Portugal

Though we didn't have much time, while in Spain we decided to cross the boarder into Portugal to visit Lisbon and Oporto. As we were in the south we went to the funky capital Lisbon first for 3 nights. We spent the first day seeing the sights including the Columbus monument, the statue of Christ looking back over the city, the water front and a trendy section of town called LX factory. We also made time to sample some delious Portuguese cusine like Iberian pork, rabbit, ocutopus and of course Portugese tarts. While on our long walk (over 16km in one day) we stumbled onto a little place that specialised in Portugese tarts. After seeing such a long line out the front we felt that there must be a reason, and after tasting our tarts we were convinced, these were in fact the best in Portugal!

While in Lisbon we researched good restaurant and found a little place called Xapuri. After being greeted by the friendly Romanian waiter and quizzed on our trip so far - he was very impressed we had just come from Romania - we settled in for salmon capriccio and meat balls from various sausages (chorizo, blood, traditional). Another interesting meal in Portugal was in Oporto, after seeing locals tucking into a gravy covered sandwich we thought that we must give it a try to. Fortunately, we decided to share one, as it was huge, cheesy and DENSE, but still delicous and a great way to prepare for port tastings.

As you may have noticed from our blog posts we have enjoyed seeing some great street art and Portugal certainly had some impressive work. We had a great time just wandering the back streets and discovering the full building displays covering ordinary residential apartments.

Our second and final stop in Portugal was Oporto. Best know for its famous sweet wines, this thriving metropolis is also a great place just to wander and snap away... With the intricately tiled building dominating both the main streets and back alley and the numerous displays of colourful door ways, it was near impossible to save enough room on our data cards to fit in photos for the rest of the trip.

One happy coincidence while staying in Oporto, was the Port festival taking place down by the river. After sampling the ports at some of local houses we hot footed down to the festival and bought our ticket to the festival. The tickets included 5 samples of local ports, a cooking demonstration and a wine tasting session taken by local experts. After enjoying our cooking demonstration with a local Portuguese chef and sampling her chocolate brownie with port toffee and syrup, this left our tummies wanting more. So to satisfy our hunger we perused the massive selection of bite size tapas selecting a few to match our port samples. Feeling quite merry, we were happy for the long stroll back to the hotel to help clear our heads in preparations for the drive back to spain on hand morrow.

- Louise & Ryan -