Traveling in Portugal

We spent three weeks in Portugal with the first few days in Porto, then a week WWOOFing in south of Portugal, a week near Faro, and a week in Lisbon.

We took our flight to Porto from Barcelona. This was our second flight with Nora and it also went very smoothly. Instead of staying in the city we rented a Airbnb place in a village called Miramar near Porto. It was a nice beach town away from the busy life of the city but it was easily accessible by train. There was a small market near where we stayed and we got everything we needed from there. We spent a few nice days here visiting the beach and walking around the village.

Porto was an interesting city with the touristy attractions filled with people with a lot of diversity but the rest of the city with almost no diversity. After having a wonderful time in Spain and having the feeling of freedom and no incidents of racism, it was a strange feeling to be in Porto city where people were passing the same weird looks at us and at Nora that we were used to in Innsbruck. But once we got to the touristy places it was very nice and people were very friendly, greeting us back, and interacting kindly with Nora. This was the only incident where we felt weird, but the rest of our time in Portugal was great.

After WWOOFing for a week in Mexilhoeira Grande, we spent a week in Armacao de Pera, a beach town near Faro. We rented an apartment two minutes from the beach and we went to the beach everyday and had a very relaxing time. Nora was happy to play in the sand and we loved our walks along the beach. People in the south of Portugal were very cordial. It was nice that people were very friendly to us and interacted with Nora regularly. We couldn't go anywhere without someone waving at Nora or coming closer to interact with her. We loved our time here.

We spent a few days in Lisbon before we went to Mexilhoeria Grande and a few days after our time in Armacao de Pera. We stayed in a small area called Oeiras, where we rented an airbnb room from a local who converted an old house built by his grandfather into several rooms where a lot of people stayed both long and short term. It was like a hostel for us with the privacy of our own room and access to kitchen. The owner Ze Pedro was very nice. We had very nice conversations with him and his son about food, nutrition, and spirituality. From there we made a day trip to Lisbon, where we explored the city, walked up the hill, from where you have a great view over the ocean and walked around the city and beach. And at the end of the day, we were lucky to watch the sunset with an amazing group of musicians playing live music next to the beach.

All in all we had a very nice and relaxing time in Portugal. People here were very open and nice, especially in the south.