Portugal <3

Portugal



Oh what a fabulous trip Portugal was!! I love Portugal and had such an
amazing time there, I want to go back ASAP!

Day 1: September 19 we arrived in Portugal. My friends and I planned
to meet around 830 to debark the ship, and since we were planning to
sleep on the ship every night we didn't need to go through the hassle
of getting out passports from the crew, (which does save a bit of time
when everyone on the ship is trying to debark). My roommate and I woke
up and got ready and I decided to go grab breakfast (breakfast is by
far the best meal on the ship, always different kinds of omelets and
sometimes French toast, YUM.) After I ate we met in the main square of
the ship and headed out to wander Lisbon for a little until Dylan had
to leave to go to his Field Lab. We found a cute little coffee shop
about 10minutes from the ship and sat down and ate some croissants and
buns. We didn't really have any plans for the day, or rather any day,
so we decided to just start walking in the direction the main square
of Lisbon was. At this point Dylan left to go back to the ship to meet
up with his class for his Field Lab. So Kelsey, Victoria, Emily and I
wandered around, ran into a few other SAS kids all doing the same sort
of wandering until we found the big main square that had a bunch of
shops and restaurants surrounding it. We went into an information
office and looked at a bunch of pamphlets and things and decided our
best bet for the day was to take an open-top (hop-on hop-off) bus tour
around the city to get the lay of the land. So we caught the next bus
just a block from the office and drove through the city. All of the
buildings were so pretty and a lot of them were completely tiled on
the front with colorful tiles and things. About ¾ the way through the
tour all 4 of us were getting hungry so we got off and walked down a
street with a bunch of little restaurants on it. We decided on the one
that looked pretty busy and sat down. Our waiter spoke broken English
and told us about one of the items on the menu was a mixed platter and
was very popular in Portugal so my roommate and I decided to share one
of these 'very popular' dishes. Oh how we regretted that decision
rather quickly. Our food came out and it was a platter of very random
meats that all seemed very uncooked…and when I say uncooked…I mean I
think one part of it might have still been alive (slight exaggeration…
but it was bad). So we both just kind of pushed the very un-edible
looking food a around for a while and after everyone was finished
'eating' we decided that we would just go back to the ice cream stand
on the way there and make that the rest of our lunch. We ate our
lovely ice creams in this beautiful park and just enjoyed the sunny
day…well the 3 of them did that while I frantically looked for my bus
ticket that I must have dropped somewhere. Then we headed back over to
the bus stop near this amazing giant statue and a very pretty little
marina and waited for the bus. The bus arrived and luckily the bus
driver didn't really care too much that I didn't have a ticket and we
continued on our tour. One of the last bus stops was right next to our
ship so we planned to get off when the bus stopped there…well the bus
did not stop there and just zoomed right by. So we got off at the next
stop about a mile or two from the ship and slowly wandered and found
our way back to the ship. We had about an hour before our friends got
back from their field lab so we all relaxed for a bit on the ship.
Then we grabbed some dinner on the ship and then Dylan, Kelsey and I
wanted to go shopping for a bit. I remembered seeing a giant store on
our bus tour so we told the cab driver to take us there hoping it was
some sort of mall. It ended up being a GINORMOUS department store, it
had 8 floors with everything you could ever imagine…except for
anything Kelsey and I were looking for. We wandered around, lost Dylan
for a while (like an hour…) and then headed back to the ship empty
handed (except Dylan bought a bunch). Then once we were back at the
ship we found out our friends were at a bar just up a hill by the ship
that looked out onto the river and you could see our ship lit up with
all its pretty lights, so we headed over and met them. The bar was
really nice and when we showed up there were 8 of us in total. Our
friends had 2 bottles of port wine on the table and were so excited to
share with us because the bottles were only 4 euro's each. So my 2
friends and I each tried their wines and then ordered a third bottle
for the table. Every time we ask to order a bottle the waitress gave
us a weird look but we didn't think anything of and just thought it
was the language barrier. Well when we went to pay (expecting a
12eruos bill) we all chipped in our 2euros each…until we got our
actual bill that was 175euros…that is when we found out the bottles
were not 4 euros each (4 euros a dose…which we are assuming is a
glass) and our waitress gave us a weird look because they don't
actually sell bottles at this bar because they are so expensive…
whoopsies, this was not our brightest moment, rather our stupidest
moment yet. We all agreed to pay for our stupidity but the owner was
nice and a bit sympathetic so he gave us all a free shot of alcohol
after we paid our 175euros. Then we all left and caught a cab to the
part of the city with all of the nightlife. When we arrived there we
saw a ton of SAS kids hanging out, along with even more locals. It was
a very cool scene and every bar was very different then the last. We
stayed there for a while and then two of my friends (Dylan and Alex)
and I caught a cab to a very popular club in Lisbon called Urban
Beach. Urban Beach was probably one of the coolest clubs I had been
into and it was just a 5minute walk from the ship, and you could see
our ship all lit up right outside the window, very cool!! After
dancing there for a while the 3 of us headed back to the ship and went
to bed.



