I made it back to Lisbon for the second time. This time I stayed for five days. The first thing I did was go to the DHL office to see if I could get my replacement debit card. There had been a delivery attempt at the hostel's building that was refused. The first time I called DHL, I asked the person I talked to if I could pick up ther package at their office, and they said that was impossible, because the sender did not allow for that possibility. Frustrated, I tried to explain that that there was never anyone at the delivery location, but I hit a brick wall with the idiot I was talking to. I wanted to say, "Isn't it your job to make sure people get their packages?" But, luckily, my Skype call got cut off, so I called back and talked to a second person who told me that it would be no problem to pick up my package at their office in Lisbon. I don't know why some people want to use the rules to interfere with you, and some people try to use the rules to help you.
So, armed with these two contradictory pieces of information, I took a metro to the DHL office immediately after checking into the hostel, not knowing what kind of person I would have to deal with at the DHL office, and not completely certain that I would get my replacement debit card. But, luckily, my debit card was there for me. I then set out to find an ATM, and couldn't find one for a while. But I remembered I had seen one at Sete Rios train station, so I took the metro there. I had been getting seriously low on cash, and most places outside of Lisbon did not take credit cards, so I had been really conserving my money, and was down to my last few euros. I could have done some other stuff to get money if I had needed to, but it didn't come to that.
I spent the remaining time in the day wandering around Lisbon, and I treated myself to dinner in a restaurant since now I had money. I had pre-reserved a return trip to Coimbra on the train for the next day, so I got up really early to make that journey. It was a pretty long train trip, and was pushing it for a day trip. But I enjoyed my visit to Coimbra, though I was a bit burned out by the end of the day.
After returning to Lisbon late at night, the next day I spent all day unexpectedly backing up the SD card on my phone, as I found it was almost full. It took me all day and waking up several times throughout the night to back up all the data. But I was glad I had a spare day available to do it. I didn't even leave to get food, since I was tethered with my phone to my laptop, backing up the data to both a hard drive and Dropbox. At least it only took a day; when I had done a similar thing in Hanoi, it had taken me three weeks of constant connection to the Internet with my laptop to back up my SD card.
So now my backup had been accomplished, and I had a way to get money. I decided to take a day trip to Sintra, which is a beautiful medieval town bordering forested mountains filled with fairytale castles and whatnot. On the train to Sintra, there was a guy playing accordion, accompanied by a guy playing the tambourine. Why do accordion players always play "Besame Mucho"? I wonder.
I looked up some sites to see, found about nine places that were good candidates to visit, and figured I'd get to about seven of them during the day. Ha, ha. The was no way I would get to that many places, especially since I spent half the day just wandering around. Sintra is not like most other Portuguese towns where everything is in a very compact place; all the sites are very far apart, scattered across forested mountains.
When I first got to Sintra, one of the first things I saw was a regional bus that went to [Cabo], which is the westernmost point in Portugal and in Continental Europe. My first impulse was to jump on that bus, but then I thought that I could do that later in the day. I didn't get the chance again, because by the time I returned from sightseeing, it was too late to head out in that direction, because I wouldn't have had time to catch the last bus back. Oh, well.
I actually only had time to see two sites of the several I had picked out, which were Castelo dos Mouros, and Palacio da Pena. Both of them were phenomenal places. Castelo dos Mouros was right at the top of the mountain facing Sintra. There were some incredibly heavy winds there, with gusts that I would describe as hurricane-strength, on the way up to the main tower. I was blown over onto a huge pile of rocks on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire by winds that strong, and ended up covered with blood, so I tend to be a leetle bit careful with strong winds on craggy mountain tops. Especially, as was the case here, where there are precipitous drops on both sides of the rocky stairs.
Probably one would have to spend at least three days in Sintra to get a good visit of the attractions and surroundings. It's not really the kind of place that lends itself to a day trip, but in one day, I did manage to get a sense of the way the place feels. Some towns are optimal for day trips, some are not.
On my last day in Lisbon, I visited the Belém area, which is by the waterfront, and is a nice place to visit, though kind of touristy. I tried to get into the Jerónimos Monastery, but the line was really long, so I went into the attached church, which had no line, hoping that the line for the monastery would die down. When I got out of the church, the line was much, much longer, so I abandoned the plan to visit the monastery and just wandered around Belém.
I left the next day on a flight to Barcelona. I would have liked to have planned to see more of Spain, but the fact that the Schengen zone only gives me 90 days out of 180 days to stay there makes it so I can't wander as much as I would like. Maybe the next time I visit Europe I'll be able to see more of Spain.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Sunday, May 13, 2018
One Million Steps
I've now taken one million steps since I left on my journey in March 31 of this year. My shoes are holding up pretty well. I've found in previous travel that I need to change shoes about every six to nine months with heavy ambulation. This time, I bought some pretty good walking shoes for my trip, instead of getting what is on sale at Payless. So maybe they will hold up better than previous shoes. Eventually, though, I'll possibly have to buy whatever shoes I can find to use. I can't really buy an extra pair, because I just don't have room to store them. Shoes take up a lot of room in a backpack. So I can't really buy another pair until these are ready for the trash bin, or unless I'm living in a semi-permanent location like an apartment, which won't happen for quite a while.
