The country where my ancestors come from…I finally get here!!!
Portugal has long been talked about in my family. It is where my great grandparents immigrated to the United States from. I had long been raised on eating Portuguese style food and it is still some of my favorites that I still cook.
I had the opportunity to spend about a week here just milling around and seeing the sites of the country. I stayed around Lisbon and the surrounding areas, then made my way up to Porto (as I love port wine), but too much of it will definitely make you stare at death in the face in the morning.
Lisbon was a city that I simply fell in love with!!! I didn’t think it was as crazy with nightlife as it was, but there was always something going on there. The Beaches are amazing and just walking around the city and taking busses, gave me an idea about how life is here….
I went on a day trip to different castles around the outskirts of Lisbon as well as Obidos which is a famous walled city as I got to walk around the walls for a bit. The highlight of the day is going to Fatima, which in the early 1900’s a child was said to have a vision of the Virgin Mary. This city is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Europe as it receives about 5 million Pilgrims a year.
It just happened that while we were in Lisbon that they were having the finals of the World Cup. Our guide told us that at the Bull Fighting stadium that they would have a 3D big screen TV to watch the game and all it cost us was 1 Euro to get in!!!! This was exciting as I was really rooting for Spain in this one vs. the Netherlands. It so happened that Spain won and I was excited as all hell…
We drove up North to Porto which is famous for making and the originator or Port Wine. We first stopped at a winery and I bought as many bottles as I could handle in my bag. After we got checked into our accommodation, I went out and about to see the nightlife which was chilled out and fun. We went to a place that served these massive jugs of mixed drinks and I think everyone drank a little too much. The next day, we went around the city and just checked everything out. I must of walked about 10 kilometers that whole day, going to museums, sitting in the park and just chilling out. That night I went out with a few people to sing Karaoke as I knew our time in Portugal was coming to an end…..