Portugal and Me

So my husband and I honeymooned in Portugal. If you're a reader of this blog, you'll know that I kept saying that Australia was my next destination - and that was discussed, but was ultimately deemed not possible this time, due to time and money constraints. So after casting about for destinations (Iceland, the Baltic Coast, the Caribbean were all considered) we settled one of the only Western European countries neither of us had been to. And it made an excellent choice!

Unfortunately, due to plane whatnots, we actually had to fly into Madrid. Don't get me wrong, Madrid is great, it just wasn't where we planned on ending up. But we made the most of the stopover and took the subway to the Royal Palace, it being my favorite of the royal palaces I saw in Europe. There's an opium room! How hilarious is that? Anywho, that was enjoyable, although we were so exhausted that I fell asleep standing up.

That evening we got into Lisbon and the following day we spent wandering around the city, taking it all in. Good food, good beer and wine, amazing sites. Everyone was sweet and spoke English and pleasant.

The next day we saw the Tower of Belem (below) and the Jeronimos Monastery.

Yay for crossing some UNESCO World Heritage Sites off my list (that is a list I will never finish, and I accept that). The following day we took a bus to a small fishing village called Salema and ate amazingly fresh seafood that I only felt slightly guilty about (because, hey, if people only ate underpopulated species on their honeymoon, we'd be alright). Then the next day was my birthday, which we spend on the beach before heading to dinner and accidentally crashing a British couple's 25th wedding anniversary party. It worked out. Much mutual love all around (although they were, at first, very concerned about whether or not we were Tea Partiers).

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Lisbon again. I had been told there was amazing Indian food in Portugal, but by the time we were ready to try something besides traditional Portuguese food, we couldn't find an Indian restaurant. Oh well. There's always Samosa House here. Anyway, we spent what we thought would be our last day at the aquarium (they had a sand tiger shark!) And then when we couldn't fly out of Lisbon the next day, we spent the afternoon at the Gulbenkian Museum, and flew to Paris that night. Romantic? Not so much. We got in at 11PM and flew out (thankfully!) at 9:30AM the next day. We arrived home to lovely LA weather and with a very full camera. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat - in fact, I think that's where we'll have our 25th anniversary.