And, let me qualify the million steps. I've actually walked much more than that, because the app on my phone has been shorting me steps for quite some time. When I started out, it was quite accurate, but now it fails to register somewhere between 10% and 30% of my steps, according to my interval testing. From what I've read online, it's probably due to either a system update or another app that creates a conflict. Honestly, I don't care that much, it's just a rough estimate, and maybe there is an x multiplier of 1.3 or something. But some of the people talking about this in online forums act like crack addicts who have just been cut off cold turkey. Fitness obsession is a funny thing.
And, let me qualify the million steps. I've actually walked much more than that, because the app on my phone has been shorting me steps for quite some time. When I started out, it was quite accurate, but now it fails to register somewhere between 10% and 30% of my steps, according to my interval testing. From what I've read online, it's probably due to either a system update or another app that creates a conflict. Honestly, I don't care that much, it's just a rough estimate, and maybe there is an x multiplier of 1.3 or something. But some of the people talking about this in online forums act like crack addicts who have just been cut off cold turkey. Fitness obsession is a funny thing.
Friday, May 11, 2018
Circling Around Portugal
I flew from Porto to Lisbon, since I had found a relatively cheap flight, but I wish I had taken the train instead. The flight was only an hour, but airports are always a hassle and you have to get there early and wait (and pack everything in a special fashion beforehand), so I probably spent almost as much time as I would have with the train. Plus, I probably could have stopped in another place in the way.
When I got to Lisbon, it was easy to take the metro in from the airport, but there was a hugely steep hill between the metro station and the hostel. It wasn't too bad, but with my full pack on, it was some pretty heavy exercise. The hostel was very pleasant. My first day there, I took a walk around the area near the hostel, and it wasn't terribly interesting. But in the next few days, I went to much more interesting places in Portugal's capital. The city is VERY hilly, and if you walk around for a few minutes, the chances are that you will be soon climbing up a very steep hill.
The metro system is easy to use, and if you buy a day pass, you will have access to not only the metro system, but also the buses and the trains as well, as well as more esoteric forms of transportation, such as funiculars (called elevadores) and the Santa Justa Elevator (Ascensor de Santa Justa), which is a unique form of public transportation...it's an elevator that gets you up one of the steep hills. The day pass won't get you on the regional transportation, such as the trains to Sintra or any other regional trains, buses or ferries, but it is great fir getting around the city of Lisbon on days that you will be moving a lot. If you're not using a lot of public transportation on some days, you might want to consider just buying single trips. If you buy a single trip, you have a certain amount of time to change your mode of transportation within the city for no charge. Either way, you'll want a Viva Viagem card which you can load up with either a day pass or money for individual trips. You can also load single trips for some of the regional trains on the card.
I spent three days in Lisbon, just checking out the city. Probably the most interesting neighborhood was Bairro Alto, which is up a very steep hill from the waterfront area. You can either take a series of staircases there, or take the funicular called the Elevador da Glória; I did it both ways over the course of my visit. I had a metro day pass on the day I took the Elevador so it was covered in the day pass. Since Lisbon is so hilly, you can look at Google Maps, and it is hard to tell when you will be climbing very steep hills. Something that is three blocks away on the map might be quite the heady climb. If you're lucky, it might be downhill, but then you eventually have to face the trip back up.
I didn't get to see a whole lot in the three days I was in Lisbon, but I'll be heading back there again soon. I did make it to the top of the Amoreiras Tower, which is supposed to be the highest place in Lisbon, to see the views of the city. It looked from there that there might have been higher mountains surrounding the city, though. I also managed to take the iconic Tram 28. There was a huge crowd lined up for the tram, and people kept cutting in line, so it took a long time to shorten. This antique tram would be difficult to replace with a newer model, because the tracks are very narrow, and it goes up very narrow, winding streets with sharp turns and steep inclines. The tram was packed, and only had small rows of single seats and standing room only in the aisle. It sounded like metal was grinding on metal at times.
On my last day, I took the metro to Sete Rios train station to catch a train to Faro, in the Algarve region at the south tip of Portugal. When I was taking the train from Lisbon to Faro, I accidentally missed my scheduled connection by jumping on the wrong train. The train before mine was late, and showed up a minute before mine, so I thought it was my train. I found it it wasn't the right train just as the doors snapped shut and the train took off, so it was just a second or two too late to get back off. I was bummed. My ticket was reserved on a specific train and was non-refundable, and now there was no way I would make that train. And that was the first specific travel reservation that I've missed in either the last world journey I was on or this one! Which is pretty amazing, considering all the travel I've done in the fast few years. I got off at the next station, asked which train to take to get back to Sete Rios Station in Lisbon, and took the train back.
I went to the ticket window at Sete Rios, sheepishly explained that I had missed my train because I got on the wrong one (it was now about forty minutes after my train had left), and asked what I could do. The ticket seller was very helpful and sold me a ticket for the next train for the difference between the original cheap non-refundable fare and the regular fare, but unfortunately, the next (and only) train to Faro for the day was four hours later. And I definitely couldn't miss that train. Not a huge deal, I just had to wait at the station, but I used that time to plan out some future travel and make reservations, so it was put to good use. And I'd still make it to my hostel in Faro that night.
