Oh salty sea, how much of your salt is tears from Portugal?
We had been discussing a group trip for a long time with our close friends A & R.
We tend to travel a little bit different from the majority of our friends, so our suggestions were Africa or possibly Asia.
When they suggested Portugal, our initial thought was a wee bit boring and as my husband likes to say, “we can go there when we’re old”.
However, we were terribly mistaken, and we ended up falling head over heels in love with Portugal.
We’re lucky we have such wise friends!
FIRST THINGS FIRST PARIS
Our other close friends J & A invited us on a trip to Paris around the same time, so we ended up combining the two.
The 6 of us spent a glorious few days in Paris roaming around with plenty of cocktails and good food to keep us entertained.
The day everyone climbed to the top of the Eiffel tower Chris and I opted to skip the long lines and instead went and bought a bottle of wine, baguettes and cheese and had ourselves a little picnic at the base of the tower.
PORT0 PORTUGAL
Shortly before leaving the US we ran into our good friend D who we hadn’t seen in a while.
After telling her of our travel plans and inviting her to come with, she surprised us all by saying yes. Oh so glad she did!
She met up with us after Paris the first night we arrived in Porto.
Porto was amazing, and we knew that if this was a taste of what the rest of Portugal was going to be like, we were going to be huge fans.
We took to the city by foot, and explored as much of it as possible in the full day we had there.
PORTUGUESE FOOD
I can’t find words to express how wonderful the food was throughout all of Portugal. It was flavorful, fresh and just down right yummy!
Iv’e never enjoyed so much seafood in all my life. INCREDIBLE!
Mouth watering tuna steaks, squid thats puts all calamari i’ve ever had to shame and scrumptious octopus some the size of my arm were just a few of the delicious items on many of the restaurant menus throughout the country.
A full on meal, with appetizers, entrees, beverages and desert was very affordable in Portugal and something we looked forward to most evenings while there.
Nata, a Portuguese sweet consisting of a flakey crust filled with a decadent creamy custard filling was my favorite desert!
PORTUGUESE WINE
A very decent bottle of wine ranged between 2 to 7 US dollars in Portugal and didn’t disappoint.
We stocked up a couple of times at the local grocery store and unapologetically drank wine like water in Portugal. Because why not?
PORTUGAL ROAD TRIP
We rented a car in Porto, and planned to drive across country down to Faro stopping along the way.
Our first stop was Evora.
Evora is home to one of Portugals greatest building projects, a 16th century aqueduct used to connect the city to the nearest flowing water almost 6 miles away.
The city has since been built into and around the old structure.
Quite impressive and lovely.
Another interesting if perhaps a little more depressing attraction in Evora is the Capelo dos Ossos or Chapel of Bones.
In the 16th century there was a concern because the cemeteries were taking up a lot of valuable land.
Soo… the monks not wanting to condemn the souls of the dead decided to build a chapel and make good use of the bones.
There is quite the thought-provoking message engraved above the chapel door as you enter. “We bones, are here, waiting for yours. “
Another pretty amazing place outside of Evora was the Almendres Cromlech a Neolithic site older then Stonehenge.
The oldest among the stones were constructed during the early Neolithic 6,000bc era.
Some of the stones have engravings carved into them, and many of them are positioned to align with the sun, moon and stars.
unlike Stonehenge and other popular megalithic sites, Almendres is free to visitors, but gets very few because it’s only accessible if you have your own transportation.
It’s located 10 miles outside of Evora and sits among 1000’s of acres of olive tree farms.
It’s gorgeous, and you wont regret a visit to this ancient and sacred place from the past.
On our way out of Evora we stopped for the afternoon in Monsarez, a medieval village high on top of a hill.
Suspended in time Monsaraz is one of the oldest villages in Portugal.
At one time courageous kings and Templar Knights walked the cobblestone streets.
Now, a few select cafes and gift shops are scattered unassumingly throughout the romantic little village from long ago days.
After exploring we sat down for a light lunch and to enjoy the stunning views of the country and Spain far off in the distance.
It was nothing short of an epic afternoon.
Our next destination was Faro and the Portugal coast.
We had been pretty go, go, go for the past several days, and I for one was in need of some R&R.
One afternoon we took a day trip to Fortaleza de Sagres, the Southern tip of Portugal, and hung out on the cliffs overlooking the sea.
Way to soon it was time to head to Lisbon where we would be parting ways.
Before heading to the Lisbon airport we had one last place to explore.
Castelo dos Mouros in Sintra.
It was by far the most touristy place we had been to while in Portugal, but it was worth fighting the crowds.
It was simply beautiful!
It was an amazing trip and the 5 of us created some magical Portugal memories that will never be forgotten.
It was sad saying goodbye to our friends, but Chris and I were headed to Egypt and our next adventure was beginning soon.
This is a post I wrote a few years ago, when I was still hoping for and dead set on a natural pregnancy.
It was a phase or a stage of my journey that I needed to go through.
For a long time I felt like I was supposed to conceive naturally, and that because I didn’t I had failed.
My journey towards conception has been long, grueling, and at times extremely painful.
It’s also been a beautiful journey full of self exploration and change.
In 2016 My husband and I decided it was time to start a family. Six months later I was diagnosed with PCOS and Endometriosis and told that my only hope of conceiving would be medication and fertility treatments.