Lisbon tourist days and intense Greek nights
New country, new challenge |
Weekly UpdateThe excitement of visiting a new country and landing in a stunning destination was quickly stomped down by the discovery of lot's of little pests in our Airbnb. This week we say goodbye to Lisbon and hello to Athens, Greece. โ โ It's quite early as I type this, with the hopes to finish before I set off on my guided day tour of Athens. I am wanting to hold myself accountable to have this newsletter out on Thursday's - in which this week has been challenging. I don't know where the time went, only to now discover it is Thursday morning and I have a full-day of site seeing planned. I lost a couple days due to a discovery of bed bugs in our welcome-to-Greece accommodation. Saying Goodbye to LisbonLast week we left off just as I was about to tour around Lisbon - and now I really say it is quite a gem of a city. I see the appeal why digital nomads have made it a hub for living and slow travel. The city itself is experiencing a housing crisis, unfortunately like most cities in the world. The population amount, both local and foreign, has increased beyond the capacity of the city's resources, making housing scarce, rent inflation uncontrollable, and the infrastructure taxed to the extreme. A good amount of local individuals are moving across the river, to a neighboring city, to afford housing and commuting to work. Add in the millions of national and international tourist that come for a visit and you have an aged metropolis that is divided between keeping its historic roots but also expand as it becomes a major world hub. I think this is one of the unforeseen downsides of the past couple decades of jobs and people migrating to major cities. These cities had never been designed to be lived in on such a grand scale. Vancouver, Canada is another prime example, and one that comes quickly to mind from my time spent there. In 2020 I was talking to a person from Vancouver and they said the city had declared that it was on track to double in population over the course of the next decade. The combined metropolitan area is over 2 million people - if they project that whole amount to eventually be 4 million people, I don't know what they will do or even how to envision that many people being added to one area. Coming from a small rural town where only an influx of a couple dozen new households stretches housing and resources thin. Anyway that is getting off track - since I am part of the tourist crunch Lisbon is facing, I am still very glad we were able to experience the city though. Traveling the metro system from our little suburb to downtown was quite easy and convenient, once you get the ticketing system figured out. There are different fares for using the train network versus using the streetcar and bus system. The easiest way when coming as a tourist would be to get a 24-72 hour transport card, good for everything, with unlimited rides. We dropped the ball on planning and just had printed metro cards that were 0.40 euro from the ticket booth found at any major station. Those cards are necessary to have to get on any transit and each person is expected to have their own. If we would have loaded the cards with just cash we could have used them for everything but we loaded one with train tickets and one with bus tickets, not knowing this fact the day we wandered around. It is possible to buy your ticket on the actually transportation but that price is increased quite a bit over having a card loaded beforehand. Not too bad if you are just visiting but not something sustainable long term, or if you are on a tight budget. Our tourist days exploring Lisbon took us from the western port area of Belem, around our area of Alcantara, to the city center, deep into this most historic parts around Alfama. Starting out in Belem our stops not only revolved around the historic sites but also the top rated bakeries, as Emily made a tour list of the best places to get pasteis de nata. This delectable, warm, flaky, custard tart is Portugal's de facto national dessert dish. We took in a waterfront sunrise, pastry, and coffee before waiting in line to enter Jeronimos Monastery and accompanying church. I am always wanting to visit churches, castles, and any nature site or hill top view. This church was one of the most beautiful that I have seen before. It had the standard epic pillars and sweeping tall peaks but on a slightly more grand scale that I have witnessed less than a handful of times. I am always left in awe when seeing such monolithic creations that have been around for hundreds upon hundreds of years. I know that with modern construction, and as societies we have built incredible buildings but those seem drab compared to what was achieved in the past. It is like I can feel the hands that crafted each block, while trying to comprehend how such a feat could have been constructed. A continued waterfront stroll, with some bench-side snacks that we packed, we wandered around the Belem palace, Belem Tower, MAAT museum, various statues, and people watched countless other sun-seeking tourists. Our day in this area was one of ease as we were absorbed in a pretty perfect tourist experience. From Belem we hopped back on the train to the hipster district called the LX Factory - a warehouse street that is home to many restaurants and a few shops, similar to the more well known Time Out Market. That one though is home to high end cuisine and top Portuguese chefs. Our next