It was a lot hotter in Faro than it had been in Porto or Lisbon, which were coolish in temperature. Faro is in the Algarve region on the southern edge of Portugal, and the climate is definitely warmer in the Algarve. Faro is kind of a mellow little sleepy town with a small town center.
I took a day trip to Albufeira, which was VERY touristy. But it had some beautiful beaches with magnificent cliffs, so I mostly spent my time walking in the beaches, wading in the water (there were signs saying swimming was prohibited ir discouraged, probably because of dangerous tides). Wish I had spent more time in Faro, because I could have checked out the Algarve area more, as there were buses and trains running throughout the region.
I took the train from Faro to Évora, and it changed at Pinhal Novo, a few miles southeast of Lisbon. But the first train was running late due to some delay along the way. It was a very fast train, running over 200 kms. per hour, but for some reason it only ran about 20 kilometers per hour for about half an hour. It was supposed to arrive at 5:22 pm, and I was supposed to catch my connection at 5:48 pm at Pinhal Novo. But 5:22 came, and then 5:30, and we still hadn't arrived. I was getting a little nervous about whether we were going to arrive on time. When one of the train ticket checkers came by, I asked him what time we were going to arrive at Pinhal Novo; he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know, but it was the next stop. It didn't help that Google Maps was completely malfunctioning for me, and showing that our location was hundreds of kilometers from where we actually were. About 5:42 we hadn't gotten there, and there was no announcement, so I was afraid I was going to miss my connection. I gathered my backpack and put it on so I could dash out the door when we got there. Finally, there was an announcement. We stopped at 5:46; I had two minutes to spare. I just jumped off the train, full of adrenaline, and started running as fast as I could with my full backpack on. Luckily, I passed a screen saying that the train I needed to be on was arriving at track 2, so I sprinted to track 2, running and puffing up the stairs. I got to the train that I needed to change to with about twenty seconds to spare. All that leisure time; I guess you could say I ran too fast. Of course, I wasn't on the right car, but at least I had made it on the train. I found my car and my seat and sighed a breath of relief.
I arrived in Évora, and it smelled like rain, so I put the rain fly on my backpack. Sure enough, it started pouring like crazy. I took out my umbrella, and it was about a half hour walk in the rain to the hostel, mostly uphill. Not crazy steep uphill like it had been in Lisbon, though.
Évora is a beautiful, small, sleepy town, and the town center is completely encircled by an outer wall, and an inner wall that is mostly gone now, but there are still some remnants of it. The town center encircled by the wall is very compact and small, and there are a lot of narrow, snaking alleys thst are barely big enough to allow a medium sized car; some even won't fit car traffic. There is an ancient aqueduct that passes into the town. It seems like it has more buildings built into its arches than most of the aqueducts I've seen. It also gets lower and lower in the town until it disappears.
In the town square in the center of Évora, there is a Roman Temple constructed in the first century to commemorate the Emperor Augustus. It is called the Temple of Diana, though it really has no known connection to the goddess Diana. Across the street, the Garden of Diana offers some beautiful views of the town from atop a hill. And right around the corner, bordering the same square, are the Cathedral of Évora, on which construction started in 1280, and the town museum, with many interesting archaeological remnants.
One of the highlights of my visit to Évora was an archaeological tour I took just outside the city to three megalithic stone sites. Mario was our guide, and he was supremely knowledgeable about not only the archeology of the area, but also about much of the geography and biology of the area. The first site was the Cromleque dos Almendres site. It is near the village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe. This megalithic stone formation is built in a symmetrical ellipse, but has many stones missing. It predates Stonehenge by about two millenia. The line that bisects the site leads due east to where the sun rises during the equinoxes, and there are two marker stones some distance from the site that indicate where the sun rises on the summer and winter solstices.
Next, I went out to one of the standing stones of Almendres (Menir dos Almendres). This single stone is several kilometers away from the ellipse of stones that make up the Almendres Cromlech, and is the marker stone that signifies where the sun rises on the summer solstice, as viewed from the main site.
And, finally, I went to the Zambujeiro Dolmen site. This was a burial mound for Neolithic people of high status, constructed around the time Stonehenge was built. It has been shored up and supported due to problems with structural integrity. There are bricks and wooden structures supporting the stones, and a metal shelter covering the site. The site is close to collapse, and these were meant to be temporary support measures constructed in the 80s, but have stayed there since.
I took a train back to Lisbon after four days in Évora. I have had some anxiety for about a week and a half due to the fact that my debit card was apparently cloned, and somebody tried to use it in Houston to take money out of an ATM. Fortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful, so I didn't lose any money. But the bank cancelled my debit card, and is sending me a new one. I had just taken out some money before the card was cancelled, but now my reserves are dwindling. I checked the tracking on the web, and apparently an attempt was made to deliver the card to the hostel in Lisbon, which I will soon return to, but the delivery was refused. I'm pretty sure that the delivery person rang a bell at the site (there are several bells there and the hostel is on the third floor), and some person from another floor unrelated to the hostel answered the door and refused it. Also, there is rarely someone on site at the hostel; it's not one that is staffed full-time, just when needed to greet new arrivals. So I contacted the carrier, and hopefully I'll be able to pick it up at their delivery warehouse when I get back to Lisbon. I still have butterflies about it a bit, though.