Day 2: Day 2 was definitely one of the best days of my voyage so far,
relaxing and beautiful. We woke up determined to find a beach (my
friends and I hadn't stopped at a beach once this voyage, so Portugal
was the place for a beach day!) so we asked the port agent where the
closest/best beach was. He told us to go to Cascais. So the 5 of us
(Me, Dylan, Kelsey, Victoria, and Austin) caught a cab to Cascais. The
cab driver dropped us off in the town of Cascais and we were all
starving so we started hunting for a restaurant. We walked down some
tiny roads and came up to a restaurant on the corner that looked like
they had awesome food and cheap prices (perfect for us! Haha) so we
walked in and sat down (we were the only people in there, it was very
small, but had really cool furniture!) And then the owner/waiter/chef
came over and started speaking English to us we got even more excited.
The owner is from England but has lived in Portugal for 11 years (also
has lived all over the U.S.). We ordered some yummy food and sangria
and chatted with the owner as we sat in the sun on the patio. We
stayed there for a while and we all left nice and full and so happy we
found this place on a little side street. The owner of the restaurant
directed us to the beach and we thanked him very much and walked the
5-10minutes to the beach. When we turned the last corner and saw the
beach and the beautiful water all of our jaws dropped I think. We set
up our towels and then (quite literally) went sprinting into the
ocean. It was pretty chilly at first but we didn't care, we were too
happy to be there. Once the initial excitement my friends settled onto
their towels and Dylan and I went and walked down and around the
beach. There were a lot of other SAS kids on the beach but we were a
bit farther down then them so we said hi and kept walking. Then we saw
some people paddle boarding (stand up on a surf board with a big tall
paddle) out around the anchored ships/sailboats and decided we needed
to do that. After asking quite a few people we found the guy who rents
them out. He gave us a quite lesson on the basics and then told us
that is a police boat stops us, tell them we own these boards and
didn't pay money to use them (just a little sketchy…but that wasn't
going to stop us). So we headed out on the boards and when we got out
there, there was one other kid on the board and he was from SAS too so
the three of us paddled around all the anchored sailboats. (I was
impressed with my paddle boarding skills…though I did fall of twice in
a very dramatic way attempting to save myself…the guys got a laugh out
of it at least). We had an hour on the boards we stopped in the middle
of the boats and just laid on the boards and chatted and took in the
sights. Then it was time to head back in. When we got back Dylan and I
walked back over to our friends where a few more SAS kids had joined
us. Dylan and Kelsey went to go eat so Victoria, Austin, and I happily
laid in the sun. Then one of the girls laying near us said they were
invited onto one of the sailboats anchored off shore and asked if we
wanted to join, so Victoria and I did. So the 3 of swam out to meet
the other 4 girls hanging out on this sailboat. Once we completed the
lengthy swim out there we then had to climb up the side of the
sailboat with no ladder…this may have been the most difficult thing I
have ever done. After finally getting onto the back of the boat (which
everyone enjoyed watching me struggle to get on) I met the guys who
actually live on the sailboat. They are from Sweden and are sailing
the world for 2 ½ years and they just left Sweden 3 weeks ago. The
sailboat was relatively small (especially because we were stuffing 9
people on it) but the guys who lived on it had such a cool story. They
had all saved up money and decided this is how they are going to see
the world. The amazing part is 2 (of the 3) had never been on a
sailboat before this journey…ever…and now they are living on one for 2
½ years. And their life is literally coming in and anchoring in
different ports and/or marinas staying for a couple days and then
moving on to the next. I am fascinated with their lives and think in
my next life (or this life, if I win the lottery) I want to travel the
world on the sailboat. (Yes, I am aware I am doing the same thing on a
ship right now, but a sailboat would be cool too!!) After hanging out
with them for a while and learning about their awesome lives they gave
us a ride back to shore on their little baby zodiac and we met up with
the rest of our friends laying on the beach. After lying in the sun
and drying off for a bit we decided it was time to head back to the
ship for dinner. Half of us caught a cab and half of my friends caught
the train back to the ship. One of my friends in the cab started
talking about how he was going to go to the soccer game (Sporting
against FC Besal) at the stadium in Lisbon that night and was just
heading back to the ship to shower really quick. I instantly wanted to
go and so did Dylan, but Kelsey was pretty dehydrated from the sun and
also had a cold so she just needed to relax on the ship for a bit. So
once we got back to the ship Ian, Dylan and I headed out to the soccer
stadium. We grabbed some food (I ate a bun with an omelet inside of it
from a stand…it was delicious but very random) and bought our tickets
(and of course had to go to the venders and buy some Sporting gear…
which by the way both Dylan and I were attempted by a pick-pocketer,
lucky we knew not to keep anything in our pockets, but boy did I shoot
that old man a dirty look, he didn't seem to pleased!) then headed
into the game! We were sitting in the nosebleeds but it was still
awesome. The really intense cheering sections for both teams were
directly under us and it was amazing how loud and excited they were
the whole game, I loved it! Unfortunately the game ended with a 0-0
score, so we didn't get to see a GOOOAALLLLLLL but it was awesome
nonetheless. I have never really watched a pro soccer game before, but
I really liked it, and where better to watch my first game than
Portugal? After the game I was exhausted from the jam-packed day so we
headed back to the ship and I went to bed for some well needed sleep.



