Postcard from Portugal 💌
Pastel de nata, please.
Cody and I have returned home from Portugal and the jet lag has finally subsided.
We were there for a total of 10 days, spending 3 days in Lisbon, and the rest down in Lagos doing a surf camp.
I’ve been to Europe before, but Portugal felt different. Down south outside of Lagos felt quiet and remote, which wasn’t what I expected but was a pleasant surprise.
Here’s what we saw, what we ate, where we went, and what I learned.
For the mems.
Lisbon
We took a red-eye from Toronto and landed late Thursday morning, so we had all afternoon to explore. Though, the amount of sleep we had didn’t allow us to make it too many hours.
Cody had decided before our flight left from Toronto that he was going to hammer a cold brew and work the entire flight….
Classic.
So he slept all of 20 minutes that entire flight, but he did get a lot of work done.
I, on the other hand, slept probably about 5 out of the 8 hours, so I was at least feeling okay by the time we got to our hotel in Lisbon.
Hotel
We stayed at the Atlis Grand Hotel. It was really nice, I would absolutely stay there again. Good sized rooms, a nice gym, good staff, a cute rooftop, with a good location.
We were able to walk basically everywhere we wanted to go from this spot. Though, we opted to take an Uber to breakfast one morning just so we could eat sooner.
And just a note, an Uber to breakfast cost us $4. I feel like you can’t get an Uber, even just a ride down the street, in the States for less than $10.
Everything overall was just less expensive in Portugal (at least everywhere we went).
Food
There is some incredible food in Lisbon. I wish we could have stayed longer to enjoy more of the city’s food scene.
Day 1
That first evening we got there we tried to stay up as long as possible to adjust to the time change.
We went for a walk, got some Coke Zeros and decafs, and found a tiny cute Italian place:
We were traveling with some friends so between the four of us we got two pizzas, some ravioli, and two house salads.
The salads were honestly the star of the show. Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, with a light balsamic dressing. Delicious.
It was about 4 PM by the time we finished and we hoped that would hold us over until morning.
We ended up falling asleep around 6 PM… Which maybe wasn’t the best decision as Cody and I awoke at 12:30 am hungry…
“Should we get food?”, we said to each other. 😂
The search for open restaurants commenced.
We found a cute, tiny halal place less than a 10-minute walk away, Kebab Hut. We got some chicken shawarma wraps and crispy, salty, hot french fries…. 10/10. Just what we needed for a midnight snack.
I slept again from 3-7 and in very Cody fashion… he didn’t go back to bed and instead, binge-watched a show.
Day 2
Something that we Americans found surprising about Lisbon is how late everything opened. Coffee shops didn’t open until 8 or 9 am, but we were awake at 7….
Unfortunate.
We waited until past 8 and then found the yummiest spot, Manifest, for breakfast and I had maybe one of my favorite breakfast spreads ever.
But it was dinner that night that was one of the most memorable meals from the entire trip.
It seemed like a tiny restaurant when you walked in, as it felt smushed against other buildings on the street and seemed like it would hold a max of 10 people. But when you walk in, it opens up to an entire back patio and a full upstairs.
With our two friends, we were able to try about 10 items on the menu:
3 different kinds of oysters (24 in total)
Watermelon ceviche
Octopus tostada
Tuna tostada
Crab croquettes
Coconut clams
Sliced peach dessert
Basil fried cake
Plus, a bottle of wine, 2 glasses of wine, an old-fashioned, and a mocktail
And water (which you have to pay for in Europe, usually)
All for less than $250.
The highlights of that meal were everything except the croquettes (bottom left image). Not for us. Though, beautiful.
Activities
With only 3 days in Lisbon, we mostly just ate, walked around, and slept.
We did explore the castle that’s visible throughout Lisbon, Castelo de S. Jorge.
The views from there were incredible, I’d recommend going just to see the city from an incredible spot. It was about a 30-minute walk from our hotel through the city to the castle.
Some of my favorite memories were the pets that the homeless like to keep for themselves. We saw multiple rabbits and a guinea pig. 😂 The man with his guinea pig honestly seemed so happy feeding his little friend all the hay in the world.
Didn’t see a lot of dogs in Lisbon at all.
Overall, we loved Lisbon. The walks in the city are hilly and provide great exercise. The different viewpoints within the city where you can see the ocean were pleasant surprises. The food was memorable with only having spent less than 72 hours there.
We will be back.
Lagos
Something we learned was that all the Europeans seemed to pronounce Lagos, more like “Lah-goh-sh”, with a “sh” sound at the end.
We rented a car to drive from Lisbon down south. The hotel receptionist at Atlis Grand helped us book the car to be delivered to us at the hotel.
The car was dropped off to us and they asked us, “oh, since you’re American, do you know how to drive manual?”
Stereotypical American I guess, because neither Cody nor I did.
Luckily, our friends did, so it all worked out, but just beware! Make sure to specifically rent an automatic car while in Europe if you don’t know how to drive manual.
Surf Camp
We spent the next week at a surf camp near Lagos called Tiny Whale Surf Lodge.
Driving in, the location was more remote than I had anticipated.
The surroundings looked like brown, California hills with some greenery, but a lot less populated. The hills weren’t covered in houses like they are in Southern California. And it felt a lot more deserty than SoCal’s suburbia.