When I got to Lisbon, it was easy to take the metro in from the airport, but there was a hugely steep hill between the metro station and the hostel. It wasn't too bad, but with my full pack on, it was some pretty heavy exercise. The hostel was very pleasant. My first day there, I took a walk around the area near the hostel, and it wasn't terribly interesting. But in the next few days, I went to much more interesting places in Portugal's capital. The city is VERY hilly, and if you walk around for a few minutes, the chances are that you will be soon climbing up a very steep hill.
The metro system is easy to use, and if you buy a day pass, you will have access to not only the metro system, but also the buses and the trains as well, as well as more esoteric forms of transportation, such as funiculars (called elevadores) and the Santa Justa Elevator (Ascensor de Santa Justa), which is a unique form of public transportation...it's an elevator that gets you up one of the steep hills. The day pass won't get you on the regional transportation, such as the trains to Sintra or any other regional trains, buses or ferries, but it is great fir getting around the city of Lisbon on days that you will be moving a lot. If you're not using a lot of public transportation on some days, you might want to consider just buying single trips. If you buy a single trip, you have a certain amount of time to change your mode of transportation within the city for no charge. Either way, you'll want a Viva Viagem card which you can load up with either a day pass or money for individual trips. You can also load single trips for some of the regional trains on the card.
I spent three days in Lisbon, just checking out the city. Probably the most interesting neighborhood was Bairro Alto, which is up a very steep hill from the waterfront area. You can either take a series of staircases there, or take the funicular called the Elevador da Glória; I did it both ways over the course of my visit. I had a metro day pass on the day I took the Elevador so it was covered in the day pass. Since Lisbon is so hilly, you can look at Google Maps, and it is hard to tell when you will be climbing very steep hills. Something that is three blocks away on the map might be quite the heady climb. If you're lucky, it might be downhill, but then you eventually have to face the trip back up.
I didn't get to see a whole lot in the three days I was in Lisbon, but I'll be heading back there again soon. I did make it to the top of the Amoreiras Tower, which is supposed to be the highest place in Lisbon, to see the views of the city. It looked from there that there might have been higher mountains surrounding the city, though. I also managed to take the iconic Tram 28. There was a huge crowd lined up for the tram, and people kept cutting in line, so it took a long time to shorten. This antique tram would be difficult to replace with a newer model, because the tracks are very narrow, and it goes up very narrow, winding streets with sharp turns and steep inclines. The tram was packed, and only had small rows of single seats and standing room only in the aisle. It sounded like metal was grinding on metal at times.
On my last day, I took the metro to Sete Rios train station to catch a train to Faro, in the Algarve region at the south tip of Portugal. When I was taking the train from Lisbon to Faro, I accidentally missed my scheduled connection by jumping on the wrong train. The train before mine was late, and showed up a minute before mine, so I thought it was my train. I found it it wasn't the right train just as the doors snapped shut and the train took off, so it was just a second or two too late to get back off. I was bummed. My ticket was reserved on a specific train and was non-refundable, and now there was no way I would make that train. And that was the first specific travel reservation that I've missed in either the last world journey I was on or this one! Which is pretty amazing, considering all the travel I've done in the fast few years. I got off at the next station, asked which train to take to get back to Sete Rios Station in Lisbon, and took the train back.
I went to the ticket window at Sete Rios, sheepishly explained that I had missed my train because I got on the wrong one (it was now about forty minutes after my train had left), and asked what I could do. The ticket seller was very helpful and sold me a ticket for the next train for the difference between the original cheap non-refundable fare and the regular fare, but unfortunately, the next (and only) train to Faro for the day was four hours later. And I definitely couldn't miss that train. Not a huge deal, I just had to wait at the station, but I used that time to plan out some future travel and make reservations, so it was put to good use. And I'd still make it to my hostel in Faro that night.
It was a lot hotter in Faro than it had been in Porto or Lisbon, which were coolish in temperature. Faro is in the Algarve region on the southern edge of Portugal, and the climate is definitely warmer in the Algarve. Faro is kind of a mellow little sleepy town with a small town center.
I took a day trip to Albufeira, which was VERY touristy. But it had some beautiful beaches with magnificent cliffs, so I mostly spent my time walking in the beaches, wading in the water (there were signs saying swimming was prohibited ir discouraged, probably because of dangerous tides). Wish I had spent more time in Faro, because I could have checked out the Algarve area more, as there were buses and trains running throughout the region.
