I'm going to go back a few days here since I haven't been able to blog every day.
Portugal was nice! Not really what I expected, I thought it'd be nicer.
My Aunt Becca and I began our Portuguese journey by waiting 1 1/2 hrs in the airport for the delayed 1 hr 10 min. flight to
Lisboa (pronounced Lisbon in English). We arrive at our hotel,
Hotel Riviera in
Carcavelos, Portugal around 4pm. We drop our luggage off and wander along the coast to grab something to eat.
Um...lot's of dog crap! Not a good choice of restaurants, not a very scenic walk. Back towards the hotel... we find a cute little tea house that sells tea, beer, sandwhiches and desserts. This seems like THE place to be. Lot's of folks enjoying their afternoon tea and scones (biscuits in English :P). This place gives me an idea...
IF I EVER want to open a business, what do you think about a International coffee/tea/brew/snack house? This cafe will brew all different types of International coffee- in it's proper form. This means the Indian coffee will be '
filter coffee', Spanish coffee will be served as
cafe con leche and Turkish kahve will be served in the little, as Americans know it, Espresso cups. The brew will vary with the true
German Hefeweizen,
English AlesMmm.. Along with all my favorite coffees and beers :), many traditional desserts will be available, Portuguese
Pasteis de Nata will be endulged, Italian
Torta Caprese will be served and French souffles can be munched on.
Yah! With hip wordly music to sawy to!
Ok, sorry... I went off onto another topic...
We did our first 'tour' in the rain in
Cascais (pronounced Cascash). We saw very cool walkways- no American tradiitional cement, there are small tiles in black and beige. A lot of small shops that are nicely tucked in the tiled cement walkways. Unfortunately we were walking in puddles, getting wet our whole journey.
We went to see the
Boca Do Inferno (translates to Hell's mouth)which is absolutely amazing, pictures to come soon (when I develop my cheap lil disposable, since my Aunt forgot her camera too- we must be related? We BOTH forgot our cameras).
We walked back along the coast to downtown Cascais. Many very cool houses and beautiful ocean. Later in the afternoon (after a wannabe Indian meal [was more like Thai- Portuguese don't know how to cook Indian]), we went to
Sintra. This town was very pretty! The town had many cool buildings with lots of character and MUCH greenery! A lot of foliage and cool, but weird, statues. This town has lot's of castles.
We ended our day on a long, semi-scary trip back to Carcavelos. Becca got squished while we hopped on a train, we had to walk down a dark, unidentified area, to the next train. Looong ride.
The next day (our final day in Portugal), was spent in downtown Lisboa. We saw a dozen more monuments and shops and had our first Pasteis de Nata, mmmmm. I don't like custard, but this was yummy!!
Portugal is nice, I wouldn't mind seeing other parts of the country.