full-on tourist day was us exploring the city's castle, churches, a weekend market, the main square, and small streets. Being a sucker for castles, the Saint George castle in town was my favorite activity, alongside walking the weekend market and getting an amazing view from one of the old buildings. We were able to walk the ramparts of the castle and witness a city view from an installed mirror that was positioned to shine down on a round platform and moved by hand cranks. By the end of those days we were ready to pack up and fly to Greece. Mostly because our accommodation became quite full with the weekend crowd and we were over the lack of bathroom and kitchen functions. With our time in Lisbon we felt like we were able to see everything we desired and have discovered a place that we would like to deeper explore on a longer stay in the country. โ Hello AthensGreece - this country has been on my want to visit list for years. For me it wasn't about the beaches and islands but the nature and history. There are so many mountains and rugged terrain across this Baltic country. Granted the beaches and islands do look wonderful as well, especially after checking instagram for inspiration when we had the idea to visit some of those. Our initial planning of a Greece trip included island stops but after our time hiking in Portugal we opted for a slower pace, to stick to only a couple destinations. Plus with the offseason it could be quite questionable to visit an island, from our experience of things shutting down for the winter. Which takes us to my first EasyJet flight, I've heard mostly negative things about this airline but I was quite impressed with our trip from Lisbon to Athens. The only issue was fully our fault when we almost missed our flight. We had been sitting in the airport for a few hours waiting for our flight to be assigned a gate - and once we noticed it had we walked over to it... 3 minutes before the gate closed. They were announcing last call for boarding as we strolled up. Immediately I panicked and we were rushed and flush to make it to the gate counter. Did we just almost miss our flight? How did this happen, what happened? When they mean gate is assigned at 12:30 pm and boarding ends at 1:00 pm they were serious. I would have been so frustrated if we had missed our flight because we were just sitting around. I wish I had ecstatic things to write for our first days in Greece...unfortunately I don't. We landed quite late and rushed to catch the next metro to take the hour journey from the airport downtown to where our Airbnb was. Getting the metro was super straightforward and once we arrived at our station it was easy enough to get a cheap taxi the last couple of kilometers. It was such a relief to check into our accommodation and bask in all the space we had, a full living room, streaming tv, bedroom, kitchen. I was excited to be in that space for a full week. This was going to be a great start - I would work and we would sightsee for the next week. That night we crashed out and the following morning we did a little walk around the area to a great cafe. I was beyond stoked to see all the small streets, history and artwork around. We picked up a week's worth of groceries and I made a haircut appointment. That evening I worked, Emily did some fitness, both so happy for how our time in Greece was going to be. It wasn't until I was FaceTiming my uncle in Florida when I noticed a bug crawl up the couch armrest from under the cushion I was sitting on. I thought nothing of it and flicked it to the floor. It started scampering quite quick so I put a sandal on top to take a peak at it after my call. With a mental flash of it being a baby cockroach or tick I figured I should squish it when my call was finished. After hanging up I asked Emily to come into the living room and have a look at the little critter. She immediately saw it for what it was a female bed bug. Yeah bed bugs, and definitely female, which means eggs and offspring, a very quick infestation situation. We went all over the place searching and worried with how much stuff we spread out the night before. My suitcase was flung open and I had clothes and items just scattered everywhere. That night was one of fitful sleep and phone calls to the apt manager. The next day was more navigating what we would do with the situation, and more discovery of the infestation with eggs everywhere. A pest control guy came, found more fully grown bed bugs as he sprayed the rooms down, along with some of our belongings that could be sprayed. We spent the remaining time looking for a new place to move, trying to get out of our rental agreement and refunded, and doing laundry. As much laundry as we could do, I washed and dried backpacks and bags even. We did everything we could to make sure we did not have eggs or immature bed bugs holed away in our items. Final ThoughtsWe managed to move places, get refunded, and now our fingers are crossed that our items a good. All that to say the first few days went from excitement to stress and exhaustion. I feel tired and my overwhelm from last week about working is still elevated due to the past days lost to the bug experience. Hopefully the next week we have some easy days - where I can focus on work and not feel too bad with the amount of sightseeing we wish to do. We have 5 nights in our new place then we switch to another Airbnb for a few nights before heading to Meteora.
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