especially the pastries. I will be back for that. It has been a great experience that I hope to do again. But for me, Lisbon is a great place to visit or work, but I feel like it's missing the warm and accepting culture that I am looking for.

[busther-travel-blog]

Lisbon Day 3

Ahhhh. Finally got up at a decent time, 9:30am. Man, I am all kinds of sore; these hills are brutal. On a positive note, I slept well and no stomach issues.

Decided to walk to Benard"s Pastries (est 1868) for a capuccino and something sweet.

Yea, they looked at me funny when I ordered two pastries, somehow they interpreted it as 3. Oh well I ate them all and added another capuccino. All this for 12.90€, not the best deal in town.

These tourist prices are killing me. I stopped and bought some ibuprofen at 6.50€, so by 11am I've already spent more than $21! Not good. I need to get out of the tourist zone.

Well shit! Everything I wrote while offline didn't make the post. Here it goes again.

I decided to spend the afternoon trying to get an idea of where I’m going to spend the next few days of my trip.  After a few hours on the internet, I decided to take a train to the next city on my list, Cascais, a little fishing town west of Lisbon, 30 mis by train.  Here is the first thing I saw within 5mins of getting off the train:

As you can imagine, I was instantly hooked!

Back to Lisbon. A quick stop for a beer at a bar I could not get into on Saturday because I refused to wait in line. This place was three stories and packed to the brim. Judging by the art on the wall it must have been a brothel in a former life on pink Street.

Then off to dinner in the hood.

Braised goat

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Lisbon Day 2

Well shit! Woke up at my normal time, for Austin! 3:30pm in Lisbon means I waisted half my day. I got dressed and made it out as soon as possible. Today I decided to see what's on the waterfront. Being a big city, they place their priority in commerce, big ships and ports, not a lot to see as a tourist.

Needless to say, after 4.5 miles, I should have bought a metro card!

I stopped a few times because I had to (going to bed at 5am after 36hrs straight). The long walk gave me the opportunity to contemplate home and after a few tears and disappointment with my late start I ended up at the LX Factory. Think SoCo meets The Pearl, a great place for the artistic, hippy types. If you know me, this is a really kewl place. This is where I had my first sitdown meal, pasta bolonhesa and a glass of vinho tinto, 11€, not bad and very different.

The pasta here is surved much more aldente than I am used to in the US and the sauce is much more meatier/earthy than I've used to, really good.

I sat and had a few glasses but by 8pm I grew tired and needed to go home. I took an Uber to the down town market, Mercado da Ribeira, think food court with around 25 great restaurants near the Tagus River. Pretty kewl and the food variety and wine is amazing. Met some American from FL who bought me a glass. Of course I spent some time talking to the Som at the wine place, not that I remember a whole lot besides the Portugal Vinho is pronounced Viño, otherwise it's an insult (the Ports take offense to the Spanish pronunciation)

I finally decided to head home but luckily I got lost and met Paola, a dark haired 32 year old Albanian from Geneva. She is in Lisbon trying to forget about her boyfriend who has a girlfriend and she is here trying to figure it out. Lisbon is her most favorite city. Her travels have taken her as gas as Cuba and she speaks 5 different languages.

As you can imagine, her love life is complicated, and I made it harder (or she made mine harder). Simply beautiful and straight to the point. We had a pleasant dinner and drinks, and she would only let me pay for drinks. Not what I was expecting at this stage of the game, so many things that impressed me but she would not allow for any method to contact her in the future. Oh well it was fun

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Lisbon Day 1

Oh my goodness. This place is pretty awesome. Little mom and pop restaurants everywhere. Did I mention bakeries, they're everywhere. And unlike some other countries their deserts are rich and sweet and everybody eats them.

So I got to my apartment in Bario Alto around 1pm:

As my landlord promised I was in the middle of it. Sure enough. What looked like narrow cobblestone streets by day, turned into curbside restaurants by night. By sundown, these lonely streets filled up with the hustle and bustle of urban nightlife. My neighborhood is not a place you want to be if you are a light sleeper. I don't think I'm going to have that problem, I am beat tired and I have bearly scratched the surface on what is Lisbon. I have mainly just wondered around downtown, and I already love this place. By nightfall, the streets are filled with people. I don't mean it's a bunch of partiers, I mean there are men, women, young and old, kids and parents and grandparents, all taking it in, grabbing a pastry and a cup and enjoying each other's company.

Also, did I mention hills? I'm pretty good at long walks but I'm hurting. It might be for lack of sleep but I am Tired! Wow.

Here are some pics I took around the neighborhood.

[busther-travel-blog]

Day 1 of my trip 30Nov 7:38pm Eastern.

Im sitting in JFK Airport waiting in my flight to Lisbon.

Being the creature of habit that I am, I had to grab some wings at BW3 while I waited. Its the only restaurant I recognized plus I got a great seat to people watch; everyone in terminal 4 has to go by me.

Im having some spicy garlic wings for the first time in a while and I feel confident that they are not going to kill me. Power of positive thinking at its finest.

Anyway, 2 silver bullets and an hour and a half down, 3 more to go before the 6hr flight to Portugal.

I'll try to keep this updated but I'm not making any promises 😏