Austerity and Portuguese Clubbing
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2003
1
7
8
Trip End
Jun 29, 2003
Sintra and Cascais, Portugal
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Everything was so expensive; no way of parking the car, no way to get along with the guidebook map. Culture shock, you know what I mean.
On such occasions, it's great to have a companion to make you laugh about it. The pensao was the best: crappy old house, lady owner puts her head out of the window as we ring: "Cheeeee?" - "Hà quartos?" and she opens the door. Whatelse did she think we wanted? Sell the watchtower? First flight of steps: bouquets of artificial flowers, arranged in, hold your breath, car tyres. Two rows of them, all big. Tyres painted white. Second flight: more plastic flowers, gold framed pictures of saints and, couldn't believe it, a huge golden dog relief on the wall.
The room was damp and decorated with more saints. They took the plaid off the bed and stored it in another room. When we said we'd take it, the lady held up her hand "Pay now!!!" We couldn't help it, that was hilarious!
So we paid, laughed and drove to the beautiful monastery outside town. Crawling through the tiny monk's cell, enjoying the amazing views and the beautiful garden; the guide was good and the group was small. That trip actually saved the day.
Anyways, we had to get away from this town, so, the next day (after another traffic jam in front of the bathroom), we drove to Cascais, found ourselves a little room and went to the famous beach to watch the surfers following their business.
It felt good to chill again, read a lot and be away from the circus.
The plan was to do some shopping, have dinner and go out. It was Friday and Cascais is known for being a high key sea resort with big nightlife in its historic center. In the streets, we met our neighbour from the night before, Payam from California. Over dinner, we discussed the wonders of Mediterranian Europe, such as topless sunbathing, then we discovered that we stayed with the same family (who had two rooms only), this country is just too small. It became another great night out where we endet up being set on "The List" of a hip new club by our new Portuguese (and Dutch!) friends.