The Lodge was near an entire field populated with solar panels and a lot of open space with a one-lane road leading up to the Lodge.
We didn’t seem to be passing by many people or many houses hardly at all.
It felt unfamiliar and strange driving in when we first arrived, but by the end of the trip, I appreciated the quiet, low-key location.
Beaches
We surfed 6 out of the 7 days of the camp. One of the days was an off day, but Cody and I and a few others decided to still hit the waves anyway.
These were the beaches we went to:
Bordeira
Porto Mós Beach
Praia de Monte Clérigo
All of them were incredibly beautiful and quiet. Porto Mós was the busiest because it’s closest to the city center of Lagos.
Monte Clérigo, pictured below, is this remote, tiny town on the edge of the beach, with a one-way street leading to the beach and the town. The buildings are colorful and modest. I hadn’t quite seen anything like it before. It was so cute and memorable.
Bordeira had the longest stretch of beach but also the longest walk carrying a heavy soft-top surfboard down a long stairwell. It was actually one of the worst parts of the trip carrying the surfboard that far. 😂
Photo by Lola Lasry
Food
Food was included in our stay at the Lodge and they fed us good, simple, healthy food throughout the days, like:
Chicken with salad and veggies
Pot roast with potatoes
White fish with bell peppers and potatoes
Seafood curry with rice and green salad
Salmon with mashed potatoes and broccolini
And their last night special: fried chicken. YUM.
The desserts were delicious too, with the absolute highlight being an almond cake? It didn’t really seem like a cake at all… It was about a half-inch tall, with what seemed like 8 layers within it. We don’t really know what it was but it was a thin, cold cake with layers of milk and white chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and toffee. I wish I had taken a photo and I wish I could recreate it.
People
There were about 24 of us at the camp together. We were the only Americans.
The coaches and most of the other campers were from a wide assortment of European countries: Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Ireland, England, Scotland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Wales, Greece, and Serbia. Then one from Australia and one from New Zealand.
One of my favorite parts about the camp was being surrounded by people from all different backgrounds. I loved getting to learn bits and pieces about each specific country everyone was from and hear anecdotes about their life and their experiences.
Something else I found interesting was that while most of them spoke a native language first, their native languages were different from each other (i.e. German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, etc.).
However, we all were able to communicate with each other through English.
It just was a mind trip for me to think about how for a lot of them, English wasn’t their first language, and between them, they didn’t know each other’s native language, but everyone knew English.
Some people’s English was better than others, of course. But we could all connect through this common language.
On one hand, it makes me grateful to speak one of the most common languages in the world. But on the other hand, it motivates me to want to learn another language. I find it so fascinating that there are so many different ways that this sentence I’m typing right now can be translated.
I also get saddened by the fact that (I assume) most people can understand me when I’m speaking English and can eavesdrop on my conversations, but I couldn’t do the same to them lol. I can’t speak in code if I’m speaking English.
I’m on my 150+ day Spanish Duolingo streak but I want to double down on learning and make language learning a lifelong skill that I continue to develop.
Out and About in Lagos
We had time to head out to Lagos throughout our week at the Lodge. Finding the best food a city has to offer is one of Cody and I’s favorite things to do, so we went on the hunt for some good good.
We got empanadas, burgers, sushi, and many desserts and decafs.
Empanadas & Co for empanadas — 10/10. Extremely affordable and delicious. The Spicy Chicken is my favorite. Cody liked the Spicy Beef and the Cheese & Ham.
Cafeteria Oceano for lemon cake, coffee, waffles with Nutella, and crepes with Nutella — 10/10. We didn’t check Google, we just walked in here. It’s diner vibes but has a wide selection of gelato and desserts. The cake was delish, and the Nutella waffle was a highlight as well.
Barbosa — 8.5/10. We went here for a night out with the Lodge crew. I had some wine, some salmon tartare, and a burger. Good food, but nothing extremely memorable. But I’m a tough critic.
WA Sushi Lounge — 10/10. We got the Harmony Plate which is to be shared by 2 and it was actually incredible. I’m still thinking about it today. Such fresh fish and I liked that it was kind of a Chef’s choice of nigiri, sashimi, and other appetizers. I will be going here next time I’m in Lagos. The location is across the Marina too so we got to see a different side of town that we otherwise wouldn’t have.
We were late to the game trying Pastel de Nata, which are Portuguese custard tarts. Almost like a creme brulee filling, without the hardened sugar top, in a super crunchy dough. We had to try them before we left, so we hunted them down at the airport and got two each before we left. It was probably a good thing we didn’t know about them earlier, otherwise, we would have had two a day :) 10/10 recommend.
We also each got two Thai massages at Nuad Thai. Massages were necessary after surfing for 6 days straight. We got combination massages which is where they stretch you and crack you throughout the massage. Was it painful? Yes. But did I feel good afterward? Also yes.
Final Thoughts
Travel is so romanticized. Being in new places is cool, but the actual travel part of it is no fun. Especially when you encounter rude people on a long-haul flight. Don’t be that person.
Portugal was absolutely worth it and since it’s on the west side of Europe, traveling there actually wasn’t the absolute worst.
The food was delicious. The cities are beautiful. The ocean is refreshing.
I’d love to visit Porto, Peniche, Ericeira, and more places in the Algarve next time.
Portugal will for sure be calling us back.
🤍