Day 3: Day 3 was a day dedicated to shopping. We realized Portugal was
very cheap and decided we all needed to do just a bit of shopping for
things we left at home before the voyage. Kelsey, Dylan and I woke up
(slept in a little later til about 930) and ate breakfast on Deck 7
(where they have the awesome breakfast wraps and croissants). Then we
grabbed a cab to an actual mall (unlike the place we tried on the
first day) that was way on the other side of Lisbon. This mall was
also incredibly large with a million floors and stores (ha, that
rhymes!). We shopped there for a while and used the WiFi at the Burger
King and we all left with a few things from H&M. Then we headed into
the main square of the city (more touristy area) and wandered through
all the street performers and souvenir shops. There was one street
performer playing an accordion that had trained his tiny Chihuahua dog
to hold the little bucket for people to put change in, it was so cute!
I think most people gave him change because he trained his dog and not
for his music. We all bought some postcards and magnets and touristy
things and then wandered up a side street to find some food. We came
across this time sushi restaurant (and since we had talked about
eating sushi in every port, we decided now was the time) so we went in
and ordered sushi in our broken Portuguese/Spanish. I couldn't tell
you what we ended up ordering, but it was delicious! I was so happy to
finally have some great sushi; we ended go back up and ordering more.
After our sushi feast we walked the shops a bit more and then caught a
cab back to the ship in plenty of time of 'on ship time'.



Portugal is definitely one of my most favorite ports so far, the
locals were so nice and welcoming and tried hard to understand my
attempt at pretending I can speak Portuguese when I'm really just
speaking Spanish. I really want to come back to Portugal and explore
more of the country ASAP!!!