Valentines Day. Loathed by some, loved by many. A good excuse to do something fun. We take turns organising something, and this year was my turn.
Mike reckons if I had a tag-line it would be 'plotter, planner, schemer, dreamer'. I'm a massive fan of having things to look forward to. And so, for the last eight months or so in my down time, I've toyed with the idea of a secret weekend away. In the last few months I started planning in earnest. Mike had handed in his notice and between jobs had a week off before starting his new job. Which very conveniently fell the week of Valentines Day.
The morning of the 10th February dawned cold and wet. This was Mike's last day at the Financial Ombudsman. I set off for work as per usual. Only when I got to the end of the street, I turned right instead of left. And hid behind a bus stop in the freezing cold for half an hour until eventually I saw the back of Mike walking the other way. Buzzing with excitement I trotted back home, fed Freddie extra rations and packed our backpacks.
Five o'clock couldn't come soon enough. I had lured Mike to a nondescript bar near Kings Cross Station under the pretense of a drink to celebrate his last day. When I arrived with our backpacks - one on the back, one on the front, he was surprised to say the least.
"We're going to Luton for the weekend!". He appeared unimpressed but obviously knew I was pulling his leg. No one went to Luton. Unless of course you're going to Luton Airport. I thoroughly enjoyed lording the surprise over him as we were whisked North on the train with our pre-packed snacks and wine. Our time in Luton was (thankfully) brief and we were on our way to... Lisbon, Portugal! Mike was stoked.
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| Beautiful tiled buildings |
Unbeknownst to Mike I had taken Monday off so we had three days to explore. I had ruined his plans to watch the Six Nations Rugby and get a haircut. Whoops. Saturday, a touch rainy, was spent wandering about, taking the Number 28 tram up the hilly slopes and a food tour in the afternoon. I thinks it's fair to say 99% our travel revolves around food and drink. Lisbon didn't disappoint.
I love the cobblestones in Lisbon. What used to be a punishment for prisoners is now a revered craft that you have to attend a special school to learn. In one of the photos you can see how they've mirrored some of the buildings.
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| Mirrored cobblestones! |
Before the food tour (as you do) we hunted down some chocolate cake that Lisbon is renowned for. Landeau chocolate cake. This stuff was intense.
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| Landeau |
Appetites whetted, we found the starting point for our food tour. Americans also seem to be keen gastronomic travellers and the rest of our tour group of 12 was made up of Yanks.
Stop 1: Portuguese olive oil, corn bread, wine and ham. The meat, from a black boar, had been cured and aged for 24 months and it simply melted in the mouth.
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| Food tour, stop 1 |
Stop 2: Cod cakes and 'green wine'. The Portuguese are mad on their cod which is ironic given their very large territory of water doesn't yield any cod at all. It's all imported, dried and salted. It's then purchased, re-hydrated over the course of several days with multiple water changes and then made into something tasty. Like cod cakes. The 'green' wine was not green at all, but very young and fresh and in this case, bubbly.
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| Cod: before |
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| Cod: after! |
Stop 3: Cheese and pork steak sandwiches. These traditional Portuguese sandwiches were hearty and some of the cheese was pungent to say the least!
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| Stop 3 |
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| Stop 3 |
Stop 4: Ginjinha - a sour cherry liqueur. Tasty.
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| Sipping Ginjinha |
Stop 5: Mackerel and carrot salad. Mike's favourite stop, we had blanched carrots marinated in garlic and tasty pieces of mackerel on croustini.
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| Stop 5 |
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| Stop 5 |
Stop 6: Samosa. This was at an Ethiopean joint and they weren't your typical samosa. Devoid of any curry flavouring they were more mince focused.
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| Stop 6 |
Stop 7: Pastel de Nada. Delicious caramelised egg-custard encased in a flaky pastry case.
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| Stop 7 |
A very good food tour. I would highly recommend doing a food tour wherever you go. They're a wonderful way of exploring and sampling the local culture.
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| In the Alfama |
We'd got to bed around 2:00am the night before so we were feeling a little worse for wear, but on my list of things to do was 'Fado' music. We set off to the Alfaama district; a neat little warren of cobbled streets.
The music was intoxicating. Two acoustic guitars (one Portuguese) and one singer. Unique to Lisbon, the music is often quite mournful and always passionate. The restaurant we went to had two men and two women taking turns singing. The elder of the two ladies was delightful. She sang an upbeat song that had the audience singing the chorus and it was so much fun. Afterwards she sat a few tables behind me and she must have overheard me singing the chorus again during a break, because she brought over her and one of the other singers' CDs! One for 15euro, two for 20. How could I resist! She couldn't speak a word of English and I couldn't speak more than the basics of Portuguese. When I said I'd like both (the perfect consumer) she insisted on taking the sleeve out and writing a dedication. She made the other singer (her son?) do the same. I wrote my name down on the paper tablecloth and she wrote down that she was 84! All the while I was fan-girling and asked for a photo which they happily obliged to.
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| With Fado stars |
The weather on Sunday was still a little gloomy but if there's one thing that will brighten any day, it's pastel de nada! We headed on a tram to the birthplace; Belem. There sits a shops that sells at least 15,000 of the things each day! At 1euro a pop they seem to be doing fairly well for themselves. Only three people are in possession of the Pasteis de Belem recipe and they can't be on the same plane together. Necessary precautions for something as glorious as this. Warm, fresh from the oven with a sprinkle of cinnamon and icing sugar. Perfection.
We didn't have time to spare this morning so we took our tarts to go and made a beeline for Belem Tower. We had to be back to the hostel by 11:00am for our guided tour to neighbouring town, Sintra.
The highlight of Sintra was definitely Quinta da Regeleira, a World Heritage UNESCO site. The summer residence of the local royalty, it was made up of a small palace, a chapel and the most wonderful garden full of secret grottos and riddled with tunnels. For whatever reason that day I was impatient, and when a group of people wouldn't hurry up and cross the pond I grew very impatient. Finally they stopped loitering and I stormed ahead. Big mistake. The tunnels were in fact very dark and what looked like solid ground turned out to be pond! Lesson learnt. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day fairly soggy right up to my knees!
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| Quinta da Regeleira: deceptively solid pond scum |
The well was probably our favourite part.
We made a lot more sightseeing stops on our way home and picked up some roasted chestnuts for the journey.
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| The serious art of postcard writing |
Despite being fairly tuckered out we decided we had to experience Fado music one more time. We opted for dinner at the hostel that night, cooked by 'Mama'. For only 10 Euro each including three courses and unlimited drinks it was very good value. The two guys we were sitting with at the table hadn't heard any Fado music so we took them along with us that evening.
Our last day in Lisbon dawned bright and sunny. We set off to explore more of the Alfaama district. When it threatened to rain we sought refuge in this peculiar little restaurant. Once home to a brothel it now served lovely wine and cheese with many mammaries pictured on the walls.
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| Can you spot Mike? |
Refreshed, we visited some snazzy loos and then the TimeOut Market for lunch. All in all a neat little surprise weekend away.
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