Happy bday dad!
Seeing land after that 5 sea day stretch was amazing. There was a chance that we were not going to be able to port because of the swells in port but right on schedule, at noon, the captain steered us into port safe and sound.
We watched as we neared the port and dropped anchor. Everyone was taking pictures, even onlookers who had walked to the dock. See them on the bottom left?
We didn't book any excursions through the sea or independently (unlike almost everyone inboard so we heard) and just set out to explore the city.
We walked to a fortress that was guarded by a Portuguese man-of-war ;) and the city center, well we think it was.
Relaxed in some beautiful parks hidden around crowded streets.
For some reason we thought the day was a Sunday which we should have known better as our ships elevators remind us everyday (I didn't really get this until a few days into our cruise -I thought the elevators were named the days of the week - honest mistake right?)
We thought it was Sunday even after we saw school being let out. We even wondered if they had school on Sundays in Portugal. Worst part we didn't realize we were there on a Tuesday until thursday. Anyways We really just walked and walked and walked. We found some great cobbled streets to meander, and shops to browse when it rained randomly ( very confusing weather that day - sunny cloudy rainy stormy all within a few hours). I noticed there were lots of men just standing in the doorway of their shops smoking. Almost everyone in this city was smoking actually. Explains why every shop had a very elaborate cigarette vending machine.
Happened upon a pet store complete with fish gerbils and a chipmunk!
Poor Portuguese chipmunk :(
for lunch, after running back to the ship for our debit card to get euros (the crew lied, stores weren't taking credit cards) we stopped into a busy restaurant and pretty much just asked for whatever was good. O-m-g! I was given Mista de Carnes and B got Peotinhos de Fra. It was soo good. The seasoning on my meat ( which I'm not sure what types of meat it was it might have been goat which is very popular there ) was incredible - spicy, smoky, just delicious. Still thinking about it.
After, we found some wifi then walked around a really interesting indoor center before heading back.
J
1 comment:
Which island were you on? I have visited 2 of the islands and both were amazingly beautiful.
Post a Comment