DIARY OF AN ADVENTURER: WHEN ADVENTURE CALLS

Family is everything. Isn't it a great thing when family members choose to hang around you. I don't mean that in the sense where they follow you like a bad smell, but in the sense that they genuinely want to be with you and experience the things you are. Personally I find it a very happy thought, you don't get to choose your family after all. This trip to Portugal was one a long time coming. It was not one of those places I had originally planned to visit when I left NZ with a list of places (relatively small looking back on it now). Portugal is one of the places that is past around a lot by travellers who have been blown away with the magic it holds.

The long journey began, quite fortunately, with a free private cabin upgrade on an overnight train into London. I think this is my payback for all of the unglamourous travel I have done in the past. Despite my initial worry, the trip through to Gatwick Airport was all smooth sailing and Ellie was waiting to meet me by the check in desk. Always the joker, her friendly message of greeting was "You've got the tickets right", knowing full well that she had them and it would cause my stomach to do backflips. The flight turned out to be an hour longer than we were expecting, turns out Lisbon is in the same time zone as the UK, but we managed to get to our hostel, having wasted hardly any time.

I hadn't packed approperiately for the weather (15 degrees is totally shorts weather right?!). Spending so long in the not so tropical Scotland had made me forget what 15 degrees felt like. I also thought Portugal was a Mediterranean country, but I guess that's only in summertime too. Anyway, amongst my singlets, shorts and jandels (much to Ellie's amusement) I had one pair of jeans, a jumper and one long sleeved top, perfect for four days...

Despite the weather not being nearly tropical enough for either of our likings, we still managed to take part in the trip special, the Sandemans Free Walking Tour and even ventured off for an afternoon in Belem, the fishing district of Lisbon. Lisbon is actuall a very important country in world history, something I had not given much thought to until being there. Our tour guides explained that it was the Portugese who did a vast majority of the sea exploration and found Brazil (hense whey they speak Portugese in South America).

Our trip took us further afield, mastering Lisbons public transport, ee took a day trip to the village of Sintra. Set up in the mountains it is the place that the royals used to live in their palaces and castles. The whole place was breathtaking. The buikdings held so many colours, and the ruins, set high up on the mountain tops made the whole place come alive.

The tourist bus was insane. Even in the middle of winter, the bus was full of people. The road it travelled on wound its way up the mountain, a single laned road and an almost vertical drop, made for a great adventure! Carcais, a popular beach resort town on was located on the nearby coastline and we took another local bus there (via the most western point in Europe!). We sat at the beach drinking beers and eating cheese and crackers as we watched the sun go down.

Not to end the adventure too soon, we decided to arrive at the airport half an hour before our plance took off (no we didn't but it sounds better than poor judgement of time!). Sheer panic was the emotion as we finally reached the airport to realise that the metro had taken us to the wrong terminal. Furthermore, we had to wait 10 minutes for the shuttle bus to that would take us to the right terminal. There was nothing we could do but sit on that bus and wait. An agonising 10 minutes of knowing we had majorly screwed up. We arrived at the right terminal 10 minutes before the plane was due to take off, not ideal since we were yet to clear border control.

Despite the fact that we had both pretty much given up hope by the time the bus arrived, we did one of those famous airport running scenes, cutting lines, breaking down barriers (a minor set back on my part). And you know what. All that rushing was for nothing. We rounded the corner onto our gate and saw the rst of the flight passengers staring back at us, still in the departure lounge... What a story to tell the grandkids (now thats a scary thought!).

Another great travel adventure. I appreciated having Ellie there for the company and for all the memories that will bring us closer together. As always there was a bit of debate as to the best way to do things. We are both very strong minded people. I think she is one of the only people brave enough to challenge me and has therefore proved me wrong a lot more times than many other people I know.

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

I hope this has inspired you,

LARISSAJODEE x

#family #travel