PORT AND A PROPOSAL

Martijn and I love to travel, so when I received a pre-booked trip to Lisbon from Martijn for my birthday, I was ecstatic! After living in Europe all his life, Martijn had beat me to most of the cities that are on my list, but Lisbon was a city he had not yet visited. This made it extra special that we were able to discover a taste Portugal together. Little did I know, Martijn had additional plans to our weekend getaway.

Friday: We set out in the morning, grateful our flight left from Schiphol airport which is only 15 minutes away. The ease of getting to the airport along with the mid morning departure made it a relaxed start to our day. However, my typical planned stop at Starbucks in the terminal was thwarted as the area by our gate did not have access. After a brief pout with a "there there" from Martijn, we changed discussion to the exciting days ahead which made me forget all about my missing latte (...almost). As we stepped out of the train terminal in Lisbon we were in awe. Beautiful buildings surrounded us with a glimpse of Castelo Sao Jorge in the distance. After setting our bags in the hotel we stopped at a local coffee house for a sandwhich and coffee before setting on our way. Wandering through the streets we attempted to avoid the umbrella and drug "entrepeneurs" attempting to make a buck on the streets. Already we were annoyed at telling them "no", but we hadn't even seen the worst of it. In the evening we decided to eat Italian, making our way to a highly recommended restaurant. With the sun down, the streets were swarming! Not with tourists, but with middle-aged men whispering "marijuana" as we walked by. I am not exaggerating when I saw that for every five steps we took, we had another offer. We began to get irritated and while Martijn was steadfast, I began to feel nervous as well. Eventually we found the restaurant and sat down to relax. It was lovely to be able to enjoy the Portugese manner of enjoying a meal - slowly and with pleasure. We enjoyed three courses while tasting Portugese wine and ending with a delicious tirimasu. It didn't seem to faze anyone that we sat there for over three hours relishing in food and conversation.

Saturday: Unfortunately, the morning we left for our trip I began feeling ill. This came to a head on Saturday as I felt quite weak for much of the day; however, Martijn and I made sure we had plenty of sleep and stopped for a drink every so often. So far it had been drizzling with rain; however, following our breakfast, we noticed blue sky peaking out of the clouds so we decided to take the opportunity to head up to the castle. We took Tram 28 up; however, had no idea where to get off and followed the other mindless tourists to the last stop. Unfortunately, this was the wrong stop. It didn't matter to us as we started our decent down the steep hillside passing colourful houses and run down bars. Eventually we made it to the castle; however, I was now feeling quite weak and we stopped once again to get some sugar inside my body! As we sat we listened to a local musician playing music under an orange tree and enjoyed the break to appreciate our surroundings. We realized we needed to pay to go inside the castle area and while I was unsure whether it was worth it to have the view inside rather than just outside the castle walls, Martijn was confident. Thankfully, I didn't need much convincing as inside the castle walls occured the most romantic moment of my life. We wandered around the wall edge marvelling at the beauty of the city below us. As I stood overlooking the castle wall, Martijn turned to me and informed me the weekend was not only about celebrating my birthday. I hadn't realized it but that weekend was 4 years from the day we met in Tilburg. As soon as I realized what was happening, I began tearing up. Martijn said the most beautiful words and eventually got down on one knee and held up the most beautiful ring while asking "will you marry me?" Through excited tears I exclaimed "yes!" and hugged him so tightly. I didn't want to move from that spot. Sentimental as I am, I realized that it would be years before I would back to stand in the spot where I became an engaged woman and wanted every detail imprinted in my memory. After a few photos we eventually exited and on our way down the hill to the city centre stopped at a delightful wine bar to celebrate our engagement. It was surreal for both of us that day to walk around knowing we had just made a committment to each other, yet those around us had no idea why we were smiling so huge and hugging each other so tight. It didn't matter, we knew and that was all that mattered. That night we opted again for a drawn out dinner which ended in a delicious cheesecake and a slow walk back to our hotel.

Sunday: On our last full day in Lisbon, I woke with a smile on my face. As we slowly readied ourselves for the day we would sneak the occasional quick kiss or hug passing each other in the room. Still in a blissful state from the day before. Unfortunately, the weather did not seem to care that we were ready for a peaceful day ahead of us. The rain was pounding and the wind was blowing. Even though it was not cold enough for hail, it felt like it when the rain hit our faces. We opted for an umbrella purchase and while it helped for a moment, we soon were aware it would not hold up. We darted into a store, naivelly believing it would calm down. No such luck. We risked our umbrella and faces again and braved the rain hoping to make it the few blocks to Starbucks. We tried, the umbrella tried, but in the end we walked into Starbucks drenched and with an inside out umbrella. Seeing that the rain was not dying down and knowing we wanted to see a few more sights before we left Lisbon, we righted our umbrella and braved the weather again.

Our goal was to see the Belem Tower so naturally we exited at the tram stop "Belem". Mistake! Apparently the area of Belem is quite extensive and were a 20 minute walk from the tower. That would be fine for us if the sun was shining, but in the pelting rain, it was not ideal. We began our trek, stopping halfway to wring out our jackets and grab some lunch. By the time we arrived at the tower, our poor umbrella had seen enough. Totally mangled we took a final picture with our destroyed friend and placed it in the nearest trashcan. Unfortunately, due to the rain, our stops at the sites along the coast was more of a see-photo-leave kind of tourism. We were extremely relieved to arrive back at our hotel putting on dry clothes.

In the evening we wanted to try our one of the famous wine bars before dinner. When we couldn't find the one we had in mind, we ducked into a local pub where they advertised sangria and margaritas. We were surprised half an hour later when the place was packed and a soloist with a friend on guitar started performing. We invited a couple standing next to us to join at our table. They were from Prague and he informed us that while staying in Lisbon for half a year, he had tried repeatedly to get into this place, but was never able to as it was always full. Apparently it was a popular local spot where individuals would come in off the street to perform for a welcoming audience. Sure enough, an older gentleman who was watching through the window entered, spoke quickly to the guitarist and began serenading the room. We were sad to leave, but after a few hours, our stomach's were rumbling. Martijn wanted to eat traditional Portugese and we found a cute restaurant offering such dishes. We sat down and as I glanced at the Portugese options, I knew that my stomach would not handle the seafood options they had. Eventually I ordered pork with goat cheese and blackberries which was one of the most delicious meals I've had. Martijn enjoyed octopus...an ENTIRE octopus! I was very impressed!

Overall the trip was fabulous! But of course, I am now biased towards Lisbon because of our romance there. Exciting as the engagement was, I can honestly recommend Lisbon as a cultural and delicious city. Although, I would have to suggest an alternative month or a sturdy umbrella.