After a very enjoyable and rather luxurious week with Rick and Jo, we headed to Portugal. We had the pleasure of sitting in a bus stop at Portugal's coldest town for 4 hours waiting for our lift to Porto, which saw us analyzing the diet and exercise habits of the ludicrously fat pigeons trotting around, discussing the finer points of digestive biscuits and discovering after 3 hours we had changed time zones. As you can tell, it was an exhilarating introduction to Portugal.
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| Tom keeping KG company... by reading Game of Thrones. Non-stop. |
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| Chillin' with the local pigeons. |
We were lucky enough to stay with another amazing couple in Porto through Couchsurfing. Joao and Anna (and Mia, their gorgeous hound) welcomed us into their home and gave us the hot tips on things to do around Porto. Joao took us to his favourite place for
francesinha, a traditional sandwich found in Porto. It is filled with ham, sausage and steak, then covered in melted cheese and a tomato/whiskey/beer sauce (similar to baked beans sauce), and served with chips. Sounds gross, but was delicious!
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| Tom and Joao tucking in to a francesinha a.k.a. heart attack on a plate |
We also cooked a meal for Joao, Anna, and Joao's aunt and uncle. It was surprisingly difficult to think of a traditional 'Australian' dish that wasn't sausages in bread with tomato sauce, but I managed to put up a beef casserole and a pavlova. Upon serving dinner I soon found out that two of our guests were vegetarians, but everyone was very understanding and just picked the meat out... oops! The pav went down a treat though.
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| Serving up the pav |
We also headed out to the highlight of Tom's trip to Portugal - a day of port wine tasting. We chose the deluxe tour (of course) that included 5 'tasting' glasses of port, which would have been enough to get me blind drunk. We learned the difference between white, ruby and tawny ports, late bottle ports and vintage ports. Needless to say, Tom is now an expert. Just ask him.
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| Tom with 16,000 litres of port. He would have swam in it if he could. |
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| Both of us getting just a little bit excited to try some port.... |
We went on yet another free walking tour and took in some other sights Porto has to offer, including a great view from the main bridge, the cafe where JK Rowling began writing Harry Potter, a photography exhibition, and tried some bangin' Portuguese custard tarts.
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| Majestic Cafe, where JK Rowling began writing Harry Potter |
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| Such a tart! |
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| View from the bridge over Porto |
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| Getting all artsy at the Porto centre of photography, which happens to be in a gaol |
After a great few days with Joao and Anna we headed to Lisbon. We stayed in a hostel that, while basically empty, did provide some entertainment. This included crashing the hostel staff Christmas party, a ridiculously loud snoring Frenchman, our own bunk bed clothes horse, and a raging alcoholic Spanish lady who left a delightful surprise in the toilet while Katherine was having a shower. We were counting the days until we were back in the lap of luxury with Rick and Jo!
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| Tom hiding in our clothes cave |
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| BBQ Portugal style - just light a fire inside. At the hostel staff Christmas party stealing food |
We also caught up with Caldy, a mate of Tom's from basketball. After far too many red wines and the always disatrous port wine night cap, we all stumbled back to whence we came. We did yet another walking tour and checked out the ye olde prostitution street, where the sailors could choose their ethnicity of choice from the name of the establishments, for example, 'Jamaica' or 'Europe' (which are still there today, but as bars and clubs). We also learned about Fado (the traditional music of Portugal), checked out the beautiful views, learned about the devastating earthquake that hit in 1755 and revolution in 1974. We also managed to fit in a (rather wet) trip to the mall to see The Hobbit. Amazing! Except the subtitles for the elves and orcs were in Portuguese.
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| Graffiti in the streets of Lisbon dedicated to the first lady of Faro, Maria Severa |
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| The former prostitution street in Lisbon, now totes trendy |
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| Tom asking our walking tour guide insightful questions, with his European fur draped elegantly over his shoulder. What a stud! |
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| KG doing her best impersonation of a drowned rat |
Tomorrow we head to Belfast to see Rick and Jo again, can't wait to catch up for a Guinness! Hope everyone at home has a very merry Christmas and an amazing New Year! Missing you all x
