Housesitting Portugal

Housesitting, whilst not an entirely new concept to us, was different on this occasion due it being our first overseas experience. We didn’t intentionally chose Portugal but with neither of us having visited this European holiday destination before it made the sitting application easy. All that we needed was for the hosts, both human and animal varieties to enjoy reading our www.trustedhousesitters.com bio page and like what they read. How could they not? Correspondence with prospective hosts was usually finalized after a short get-to-know-each-other Skype call – our profile obviously oozes reliability and trustworthiness as it wasn’t necessary this time. We were all set to head over to Portugal, arriving on Christmas Day to take care of Angel and Biscuit.

Taxiing along the runway at Lisbon’s International Airport at 5 o’clock on Christmas Day morning was not really our idea of fun (and we’ve been through some crappy situations), but we had to introduce ourselves for a couple of days before heading off to Nazaré and then on to Lisbon for New Years. Our expat hosts were originally from England and Texas, both now comfortably settled for a while in Lourinhã about an hours north of Lisbon. Having similar travel bugs we hit it off straight away, the difference being that we have no home base – we had heard many positive rumors about travelers settling down in Portugal, so just maybe…

The weather on our drive up the Atlantic coast was certainly not what we had hoped for, the cold, fog and light rain just confirming what weather.com had been telling us for a week now. Having a guaranteed pool at the house but no sun to go with it was going to suck if this was the weather pattern!

Within an hour we were pulling off down a dirt road leading up to a fancy looking whitewashed house with a non too shabby view of the ocean. Now this was going to be nice! Before getting too excited we needed to be accepted by a barking mutt named Angel and her shy feline sidekick, Biscuit – Angel had a good sniff, looked us up and down and decided that we were worthy. It was still going to take the Laos rescue dog a few days before accepting us fully. Biscuit on the other hand had no interest in us whatsoever, and that was going to persist for the duration of our stay.

Following our meet and greet we took the somewhat overpriced toll highway north to the surf mecca of Nazaré, a town that we had previously heard of due to the yearly monster waves that surge in off of the Atlantic Ocean. It was purely coincidental that we were located less than an hour away and were barely a couple of weeks outside of the typical big surf window – maybe the hundred footers would arrive a little later this winter! Nazaré itself was a decent sized town with the center full of narrow cobblestone streets and mostly empty cafe bars, very much an out-of-season European feel. What neither of us was expecting was the weather, after all this was Portugal and Portugal is where Brits and other Europeans flock to for hot sunny days on endless beaches. Not for us; we both continuously wore down jackets, and that was inside our accommodation. We were about to discover that Portugal and central heating systems do not go hand in hand, and believe me it does get cold in winter!

Apparently world class surfers spend the entire season in Nazaré just waiting for the big one, the one that requires them be pulled out into the surf by jetski before being released into one hundred feet of raging carnage. The surf website, magicseaweed.com stated that five star days were coming, and although we had since left for Lisbon it would have been well worth the drive back north to witness the crazy big wave surfers in action. We were eventually let down as the forecasts never lived up to expectations.

Our time spent in Lisbon on the other hand never let us down, the city being full of life, historical buildings, excellent restaurants, and the tasty egg pastry they call Pastéis de Nata. We were by now accommodation maestros and picked up a perfectly located airbnb in the heart of the historical Alfama district, convenient for everything old town, not too far from the Praça do Comércio central square (New Year’s Eve celebrations), and either an 8km walk or short metro ride to the highlights of the Belém district. As usual we did a lot of walking, mostly to discover every nook and cranny of the old town and hit our favorite spot for Pastéis de Nata, the Mercado Da Ribeira. An espresso and pastry for under two Bucks was always well worth the walk!

Surprisingly I was also able to get out on the mountain bike almost daily, sometimes following tram lines up and down the steep city hills, other times riding multi-use paths that follow the ocean, never having any excuse not to get some sort of a Cape Epic workout in!

Being a capital city with endless sights to visit and places to eat at we did as we usually do, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and turned to Tripadvisor. More often than not this just frustrates the crap out of us as there are just too many options, occasionally though things work out – with over 4,000 places listed to eat at we were definitely spoilt for choice! With only a little to-ing and fro-ing we discovered O Vinhaça, a tiny tapas restaurant in the heart of Alfama, unfortunately this being a Friday night we had to sit down, eat and be out before the reservations arrived – the food, the host and the price tag made our visit well worth it.

The second thing that Tripadvisor tends to be pretty good at is recommendations for the best city tours, our favorite always being the free walking tour. This is usually something we try and do on our first full day in a new city to get bearings and a feel for the highlights that warrant further investigation. The Sandemans newEurope tour was informative and offered a local guide who new the history of Lisbon well, at least he convinced us of that. One of Lisbon’s highlights we wished we had never bothered with was the famous Tram 28, a service that caters for tourists that don’t mind standing in line for an eternity, then when you eventually get to board you’re probably going to end up standing – only the first 25-30 seated passengers get any chance of enjoying the ride and catching a glimpse of the sights scattered along the trams route. Forget about the idea of jumping on and off the tram to actually visit any of them!

Our final night in Lisbon was New Years Eve, more often than not ending (sometimes not even beginning) as a total flop for us, this being one of the better end of year celebrations we had experienced. Conveniently centered around the main plaza with live music, an energetic hostess, and an excellent midnight firework display from a barge out on the Tagus. No rip-off beer and wine pricing, no pissheads, and although crowded it never felt overwhelming. A fun night that led us nicely into what we had come to Portugal for, housesitting…

Negatives…

• Winters are chilly
• Having to mountain bike primarily on roads
• Many places are closed during the off-season
• Not having time to visit the Algarve

Positives…

• Beautiful rustic towns and villages
• Lisbon is a very liveable city
• Never very far from the ocean
• It’s cheap!
• Pastéis de Nata