I took the train from Faro to Évora, and it changed at Pinhal Novo, a few miles southeast of Lisbon. But the first train was running late due to some delay along the way. It was a very fast train, running over 200 kms. per hour, but for some reason it only ran about 20 kilometers per hour for about half an hour. It was supposed to arrive at 5:22 pm, and I was supposed to catch my connection at 5:48 pm at Pinhal Novo. But 5:22 came, and then 5:30, and we still hadn't arrived. I was getting a little nervous about whether we were going to arrive on time. When one of the train ticket checkers came by, I asked him what time we were going to arrive at Pinhal Novo; he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know, but it was the next stop. It didn't help that Google Maps was completely malfunctioning for me, and showing that our location was hundreds of kilometers from where we actually were. About 5:42 we hadn't gotten there, and there was no announcement, so I was afraid I was going to miss my connection. I gathered my backpack and put it on so I could dash out the door when we got there. Finally, there was an announcement. We stopped at 5:46; I had two minutes to spare. I just jumped off the train, full of adrenaline, and started running as fast as I could with my full backpack on. Luckily, I passed a screen saying that the train I needed to be on was arriving at track 2, so I sprinted to track 2, running and puffing up the stairs. I got to the train that I needed to change to with about twenty seconds to spare. All that leisure time; I guess you could say I ran too fast. Of course, I wasn't on the right car, but at least I had made it on the train. I found my car and my seat and sighed a breath of relief.
I arrived in Évora, and it smelled like rain, so I put the rain fly on my backpack. Sure enough, it started pouring like crazy. I took out my umbrella, and it was about a half hour walk in the rain to the hostel, mostly uphill. Not crazy steep uphill like it had been in Lisbon, though.
Évora is a beautiful, small, sleepy town, and the town center is completely encircled by an outer wall, and an inner wall that is mostly gone now, but there are still some remnants of it. The town center encircled by the wall is very compact and small, and there are a lot of narrow, snaking alleys thst are barely big enough to allow a medium sized car; some even won't fit car traffic. There is an ancient aqueduct that passes into the town. It seems like it has more buildings built into its arches than most of the aqueducts I've seen. It also gets lower and lower in the town until it disappears.
In the town square in the center of Évora, there is a Roman Temple constructed in the first century to commemorate the Emperor Augustus. It is called the Temple of Diana, though it really has no known connection to the goddess Diana. Across the street, the Garden of Diana offers some beautiful views of the town from atop a hill. And right around the corner, bordering the same square, are the Cathedral of Évora, on which construction started in 1280, and the town museum, with many interesting archaeological remnants.
One of the highlights of my visit to Évora was an archaeological tour I took just outside the city to three megalithic stone sites. Mario was our guide, and he was supremely knowledgeable about not only the archeology of the area, but also about much of the geography and biology of the area. The first site was the Cromleque dos Almendres site. It is near the village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe. This megalithic stone formation is built in a symmetrical ellipse, but has many stones missing. It predates Stonehenge by about two millenia. The line that bisects the site leads due east to where the sun rises during the equinoxes, and there are two marker stones some distance from the site that indicate where the sun rises on the summer and winter solstices.
Next, I went out to one of the standing stones of Almendres (Menir dos Almendres). This single stone is several kilometers away from the ellipse of stones that make up the Almendres Cromlech, and is the marker stone that signifies where the sun rises on the summer solstice, as viewed from the main site.
And, finally, I went to the Zambujeiro Dolmen site. This was a burial mound for Neolithic people of high status, constructed around the time Stonehenge was built. It has been shored up and supported due to problems with structural integrity. There are bricks and wooden structures supporting the stones, and a metal shelter covering the site. The site is close to collapse, and these were meant to be temporary support measures constructed in the 80s, but have stayed there since.
I took a train back to Lisbon after four days in Évora. I have had some anxiety for about a week and a half due to the fact that my debit card was apparently cloned, and somebody tried to use it in Houston to take money out of an ATM. Fortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful, so I didn't lose any money. But the bank cancelled my debit card, and is sending me a new one. I had just taken out some money before the card was cancelled, but now my reserves are dwindling. I checked the tracking on the web, and apparently an attempt was made to deliver the card to the hostel in Lisbon, which I will soon return to, but the delivery was refused. I'm pretty sure that the delivery person rang a bell at the site (there are several bells there and the hostel is on the third floor), and some person from another floor unrelated to the hostel answered the door and refused it. Also, there is rarely someone on site at the hostel; it's not one that is staffed full-time, just when needed to greet new arrivals. So I contacted the carrier, and hopefully I'll be able to pick it up at their delivery warehouse when I get back to Lisbon. I still have butterflies about it a bit, though.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Some Future Plans
I've been making my plans kind of in a piecemeal fashion. Usually I will plan one thing far ahead of time, and then I will fill in the gaps of what to do until I get there. My last big thing was the flight from Edinburgh to Porto. I was just kind of bouncing around, looking at flight calendars. Most days, this flight was around €150, but I found one day when it fell to a little over €30, so I pounced on that day. Of course, it ended up being a little more expensive than that, because it was with Ryan Air, and that price does not allow a checked bag. So I ponied up about €20 more to bring my big backpack, and carried on my little one. My REI Grand Tour 85 pack has a detachable little bag which I usually use as a carry on. So all I had to do is fill in the gaps in the UK until the flight.
My next big move will be a cheap flight from Lisbon to Barcelona in about two weeks. I'm in Lisbon now, so I'll circle around Portugal and come back again for the flight. I think the next time I come back to Lisbon, I'll mostly devote that time to day trips to other places in the region, and I'll devote this time to exploring the city of Lisbon. I already scheduled one day trip for when I come back to Lisbon, to Coimbra. This will be pushing it, because Coimbra is almost three hours away. But I'll leave really early in the morning, and come back very late at night (and hope that I don't feel like crap that day and am up for a marathon). I had to finesse this journey, because there were a couple of discounted tickets on the day I'm going, but I had to get them at the train station, because they weren't available online. I'm pretty sure any of the other day trips I'll take can just be arranged cheaply in the day I want to take them; this one to Coimbra was an exception.
