Our Portugal Trip

Our week-long trip to Portugal, Sept 17-Sept 21, for my birthday was absolutely amazing. The lack of economic progress and dependency on tourism has led to the countries monuments and natural beauty to remain largely untouched, which is good for foreigners but obviously not for the citizens of Portugal. We spent our week first in Porto, then down the Douro River at Pinhao, and lastly in Cascais, the major resort suburb of Lisboa. We ate incredibly well (thank you Michelin Guide), drank tons of vinho tinto (red wine) and port (tawny, ruby, and branco) and soaked in the sun (ok a little more Bre than Jairo) for an overall thrilling but exhausting week. Here are the highlights:

Bre's story:
Sunday, Sept 16 I spent the night so excited I slept maybe an hour. For one, I could not wait to make our first international journey and second, we had to "wake up" at 3:15 to leave the flat by 3:45 to catch the bus. Well, we somehow either couldnt find the bus or we missed it, but we ended up taking a taxi to Victoria station so as not to miss the Gatwick Express. Another 30 min on the train and we finally make it to the airport, hungry, tired, and running solely on adrenaline. After finding sandwiches and coffee (all of Europe seems to be fueled by sandwiches and coffee), we boarded the flight to Porto and were off on our first journey from London. The flight was only an hour and 45 min (though they managed to serve hot tomato and cheese sandwiches, yogurt, and coffee) but we were so tired and full from sandwiches we passed out. We arrived at the Porto airport and headed to get our rental car. Our rental car, know that I that I think back we should have named it, was a 1.2L manual Opel Corsa. (My dad gets a HUGE kick out of the fact that our car had the same amount of horsepower and torque as our John Deere tractor, which sadly was true, although at least we had air-conditioning). After getting lost (none of the roads have signs), we finally made it to our hotel, the Pestana Porto located on the Cais de Riberia next to the river Douro.
The hotel was a wonderful find and we had a beautiful walk-out view of all of the port lodges across the river (see pictures). We spent the rest of the day at the port lodges and eating at two great restaurants (Mercearia for lunch and Don Tonho for dinner). The next morning we set off for the Vintage House Hotel in Pinhao, a historic hotel located in a tiny, tiny town an hour and a half along the Douro river. The hotel and landscaping was set among the Quintas, the vineyards producing port wine, and was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
A little background about Port wine, which we learned on the tours at Ferriera and Taylors, is that the wine is actually produced in the Douro region and then it is shipped to the port wine lodges in Porto. The wine lodges are therefore more of a "holding ground" for the three types of port: ruby, tawny, and branco. Ruby is aged in a huge barrel while tawny and branco (white) is in smaller, individual barrels. Therefore, if you ever do a flight port tasting, you will notice that ruby is fruitier, tawney drier, and branco is sweeter. On another side note, they make this great port cocktail which is incredibly popular. Instead of a vodka tonic, they do a white port and tonic...its fabulous.
To move on, Pinhao was quaint and relaxing and we spent most of our time at the pool. The restaurant at the Vintage House was absolutely incredible and Jairo had arranged for birthday cake and singing, which after a white port, cocktail and three glasses of wine (it was my birthday mom), were both spectacular. After Pinhao, we hopped into the car and headed to Cascais. The drive to Cascais was nothing short of entertaining. First, we stopped in Aveiro, a beach town south of Porto, at a cafeteria where you didnt order anything but the special. Well the special happened to be chicken with a small salad, french fries, and rice for Jairo and fried white fish with russian potato salad for me. Needless to say the typical portuguese food was so good and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmostphere, that it made it that much better that we both had to stop at a bathroom 30 minutes later.
And now I must mention the car. Oh our poor little car. Between Jairo and I's 280 lbs and our luggages 100 lbs, the car was fully loaded down and refused to go more than 80 km an hour. I must now admit that in Portugal speed limits have a minimum and a maximum and the road we were on, the main highway between Porto and Lisboa had a min of 80 and a max of 120. I must also state that NO ONE in Portugal drives at 120km (~75 mph) on the highway; instead, the drive more like 140-160km. So there we were, puttering along up the hill in 4th gear (5th didnt have enough power) with Jairo laughing so hard he was almost crying, which was making me laugh.
We reached Cascais and to our greatest hopes, we found that our hotel, the FarolDesign Hotel, was completely posh and located on a cliff overlooking the water (again, see pictures). Each room is different and not only were we in a trendy beach town, but everywhere we went it was sunny and beautiful. Thursday, we put on running clothes, packed a backpack of bathing suits, hotel pool towels, and havaianas, and went on a 6 km run to the praias do Guincho (the beaches of the villa of Guincho). We then rented an umbrella and laid on the beach for hours. After a cafezinho (espresso) at the beach cafe, we ran another 6 km back to the hotel. Exhausted, we headed downstairs to the bar for our complementary port and to play cards. We ate at the restaurant at the hotel, the Rosa Maria, which included sushi, filet mignon, and four types of creme brulee (and more port), and crashed upstairs.
The last day we drove through Sintra, another beautiful historic town, and then back to the Porto airport. Overall, the trip was nothing short of wonderful. I thank Jairo immensely for his knowledge of Portuguese (although he couldnt stop laughing at the portuguese of Portugal) and for how great he made the trip with all the small surprises he had for me.
And lastly, after a week of sheer absurdity, we couldn't wait to get back to London, which is starting to feel like our home away from home. Our flat, all four rooms and 600 sq feet couldnt be more inviting and we are now both ready to buckle down and start exactly what we came here to do...to figure out what we want to do for the rest of our lives.

Hope everyone is happy and well and thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Breana

Jairo's Take:
In my first ever posting, I would like to start by pointing out that I was never a good writer in my native language (which must be painful for my mother who was a languages and literature major). That naturally translates into poor writing in English, so let me apologize for run-on sentences, lack of punctuation, or anything else that may make reading this slightly painful. Nevertheless, the purpose of these posts is to relate some of our shenanigans, travels, and experiences while in London, and not a Shakespearian Novel. So bear with me.
Portugal was incredible. I could not have hoped for a nicer vacation before we buckle down and start school. I also seemed to have provided Bre with a fun birthday trip, so that was nice too. Now for those of you who don't know this, Portuguese from Portugal is quite hilarious. Ask any Brazilian that you know and they will confirm it. Therefore, I had to control myself several times from not laughing in people's faces while they spoke to us, which proved to be increasingly challenging as Bre's portuguese got better.
Between Port tastings, incredible food, beautiful sights, fun road trips, nice hotels, and the beach, Portugal definitely moved up a few notches in my book. I would most certainly return given the chance.
I'm assuming most of the people reading this are Bre's friends, but I wanted to send my love to all anyway. I hope you are all doing well and know that we miss you guys a lot. I hope some people get to visit us, as London is an amazing place. Until then, we'll speak online or whenever Bre wants me to post again.
Mike, congrats on the win today and sorry we missed your birthday. We saw the pics from Osman and it seemed you guys had a blast. Happy belated birthday bro.
Mae, Pai, e Cha, eu amo voces muito e estou com saudades.

Beijos pra todos,

Ja