It doesn’t matter what kind of traveler you are, whether you like humongous historical monuments or scenic beauty of mountains. Whether you like the flow of river or you like the touch of never ending waves coming at shore. Whether you like to just sit idly on the hill and enjoy the city view or like to go for the pub-hopping and die drinking. So when I googled the places to visit in Portugal, I listed down probably around 10 cities. Because Portugal is a country where you will get everything. And trust me, looking at its breath-taking beauty, you will want to spend my post work-life in Portugal.
So I checked all the modes of travel from Bordeaux, France where I study and decided to book flights considering. We (Jinsoo, Karl and I) were lucky to get cheaper flight tickets for 28 Euros to Porto and 16 Euros back from Lisbon. There are so many places near to Porto and Lisbon to visit but we only had 4 days. Hence we decided to skip the nearby cities and focus on Porto and Lisbon.
Day 1
Jinsoo and I arrived in Porto in afternoon as Karl was going to travel at night because of his job interview which was scheduled on the same afternoon. As we had very little time to explore thousands of places, we directly went to see the city view and sunset at Serra do Pilar Monastery which was at the other side of old town, crossing Ponte Dom Luis I bridge. From this hill you can see the breath-taking view of Douro river cutting the whole city in old town and Porto industrial area which has wineries all around. After sunset, when the whole city turns on the lights, you get wallpaper-esque view of the city. It is a beautiful place to take a bottle of wine and enjoy the sunset while Douro river gulps the Sun down. Now there were two ways to go back to the old town. One was through the humongous Louis I bridge and second was to walk down the hill and cross the old bridge located below the Louis I. We chose the second option because we could not get enough of that view and wanted to come again on next day. For night, we knew Ribeira was the street where we could experience the Porto’s night life. But well the Ribeira street gets lit up mostly on weekends. By that time, Karl joined us and we celebrated the reunion with the bottle of wine.
Day 2
Next morning our priority was to go to the church Igreja do Carmo to take photos for FB, Instagram in-front of its blue and white tile panels. It is also the place where you will find the hidden house just a meter wide in between church Carmo and Church Carmelitas. The second place which we wanted to visit early was Lello Bookstore where J. K. Rowling got an inspiration for writing Harry Potter series. We visited these two places early because there would be few people in the cue for Lello Bookstore and also in-front of cathedral wall. Later we visited the most beautiful café in the Europe – Café Majestic. If I wanted a café to be designed for me then I would want to build it like Café Majestic. It is one of the most expensive cafés along with the most beautiful ones. After experiencing an exquisite latte in Majestic, we headed towards Clerigos Tower which was the tallest tower in Porto with 76 meters of height. There is also a weirdest building in Porto called Casa de Musica for which you will have to take a metro as it is farther towards the new town. We did not want to spend our day in a new town as it was normal commercial place with nothing exciting to see apart from Casa de Musica. Hence we started walking towards the old town via Palacio de Cristal Gardens to again get the city view. Till the time we reached Serra do Pilar Monastery, it was the time for sun to go down the Duoro river again. We spent almost 3 hours till 8 pm there to get the surreal view of the city lights. For the dinner we tasted Portugal’s one of most famous Bacalhao dish which is a cod fish and a Porto wine which was sweeter than usual sweet wines. Never try Porto’s red sweet wine if you are not really into it. And don’t forget to taste the heavy calorie sandwich Francesinha which factually has around 1100 calories in one.
Day 3
As we knew we would have only half day on Day 3, we had kept only one place to visit which was Foz do Douro. This is the spot where Douro river meets an Atlantic ocean. This lighthouse comes in the list of top 10 lighthouses in the world. Near to the lighthouse there is small cute food market Mercado da Foz do Douro where you can enjoy the Porto cuisine.
In afternoon at around 15:30 we reached Lisbon by air which costed us only 10 Euro per person. Now here is the note, after visiting almost every big cities in Europe, I realized that Lisbon is the most tiring city to walk. It is first of all a big city and literally constructed on a number of hills. One street you walk upward and on next you walk down. But, I believe our aim to visit Lisbon was only to eat Pasteis de Nata (egg tart) which I think is the national sweet dish of Portugal. Because we ate Nata at 4 shops before eating it at Pasteis de Belem who are serving egg tarts since 1837. And you surely can tell the difference between egg tarts from other shops and the one cooked in Pasteis de Belem. After our 1st egg tart experience we went to see Sao Gorge Castle which have an entry ticket of 8.5 Euro and will give scenic view of the city. But if you are not too much into castles then there is Miradouro de Santo Estevo which can give you the view tantamount to the one from castle. One advice which I can give to roam around the Alfama (old town) of Lisbon is to follow the tracks of Tram 28. This yellow colored tram 28 is one of the most famous attractions in Lisbon and because it is so famous, it becomes crowded and time consuming to get into. While going through this track you will come across all the tourist spots in Lisbon which includes Monastery of Sao Vicente de Fora, Lisbon Cathedral, Terreiro do Paco, Prazeres Cementery and National Pantheon.
Day 4
On the last day of our expedition, we went to Sintra early in the morning. Sintra is a one day tour from Lisbon. It will take 45 minutes to reach from the city center of Lisbon. The most ravishing place to visit in Sintra is the National Palace of Pena painted in red and yellow. The view of the palace is breath-taking if you are on the hill in-front of it. The palace is also famous for its gardens. The second most famous place in Sintra is Quinta da Regaleira. It will take you to the times of Queens and Kings with their structures showing romanticism and warfare, surrounded by gardens, caves, lakes and some enigmatic construction. Paco Iniciatico is one of the structure to look for which will remind you of Lazarus pit from Batman: Dark Knight Rises. There are other places like Moorish Castle, Azhenas do Mar which is a small village carved on a cliff, facing Atlantic ocean and Cape Roca which is the westernmost point of Europe and the Bear beach near Cape Roca.
The way in which Portugal is famous for its scenic beauty, it is also famous for its party culture. There are two places for a nightlife in Lisbon. Bairro Alto means upper district and Pink street where party usually starts at 2 in the morning. So if you ended up roaming along the pink street at 12 midnight and found no one around then don’t get confused because people most probably would be partying in Bairro Alto at that time.
Before leaving Portugal, make sure you try authentic Octopus dish, other sea food at Agua Pela Barba and famous peri peri chicken at Frangasqueira Nacional.