Easy check out of Leoia and a mellow flight to Lisbon. Get into the airbnb in Alfama and go out for a really delicious dinner with Evan. Amazing olive oil, bacalao with garlic and potatoes, an octopus on top of a sweet potato mash, the food is fantastic and a great intro to Portuguese food. It’s all about the seafood and fish here. This place was built on salted cod. Head back to the crib for John’s arrival. Super happy he’s here to enjoy Lisbon and hopefully get some waves later.
Nov 10
Walked around Alfama in the morning. It’s hilly. It’s the old historic part of the city, part of where Lisbon was originally founded. On top lies the Castelo do Sao Jorge. The castle is beautiful with tremendous views of the city and water, built as a defensive position by the Moors in the 1100s. There’s a museum and archeological discoveries from there from that age with a history of the different rulers and people that used the castle. We play around pretending to be in the game of thrones, just goofing off. It’s great to be hanging the three of us cruising around the touristy sights of Lisbon.
In the evening we pop into Tejo bar where local acts play kind of like an open mic but with more of a residency. We listen to some beautiful music on various different types of guitars. The singer’s going between Portuguese, Spanish, & Italian. We’re pretty hungry and are looking for a proper fado experience. We’ll come back to Tejo again for sure but off we go down the hill to find some fado dinner. Fado is the traditional Portuguese folk music, ballads that are typically played by a singer accompanied with rhythm guitar (nylon strings) and lead solos and riffs on the Portuguese guitar. It’s custom to watch the singers perform in absolute silence and when they take a break after several songs you can order or eat food or chat with your friends. If there is noise during the show they shush you and mean it.
We’re walking around the fado strip but since it’s late all the restaurants are full and we can hear the music going off. Kinda striking out on fado spots because we never made reservations. We end up at Fama de Alfama, a restaurant that gave us a tremendous dining experience. They have a table for us but we have to wait for the musicians to take a break before we can be seated. In the corner in silence, the room is dark with a kind of red lighting on the mini stage and an outpouring of soul from the woman singing. The songs are classics that most people know and it’s all about letting your soul show and passion come out. They say great fado moves you to tears. Many of the words compare sweet loves with women to the love they have for Lisboa.
We get seated eventually and then luckily the table in front vacates and we move to that spot. Full frontal right up close to the music. The food is bomb, the vino verde is flowing, and the band is super in sync and playing gorgeous music. A younger woman goes in to sing and rocks the house. So much talent, I was totally sucked in for the whole experience. I’m thrilled Evan thought to get footage.
Nov 11
Cruised over to the tile museum with John. Here in Lisbon many of the buildings have tiles along the walls and doorways. Zero function, pure beauty. At the museum they depict the evolution of the tiles and how the different cultures showed different patterns/ drawings on the tile. For example, it was the Moors who started it all with simple blue and white tiles and geometric shapes and patterns repeated over and over. Classic beauty. As technology progressed they could add new colors and made more complex combinations. Once the catholics took over they wanted scenes from the bible or saints on the tile. They didn’t bring in Italian painters or anything like that for these images, it was the same tile makers that had been making geometric shapes for centuries and now were asked to do realistic scenes. These early ones have some hilarious, fucked up looking animals and beasts, etc. They got better of course but I still prefer a well of repetitive patterns over a pic of Jesus getting baptized.
Speaking of which, the museum is an old convent converted so there still is a church attached to the side of the tile exhibits. The church is phenomenal with tile everywhere and gold. We were not expecting this mini church and then stumbled into it, real nice treat. Later on there are modern tile designs and more abstract tile designs that make you consider how tile relates with light and sound. Some cool artistic liberties taken with the concept of tile. Overall I enjoyed the museum and got to know more of Lisbon’s history.