I made the reservation for the flight to Barcelona quite a while ago. Now I'm starting to realize that the French rail strike is really going to fuck my lunch along the way. I mean, the workers deserve more, as workers always do. But I need to be really careful, or I'll get stranded, which could turn out to be a real problem. The strike is affecting trains across France, a pretty good deal of trains in Spain, a fair amount of trains in Italy, and probably other countries as well, because the French trains are not only in France, they go internationally as well. So, to be on the safe side, and also to not cross a strike line, it looks like I will take buses from Barcelona through France, maybe into northern Italy if I go that way. I'm not sure yet. The upside is that buses are cheaper; the downside is that they are slower.
But I did plan my next big move. It's a combo. I found a cheap flight from Berlin, Germany to Vilnius, Lithuania about a month and a half after I arrive in Barcelona, so I'll have to figure out what to do in that time between Barcelona and Berlin. My original plan was to go to Northern Africa after Barcelona, and then come back into Europe through Sicily or Sardinia, but then I found the cheap flight originating in Berlin, and decided to pivot.
Then a few days later, I'll fly a round trip from Vilnius to Minsk, Belarus and back. The reason for this is that Belarus recently started allowing US citizens to visit for five days without a visa, but only if they fly in and out of the airport in Minsk, and only if they are not going to or coming from Russia. So, Belarus, which had previously been relatively off the table, is now on the table, but only if I do it this way. Then, by the time I get back to Vilnius, I'll have about a week left in the Schengen Zone. Actually, I'll have a bit more time, but I was to reserve about a week for any unplanned transit back through Schengen to somewhere else.
Let me explain about Schengen. Europe allows US tourists 90 days out of every 180 (the 180 days counts backwards from whatever day today is) to be in the Schengen Zone. The Schengen Zone roughly corresponds to the EU, but not quite. Some countries in the EU have opted out of Schengen, and some countries outside of the EU have opted in. So once you have used up your 90 days, you can't come back to the Schengen Zone for another three months, or you risk being fined, deported, and banned (possibly for five years, but the fact that you were banned stays on your record permanently). If it weren't for this restriction, I'd just kind of merrily saunter across Europe without much attention to the time. But I only have 90 days, or really, about 80-85 because I want to save a few days in case I need to return back through Schengen for transit to somewhere else. Also, I may do a three or four day excursion briefly back into Schengen later. So I can still haphazardly wander, just not in Schengen until three months after each three month period there. So the French Rail strike and the Schengen restrictions are kind of shaping things that I wouldn't do otherwise, but reality always seems to intervene somehow. Honestly, I'd love to spend more time wandering through Spain, France, Germany, and in other countries in the vicinity right now, but that may have to wait until the next time or the time after that. I don't think I can afford to dip up into England and Ireland for three months because they are too expensive, and I want to head towards Russia to use my Russian visa while I still have it. I have to plan things so expensive countries are balanced with cheaper countries. And it would be nice at some point to have a little more comfort than what is provided by rooms full of bunk beds, with bathrooms and kitchens (if the place has a kitchen at all) you might have to wait your turn to use. I lived in a tent for six months in Austin before making this trip, so obviously cushy comfort is not a huge priority, but nice to have when available.
There are a lot of European countries, and countries close by, that are not in Schengen. England and Ireland are not in Schengen. Bulgaria, Romania, and most of the former Yugoslavia are also not in Schengen. The Middle East and Northern Africa are also places I could go in my three months of Schengen exile, as well as Turkey and most of the rest of Asia.
My plan right now is to go into Russia from the Baltic States; ideally, I'd like to be in Russia by July-ish. Russia will give me more time; I can stay for 180 days at a time, and my Russian visa is good for almost another year. I probably won't stay that long, but I could go in and out of Russia from Central Asia for a while. I think I want to be out of Russia before the winter comes, and maybe go someplace warmer. So we'll see where the path takes me; all of these plans are subject to change and/or disruption that could alter their course.
One shitty thing that just happened is that my debit card got canceled because somebody tried to fraudulently use a cloned copy of it in Houston. Luckily, the transaction was not allowed. This is the debut card that has been my primary ATM card throughout my trip. So my bank is sending me a new one. I hope it gets to Lisbon before I leave.
My next big move will be a cheap flight from Lisbon to Barcelona in about two weeks. I'm in Lisbon now, so I'll circle around Portugal and come back again for the flight. I think the next time I come back to Lisbon, I'll mostly devote that time to day trips to other places in the region, and I'll devote this time to exploring the city of Lisbon. I already scheduled one day trip for when I come back to Lisbon, to Coimbra. This will be pushing it, because Coimbra is almost three hours away. But I'll leave really early in the morning, and come back very late at night (and hope that I don't feel like crap that day and am up for a marathon). I had to finesse this journey, because there were a couple of discounted tickets on the day I'm going, but I had to get them at the train station, because they weren't available online. I'm pretty sure any of the other day trips I'll take can just be arranged cheaply in the day I want to take them; this one to Coimbra was an exception.
