In Portugal there’s a saying that goes like this: “Porto works, Braga prays, Coimbra studies, and Lisbon gets the money.” Having witnessed the (practically) rude, no-nonsense attitude of Porto, and its chaotic cityscape, we were about to discover something very different on our arrival in Braga. Stepping out from the train station, we find a [...]
There was no way I was ever going to turn down a road trip to Porto. Ever since I visited Lisbon for the first time last October, I knew that I had to come back to Portugal at the next available opportunity. Together with two of my Brazilian friends, Fernando and Felipe, I am on [...]
I could never claim to be a morning person, but somehow my last day in Lisbon began shortly before 8am with some soft rays of sunshine peeking through the shutters. Outside, a blue sky beckoned and the scene resounded with a silence I had not experienced since arriving in the city. It was Monday morning [...]
Early on a Sunday morning, a red van pulled up to our hostel for the beginning of a 7-hour adventure. The weather was finally beginning to clear up and we had booked ourselves on the “X-Day Trip”, run by an alternative tour company with the best name I’d seen in a long time. Headed by [...]
As the train crossed the border from Spain to Portugal, we began to get the sense that we had passed over into the unknown. Not only was the language different, but the scenery was turning increasing shades of green and our train began to rock from side to side. The only train from Salamanca left [...]