For dinner we went for another fado experience but this time a very different type. This was a family style restaurant, literally, where the mom and grandma make the traditional Portuguese dishes, the son takes the orders and then he and the dad play the guitars as other singers sing. The food is good, simple, home cooked. The music is loud and they encourage the diners to sing along and clap. It’s a great time, animated, and loud. In a way it really made me appreciate yesterday’s dinner because of the quality of musicians at the other place. The father son duo was charming and pleasant but the players at the first place were so tight and professional, it was really watching extremely impressive fado. After the performances the singers passed around CDs for purchase, kinda took away some of the magic. Good times with John and Evan.
Nov 12
John and I go to the airport, pick up our rental car, and we are off to Ericeira to score some waves. It’s a beautiful day and we are off in adventure mode again, away from the city. Ericeira is a fishing village that has been turned into a hub of surf tourism with the creation of the protected surfing reserve. There’s a stretch of coastline with incredible waves, all with great infrastructure and parking close by. As a result the village is kinda modern and ritzy, feels more like being in Carlsbad or something in Socal with all the surf shops and surf themed businesses. Still a small town with a bustling little center and some nice restaurants.
Before our check in we eat a nice seafood lunch and explore a little bit. We take a peek at the ocean just beyond the fishers zone and it’s glassy and pumping. We rush to the car to surf while it’s good. We paddle out at Riba das Ilhas, a spot close to town within the surfing reserve.
Sun is out, light offshore on this big right hand point, solid 8ft clean surf! There are 2 take off spots which was nice to spread out the crowd a bit. John on his fish, me on the twin fin. Towards the beginning I had some fun wipeouts because the wave kinda holds you up at the top before the drop in but once we got that settled there were amazing rides. Clean waves, racing along the point, so much fun, we’re scoring. Big adjustment for John who's been surfing knee-shoulder high malibu for the last month and now is dropping in real waves. So glad to have shared this session with him. We’re taking these flawless conditions for granted thinking it’ll be like this the whole time…
Unfortunately last night after our surf we were chilling outdoors having some margaritas and pizza and John caught a chill he couldn't shake. From the surf, he had water in his nasals, couldn’t get it out, then got his core-temp low with that freezing water stuck in there. He woke up with a cold and stayed a little sick for the next 5 days.
We wake up early to hit the surf. We spend the majority of the good surf window in the morning exploring and checking waves. We looked at the wave we surfed yesterday, Coxos, Sao Lorenzo, and a few others. Driving around in our car getting the lay of the land, see the sweet Ericeira coastline. The wave at Coxos looks really hard to surf. I’ve seen videos of pros getting insane barrels there, not that it’s easy, as we know, but in front of us it’s fast, punchy, and breaking into a really sketchy looking part of the cove. There are like 3 guys ripping it and seeing them go was pretty heavy.
We surf Sao Lorenzo right as the wind is getting on it but still manage to have a pretty good time. The wind/weather forecast isn’t that great for our time moving forwards so we know we just have to get in. It’s not quite as big as yesterday but there definitely still is some swell. The wave is fast in some parts and slow in others as it kinda breaks in chunks. It’s a point break but it’s kinda slabby too. With the right conditions I’m sure it barrels and you could get some really cool rides.
After the surf we went to the grocery store for some food and were introduced to the awesome orange juice machine. There’s a basket of oranges with a ramp going down into a container where 2 wheels turn and squeeze the oranges. Juice drips to the bottom directly onto a spigot that releases the juice into the bottle or cup you put under it. Delicious freshly squeezed juice that’s also a little bit bitter because it’s been squeezed with the peels on it. (Perfect for John’s cold he’s fighting.) The fish section is amazing with the various whole fishes dead on the ice. Some scary, evil looking guys, eels, and rays, things I don’t really see at Wholefoods/Gelsons along with all the other usual suspects. Go home and have a nice chill afternoon, make chicken sandwiches with our OJ, it’s nice to not always eat out.
Real Chill Rainy Day in Ericeira. Not much to report other than that we checked out the fishermen zone at the base of town and the coastline to the south. There’s great camping/ van-lifing there. Spent a good amount of time hanging at the bakery reading/writing. When the weather and waves are good, Ericeira is a sweet place to be. On rainy off days, this town doesn’t have much. Luckily John and I are chill with our company and just hanging out.
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