I made the reservation for the flight to Barcelona quite a while ago. Now I'm starting to realize that the French rail strike is really going to fuck my lunch along the way. I mean, the workers deserve more, as workers always do. But I need to be really careful, or I'll get stranded, which could turn out to be a real problem. The strike is affecting trains across France, a pretty good deal of trains in Spain, a fair amount of trains in Italy, and probably other countries as well, because the French trains are not only in France, they go internationally as well. So, to be on the safe side, and also to not cross a strike line, it looks like I will take buses from Barcelona through France, maybe into northern Italy if I go that way. I'm not sure yet. The upside is that buses are cheaper; the downside is that they are slower.
But I did plan my next big move. It's a combo. I found a cheap flight from Berlin, Germany to Vilnius, Lithuania about a month and a half after I arrive in Barcelona, so I'll have to figure out what to do in that time between Barcelona and Berlin. My original plan was to go to Northern Africa after Barcelona, and then come back into Europe through Sicily or Sardinia, but then I found the cheap flight originating in Berlin, and decided to pivot.
Then a few days later, I'll fly a round trip from Vilnius to Minsk, Belarus and back. The reason for this is that Belarus recently started allowing US citizens to visit for five days without a visa, but only if they fly in and out of the airport in Minsk, and only if they are not going to or coming from Russia. So, Belarus, which had previously been relatively off the table, is now on the table, but only if I do it this way. Then, by the time I get back to Vilnius, I'll have about a week left in the Schengen Zone. Actually, I'll have a bit more time, but I was to reserve about a week for any unplanned transit back through Schengen to somewhere else.
Let me explain about Schengen. Europe allows US tourists 90 days out of every 180 (the 180 days counts backwards from whatever day today is) to be in the Schengen Zone. The Schengen Zone roughly corresponds to the EU, but not quite. Some countries in the EU have opted out of Schengen, and some countries outside of the EU have opted in. So once you have used up your 90 days, you can't come back to the Schengen Zone for another three months, or you risk being fined, deported, and banned (possibly for five years, but the fact that you were banned stays on your record permanently). If it weren't for this restriction, I'd just kind of merrily saunter across Europe without much attention to the time. But I only have 90 days, or really, about 80-85 because I want to save a few days in case I need to return back through Schengen for transit to somewhere else. Also, I may do a three or four day excursion briefly back into Schengen later. So I can still haphazardly wander, just not in Schengen until three months after each three month period there. So the French Rail strike and the Schengen restrictions are kind of shaping things that I wouldn't do otherwise, but reality always seems to intervene somehow. Honestly, I'd love to spend more time wandering through Spain, France, Germany, and in other countries in the vicinity right now, but that may have to wait until the next time or the time after that. I don't think I can afford to dip up into England and Ireland for three months because they are too expensive, and I want to head towards Russia to use my Russian visa while I still have it. I have to plan things so expensive countries are balanced with cheaper countries. And it would be nice at some point to have a little more comfort than what is provided by rooms full of bunk beds, with bathrooms and kitchens (if the place has a kitchen at all) you might have to wait your turn to use. I lived in a tent for six months in Austin before making this trip, so obviously cushy comfort is not a huge priority, but nice to have when available.
There are a lot of European countries, and countries close by, that are not in Schengen. England and Ireland are not in Schengen. Bulgaria, Romania, and most of the former Yugoslavia are also not in Schengen. The Middle East and Northern Africa are also places I could go in my three months of Schengen exile, as well as Turkey and most of the rest of Asia.
My plan right now is to go into Russia from the Baltic States; ideally, I'd like to be in Russia by July-ish. Russia will give me more time; I can stay for 180 days at a time, and my Russian visa is good for almost another year. I probably won't stay that long, but I could go in and out of Russia from Central Asia for a while. I think I want to be out of Russia before the winter comes, and maybe go someplace warmer. So we'll see where the path takes me; all of these plans are subject to change and/or disruption that could alter their course.
One shitty thing that just happened is that my debit card got canceled because somebody tried to fraudulently use a cloned copy of it in Houston. Luckily, the transaction was not allowed. This is the debut card that has been my primary ATM card throughout my trip. So my bank is sending me a new one. I hope it gets to Lisbon before I leave.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
My Last Days In And Around Porto
I finally managed to get some walking socks in Porto, at a place called CampingShop. And I managed to conduct the whole transaction in Portuguese, which I was proud of. The guy there convinced me that their merino wool socks would be too hot for my feet, so I compromised and bought one pair of synthetic socks for warm weather, and one merino wool blend for cold weather. But the one pair of merino wool socks I already had haven't been overheating my feet; they've been just fine. I've been using the new warm weather pair, and they are OK, but they don't seem as cushioned as the nice pair I brought with me.
I took a bunch of day trips my last few days in Porto. Porto is pretty awesome, but I wanted to see some of the surrounding area too. On Sunday, I went to Matosinhos, which is a little bit northwest of Porto, right on the Atlantic Ocean coast, and it has an awesome beach. It is in the Porto municipality; in Portugal, municipalities are sort of like counties. Then, later that day, I visited Vila Nova de Gaia (sometimes just called Gaia), which is right across the Douro River from Porto. It was lightly raining in the afternoon, and I found a little Italian restaurant down an alley in Gaia where I had one of the best calzones I've ever had in my life. I mostly wandered in the park, snd then by the Douro River.
