We started the day in Porto Portugal having a great breakfast and packing up all of our things. We then split up in two groups because not all of us were ready to catch the first train to the main train station. Kayla, Griffin, Gage, and Jen went to the train station and got on the train at Companha, Portugal at 10:00 AM and sadly Matt and Connor missed the train by 1 minute. Because some of us went early to the train station, that group was able to figure out where we needed to go and get all situated before we hopped onto our second train of the day to Lisbon Portugal. (Parent note: it may have been that one parent was a little optimistic about the time we would need to change trains at Companha station; when buying the tickets it was strongly recommended everyone take the earlier train. Unfortunately, this conversation occurred about 30 minutes before the early train, causing much stress! Gage had the brilliant idea that some of us would hustle and catch the early train so we could scope out the transfer, and others would finish packing up and take the later train, knowing the early crew could tell them exactly where and how fast to run for the transfer. It turned out both groups had plenty of time, since the train to Lisbon ended up being delayed about 15 minutes.)
This train ride was approximately 3 hours and is a lot different than previous train rides we have taken. We all got on the train and found seats and then quickly realized you could not sit anywhere you would like but instead you needed to sit in your assigned seat. (Parent note: potentially due to additional erroneous parent research!) Luckily the persons seat we were sitting in showed us how to know where we were sitting at but we had to then move all of our stuff to the next train car. Our seats were nice and comfortable and the train came with free Wifi. Because of this, several of us spent the 3 hour train ride relaxing and reading the blog posts so far and occasionally looking out the window. (Parent note: i.e. everyone under 50 spent the vast majority of the ride with their nose in their phones, while the mature ones enjoyed the passing landscape. Through a partial window, since Griffin insisted on sitting by the full window so he would be able to see everything.😬). On the train there were several bathrooms which Kayla, Connor, and Jen all had the pleasure of needing to use. The bathrooms on the train are about the size of a airport bathroom. However, when you go to wash your hands, the soap comes out in flakes and Connor and Kayla could not get the water turned on so they had to wait till they got on the train to pour water on their hands and wash off the soap (a little gross but what can you do).
Once we got off in Lisbon Portugal we then had to take the Red line on the metro. We went a couple of flights underground to do this and we were able to catch our first train on the red line and ride the red line all the way to the end until we had to get off. The metro was much more packed than the trains so we were all having to stand while holding our luggage. After riding the red line all of the way to the end, we then had to get off and find the blue line train which we rode for three stops and got off at Avenida (it’s the stop where we will be staying close to). Finally after reaching our destination at about 2:45 PM (Portugal time) we walked a short stretch till we made it to what we thought was our rooms. Now from the outside this apartment was not much and looked a little sketchy at first because we thought that maybe we were being scammed due to the fact that there was a rent-a-car place right next door and it looked like nothing else. However, once we figured out how to get the door open and hauled our luggage all the way up four flights of stairs and got the door open to our actual apartment and got the luggage up ANOTHER slight of stairs, we were pleasantly surprised.
The new Airbnb we are starting at was extremely large and contained four bedrooms and 6 beds. There were two bathrooms, a living room, and a super cute kitchen. Yup your right if your thinking this place is huge. It’s super long and has everything we could possibly need including a washing machine (thank goodness cause we don’t want anyone running out of underwear). (Parent note: thankfully this place also has two bathrooms. Sharing one between six people was quite an exercise!). Once we got to the apartment and settled down for a bit, we all went walking around and found a park where Griffin got a very good pastry (Griffin was super excited to have some Kayla tax taken which included a bite of his delicious pastry). We then kept walking until we found a little pizza shop where we tried some pizza and it was good but Griffin said “not quite punch pizza good.” After stopping in another park to eat our pizza snack we then moved on in hopes of eventually finding our way to the river.
We traveled up and down streets until giving up and pulling out our maps and having Matt guide us to the river. Once we got to the river we walked along side of it for a while and decided it was time for actual dinner. We decided to try a restaurant recommended by our Airbnb and they were correct. It was an amazing meal. Griffin and Connor ordered grilled Swordfish. Kayla and Matt ordered grilled Salmon. Jen ordered butter shrimp (Kayla and Jen both split half of their meals) and Gage order an over easy egg and some Portuguese sausage. Let’s just say the Airbnb was correct and the food was amazing. Every plate was empty at the end of this meal and we even saved the garlic butter sauce the shrimp came in to dip the bread in at the end of our meal.
Finally after a delicious meal, we dropped Gage and Griffin off in the room and Kayla, Matt, Jen and Connor went on a double date to Aldi (yup there was some hand holding). (Parent note: we aim to shop like locals as much as possible but I sure do love me some Aldi! It also was the closest market to our apartment, so that was also a good excuse.). At Aldi we stocked up on some breakfast provisions and checked out all the cool things we could make for dinner if we chose to stay a night in. Kayla and Connor then dropped off the Jen and Matt at the room and went out to explore the city at night (wow was it worth it). They went up to this super cool elevator lookout and walked past several old churches. They stopped and had a drink in the Portuguese beer museum which was close to the water and looked out onto the plaza. Finally, they checked out several look-outs and even found a club (which they didn’t stop at but did walk through to check it out). Connor bought Kayla a super good pastry and they took the long way back until they finally called it a night at around 12:00 AM. Stay tuned for tomorrows fun adventures. (Parent note: in 4 days we felt we learned our way around Porto; we quickly saw that Lisbon is MUCH bigger. We also were now used to walking up hills and stairs in Porto, but Lisbon is even more hilly. We will get some quad workouts exploring this city!)
Connor Price (PS. Kayla may have wrote this blog today because she made a deal with Connor that if he stayed out longer so they could go walking around that she would instead write it for him in the morning. Wow, what a nice girlfriend he has, lucky duck)
Great photos!❤️