Portugal

When I was a kid and tired of the endless bad weather of Sweden, I used to read the last page of the newspaper where the weather forecast was, only to find out that the sun was always shining in something called Portugal. In the back of my mind I imagined Portugal to be heaven on earth because of this and 25 years later I finally arrived with my girlfriend Felicia in the capital Lisbon, to celebrate our 3 year anniversary.

We chose to stay at a hostel for once and not a hotel. Hostels aren't my cup of tea since it's mostly infested by loud young people who wants to get drunk and who can't afford to stay at hotels. I'm too old for that, but since the hostel had a rooftop pool with seaview we just couldn't resist. 

I enjoyed the fact that the hostel was situated on the first floor inside a train station as well, since I love to stay at unique places. We quickly understood that the place would live up to my image of what a hostel is and we didn't enjoy to stay there. People were drunk and were shouting late at night and early in the morning and at breakfast huge insects were taking a bath in the juice. The rooftop pool was ice cold and filthy and the only thing that would swim in it was a bird who left some feathers behind to mark his territory, not once did we use the pool. The view from the rooftop would have been spectacular if it wasn't for the constant fog from the industrial parts on the other side of the Tajus River. At least we could see that Lisbon both imitated San Francisco with its red bridge and Rio De Janeiro with its smaller version of the statue of Jesus Christ.

When we ordered a drink from the Zebra Bar on the rooftop we were served by a guy who had never made a drink before, he just worked there to be able to stay for free on his travel. At least I got to try black vodka for the first time.

The weather was exactly like we would have imagined, it was November and the sun was shining like a hot summer's day. We went all over the small capital on the first day, and we quickly understood why they have trams at certain spots, because you always find yourself going up a steep hill wherever you go. 

You can find the trams at the most unexpected places 

It was weird to see Christmas decoration in this kind of weather, and it was a fun experience. I have to go to Australia sometime to celebrate Christmas on the beach.

On the square close to our hotel everybody tried to sell us drugs but I was more interested in the sign that said "The Sexiest WC On Earth". I didn't feel the urge to go to the toilet at that time but you have to give praise for ideas like that. 

We went to the Parque Eduardo VII and found out that the grass is always greener on the other side of Europe.

And it was weird to find out that a fountain at the highest level in the park was in the shape of a gigantic penis with water coming out of it like an ejaculation, and no it wasn't just our dirty imagination, the fountain was even skin coloured. It was a perfect end to a perfect day!

The next day the nice weather was gone and I had to wear a winter hat and a scarf for the rest of the trip. My dream from when I was a kid, that Portugal had summer all year around, was shattered in pieces. We also quickly understood that we had seen most parts of Lisbon in just one day, so the rest of the trip we got into a grumpy mood where we almost helped each other to point out the bad stuff, even if it wasn't that bad at all. It was a downward spiral and one of the last days when I took a shower while Felicia was sleeping, I just realized what we were doing, and I started to sing a song by The Beach Boys to break the spell and begin to spread good vibrations instead. When I got out of the shower I told Felicia that we had to stop complaining and start to embrace all the good stuff instead and after that it went better, but maybe I realized it too late since we were soon going home. 

Since we felt we had seen all of the central parts of Lisbon already we started to explore the more unknown places, instead of complaining that we had seen it all already. We bought a MetroCard and just to see the different stations was a sightseeing in itself. It felt like different artists had been given free creative control to design them, so one station looked kind of steampunk and the next was mosaic inspired with an endless ladder going nowhere etc. 

We went by a tram to a cultural district to the west of central Lisbon, called Belém. We saw the classical tourist attractions like the Belém Tower and the monument called Padrão dos Descobrimentos, that celebrates the Portugese martitime discoveries during the 15th and 16th centuries when they went by ships to explore and trade with India and the Orient. 

Felicia talked me into visit a spa at a 5 star hotel nearby and I wasn't that impressed by it, but sometimes you don't have to be impressed to enjoy it. It wasn't a unique place, and it wasn't one of the best spas I've ever been to, but it was still one of the best moments in Lisbon since I got to spend it with Felicia in a nice cozy environment. I understood that they had a pool on the rooftop and I had to see it even if it felt like autumn or early winter outside, but when I reached for the elevator that would take us up, the receptionist at the spa wondered where we were going. "To the rooftop pool", I said, and he laughed and said "No, you can't go swimming in that now, it's for the summer, it's freezing cold now". I told him "No, it's OK, we are Swedish, we are used to it" and as soon as I said we were from Sweden it was like as if he understood, and the elevator was ready for us. The rooftop had one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen, the sun was going down and I felt blessed to be able to see this with the girl I love. It almost felt too good to be true, and I had to take a swim in the pool to cool down. 

Damn! He didn't lie when he told me it was freezing cold, it was like going down in liquid ice but at the same time I couldn't resist to be in it, since the spectacular view. Later on that evening we went up to the rooftop again to lie on the sunbeds with a lot of towels on us to keep us warm. It was now dark outside and the lights from the other side of the river was beautiful to look at, it was so romantic even though we wished we were there for the summer instead, so we could have fully enjoyed it.

That was the vibe we got from travelling around with the metro as well, we found some nice places but the vibe was dead and you could tell many places were only open for the summer. The weather can do so much for a city, and it's so different to visit a place depending on which season it is.

We had seen the Jesus Christ statue from far all the trip so now we finally decided we would take the boat and go visit the city on other side of the river, called Almada, where the statue was situated.  It looked mostly like an industrial part on the other side from our hostel so we didn't have high hopes, but when we arrived at Almada with the boat we had a nice surprise in store for us. The vibe was much more cozy and it felt like Spain with it's narrow streets and small houses. We went into a second hand shop and sometimes you don't know why, but it just felt more right to be on this side of the river, felt more like home, and I don't mean home as in Sweden, I mean the feeling of relaxation that you're at a spot that suits you.

We went all the way to the top of the Christ statue by elevator and the view was splendid, you could see all of Lisbon. I thought of Portugal as heaven as a kid and here I was as an adult, at a statue of Christ, realizing that heaven is not a place, heaven is to find someone who reflects you and brings new ideas to the table and who you can share the ups and downs with of the different journeys. There is no meaning to life other than seeking for it, together with that special one. And I don't mean god, and it turned out I didn't mean Felicia either.

I keep on searching for a heart of gold, and I'm getting old, too old for hostels anyway!

* Best things about Portugal – the sundeck at the Altis Belem Spa even though we missed out on the summer sun, the view from Parque Eduardo VII and the cozy city of Almada was a nice surprise

* Most mediocre thing about Portugal – the weather in November was alright, but it didn't live up to my image that it's always sunny in Portugal, and Felicia got hung up on eating vegetarian burgers everyday at a place called The Green Room, the burgers were nice but I got so fed up on eating it every day in the end

* Worst things about Portugal – going there at the wrong season, and next time I will book a hotel and not a hostel, preferably the five star spa hotel, I just have to get rich first

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):

1. Croatia

2. Montenegro

3. Andorra

4. Cyprus

5. Greece

6. Italy

7. Monaco

8. Malta

9. Netherlands

10. Iceland

11. Denmark

12. Lithuania

13. Macedonia

14. Portugal

15. New Zealand

16. Ireland

17. Belgium

18. Poland

19. Estonia

20. Kosovo

21. Finland

22. Latvia

23. Norway

24. France

25. Bulgaria

26. Luxembourg

27. Liechtenstein

28. China

29. Bosnia And Herzegovina

30. Albania