The next day, I went to Guimarães, which is a little bit farther. It's pretty easy to take day trips in the trains in Portugal, for the most part, and you can just buy tickets in the station that day for most. There are some destinations where it is a little more involved; you might have to buy advance tickets. But if a destination is on an urban or intercity line, the tickets will be cheap and simple. I might write another blog post on the subject of Portugal's trains because I have their whole system figured out pretty well. But, anyway, I went to Guimarães for a little over €3 each way, and just bought the tickets at the São Bento train station in Porto. When I got to Guimarães, the weather was completely schizo. It would pour rain for about fifteen minutes, and then get completely sunny, like, not a cloud in the sky, and then stay pouring again. I was really getting tired of this, though I toughed it out for a good portion of the day. I visited Guimarães Castle and Paso dos Duques, and walked around the town a good deal. Guimarães is known as the "birthplace of Portugal" because Portugal's first king, King Afonso I, was born there in 1110 in the castle, and the first county of Portugal (not a county in the American sense, but one overseen by a count) was centered around that area.
But in the late afternoon, the next rainstorm came in with a ton of thunder and lightning, and I thought, OK, that's it, I'm heading back. I headed to the Guimarães train station, but the next train wasn't coming for quite a while, so I walked around some more, and the thunder and lightning had dissipated. Nevertheless, I took the next train back to Porto.
The next day, I went to Vila do Conde, just north of Porto, early in the morning, which was one of the most fantastic places I've been to in Portugal. The first thing I saw when I got off the train was miles of ancient Roman aqueduct. Sometimes it would break up for a while and then start up again. The aqueduct passed a really cool cemetery, and ended into a medieval monastery. There were other great sights around the town, and the walk along the Ave River was amazing. I came back to Porto in the late afternoon, and then decided to go to Aveiro, about an hour south of Porto, thinking "I can't believe I'm going to another destination today. " But Aveiro was another amazing place, loaded with multiple canals filled with tourist boats, and beautiful parks. Aveiro is famous as a bird haven, and it is a good place for bird watchers. I wanted around there for several hours, and got back to Porto fairly late at night.
Then, the next day, I said goodbye to Porto and headed to Lisbon. More adventures ahead, hopefully.
I took a bunch of day trips my last few days in Porto. Porto is pretty awesome, but I wanted to see some of the surrounding area too. On Sunday, I went to Matosinhos, which is a little bit northwest of Porto, right on the Atlantic Ocean coast, and it has an awesome beach. It is in the Porto municipality; in Portugal, municipalities are sort of like counties. Then, later that day, I visited Vila Nova de Gaia (sometimes just called Gaia), which is right across the Douro River from Porto. It was lightly raining in the afternoon, and I found a little Italian restaurant down an alley in Gaia where I had one of the best calzones I've ever had in my life. I mostly wandered in the park, snd then by the Douro River.
The next day, I went to Guimarães, which is a little bit farther. It's pretty easy to take day trips in the trains in Portugal, for the most part, and you can just buy tickets in the station that day for most. There are some destinations where it is a little more involved; you might have to buy advance tickets. But if a destination is on an urban or intercity line, the tickets will be cheap and simple. I might write another blog post on the subject of Portugal's trains because I have their whole system figured out pretty well. But, anyway, I went to Guimarães for a little over €3 each way, and just bought the tickets at the São Bento train station in Porto. When I got to Guimarães, the weather was completely schizo. It would pour rain for about fifteen minutes, and then get completely sunny, like, not a cloud in the sky, and then stay pouring again. I was really getting tired of this, though I toughed it out for a good portion of the day. I visited Guimarães Castle and Paso dos Duques, and walked around the town a good deal. Guimarães is known as the "birthplace of Portugal" because Portugal's first king, King Afonso I, was born there in 1110 in the castle, and the first county of Portugal (not a county in the American sense, but one overseen by a count) was centered around that area.
But in the late afternoon, the next rainstorm came in with a ton of thunder and lightning, and I thought, OK, that's it, I'm heading back. I headed to the Guimarães train station, but the next train wasn't coming for quite a while, so I walked around some more, and the thunder and lightning had dissipated. Nevertheless, I took the next train back to Porto.
The next day, I went to Vila do Conde, just north of Porto, early in the morning, which was one of the most fantastic places I've been to in Portugal. The first thing I saw when I got off the train was miles of ancient Roman aqueduct. Sometimes it would break up for a while and then start up again. The aqueduct passed a really cool cemetery, and ended into a medieval monastery. There were other great sights around the town, and the walk along the Ave River was amazing. I came back to Porto in the late afternoon, and then decided to go to Aveiro, about an hour south of Porto, thinking "I can't believe I'm going to another destination today. " But Aveiro was another amazing place, loaded with multiple canals filled with tourist boats, and beautiful parks. Aveiro is famous as a bird haven, and it is a good place for bird watchers. I wanted around there for several hours, and got back to Porto fairly late at night.
Then, the next day, I said goodbye to Porto and headed to Lisbon. More adventures ahead, hopefully.
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