Portugal - How it all began ?!

Spain Morocco and Portugal. Thats how my tour was planned in 2011. The itineary was purely on the basis of what people wanted from me and not what I knew about these countries. I was happy that the tour did not take off. Never once did I feel that i was right about the tour. 

In the mid 2012, I realized I had to separate Morocco out of the other two so that I could concentrate on it more. Later I realized after some ‘lonely planetting’ that Portugal begged for more. And so the whole idea of spending close to 10 days in a country, driving through its roads immerged. I thought I would do my research before coming to the country but till the time my flight was 20 mins from touch down in Lisbon, I was lets say too much engrossed in my Scandinavian tour.  So much so that on my way to the B&B from the airport, I even doubted my coming to Portugal. Well that was the last time ever there was any ‘doubt’ about the country.

The Plan

Drive through the cities and towns picked by me for the tour itinerary

The Objective

To not end up with my people as a complete stranger to the road

The carrier

A small sized ‘economy’ car, that’s what the rent a car website said

The budget

Stay cheap eat modest and spend only on fuel

It all seemed to be well in view until my first unplanned stop in a small town called Santarem on the way to Coimbra in the central region of Portugal. The attendant at the counter of my guest house in Lisbon had told me to visit Fatima on the way and to eat there, but Santarem a few Kms before had a ‘lonely planet’ top choice restaurant. Well close to the end of my 3^rd course and somewhere before the desert, I realized .. modest is only an adjective assigned to the way the restaurant was. The food was something I had no control on. I was coming from Norway and Portugal gave me the entries, first course, second course, desert , coffee and drinks for the price of a single plate in Norway. I was hungry and the chef too keen to show my lonely planet around to his locals. ‘estou es muito bem’ translated to ‘this is very good’. The book he meant, the food I did. I felt like staying till evening and then to stay back till dinner. But I realized there was more to come and this was just the start.

Portugal had made its mark. A little bit of Goa I thought at first when in the morning I had stared right up to the Atlantic ocean from the terrace of my guest house. Eating in that small eatery I realized that if not anything, I am going to have a blast with the food.

Its true ,the culture, language, people and the sights all came in big .. but they came in later! FOOD knocked me down first and then it was very easy for the rest of them to come all over and to make me say at the end of it all.

Can I really also take out Spain and just do a tour of Portugal ??!!

I am going to write about the next few days in Portugal in parts. Something that I have tried to do with Siberia but only managed a little. Much like they do in the book we all adore and respect so much. The ‘Lonely Planet’.