John and I cruise out of our place in Ericeira excited for what we might find in Peniche. There is a world class beach break called Supertubos up there and several other waves with some fun potential. Peniche is an old town on a peninsula, one side has a north facing beach and other side is a west facing beach meaning that mostlikely somewhere has offshore or favorable wind. Our spot is in Baleal infront of the beach there with often fun loggy waves.
We split a sea bream (fish) for two meal with potatos, delicious, and head to pick up Lauren who’d flown into Porto yesterday. The gang is reunited! Great time catching up and drinking wine together.
Nov 16-
Still overcast, a storm is on its way. It’s the biggest day of the swell while we’re here in and we a have a surf window in the morning where it’s offshore in Baleal and then gets blown out later in the afternoon. A north west swell slamming Portugal is kinda protected in the cove at Baleal where it’s around head high by the peninsula and bigger and bigger as you head north away and into more exposed beach.
Go for a surf with Lauren over by the protected part, she on the blue dolphin and I on the twin. The waves are not that good but there are some cool little sections to hit, amongst the outside bombs you duck dive. On the way back to the crib I see a couple sick bigger waves with a pack of surfers on it right in front of the house. I give Lauren the shortboard (she’s going in) and take the 6’8 for a spin in these nice bigger waves. Make it out to the lineup with a couple of other guys, stoked. The waves are rolly and in the 8ft range, perfect for my board, all the other guys have shortboards and it can be tricky for them to get in. I’ve experienced this kind of session in France and I know to sit deep and catch the wave early. Catch several big ones scraping into the rolly take off and flow off the bottom turn around a nice big crumbly section. Nothing high performance or anything but the drop is satisfying. A dolphin comes to say hello and the surfers freak out! “What more could we ask for? Good waves and now a dolphin!” They’re stoked. John and Lauren are up on the cliff watching and Lauren took some clips of my waves. Real nice to get those waves and get an actual surf in, it’s been since our sesh at Ericeira 4 days ago that we had good conditions and with this upcoming storm I wasn’t sure if we’d even have today to surf. Gotta take these surf windows when you can.
We take a little stroll out through the little town on the mini peninsula of Baleal. Most of all the storefronts/buildings are surf schools and hotels. Everything revolves around surf tourism here. Even in the offseason, cloudy/rainy, on the edge of a big storm, there still are a bunch of people on foamies learning. Towards the end of the road is a beautiful old hotel with green trimming and beyond is the rocky end and raw ocean. From our perspective we now realize that the end of the peninsula is actually an island, it must have eroded from the mainland. It’s made of diagonal slabs sticking out of the sea with grass on top and a whole sanctuary for birds. It totally took us by surprise in the most beautiful way. Spent some time watching the contrast of the wild, windy ocean on one side and the groomed lines on the other going into the surf zone we were in earlier.
After a nice coffee and pastel to warm us up, we cruise up to Nazare to see how this swell looks up at the world’s largest wave. The whole set up is great over there. The lighthouse/museum right on the cliffside overlooking the waves gives an incredible opportunity for crowds to watch the waves of tremendous size incredibly close. There was a small crowd oohing and ahhing as 30ft surf pounded the area from all angles. Complete raw, powerful chaos. Impossible to surf, impossible to even survive out there, no way for any kind of rescue attempt to be made. Obviously, no surfers in the water today. The way we are seeing the waves crash violently makes it remarkable how the surfers actually get after it. The wave is surfable only when it’s massive and the conditions are perfect so that two waves can combine and double in amplitude. We went home to watch videos of madmen surfing the wave in massive, perfect conditions. Now seeing the clips after seeing it in person it all kinda makes sense. It’s a natural wonder of the world.
Nov 17
Big waves and onshore. The only wind that makes both Baleal and south of Peniche unsurfable. Now I’m really glad I got those good ones yesterday. The sun is out today, however, so even though no surfing, it’s a perfect windy day to explore Peniche properly. Peniche is a walled in town on a peninsula where the extremes of the area are beautiful rock formations right on the water. There’s a small port/marina on the southside but other than that the only way in is through through the gates/wall connected to land. The rock stacks and boulders create a natural wall from anyone who might be attacking by boat. We pull over and walk amongst the natural rock garden, stacks of boulders of all shapes and sizes create nooks and crannies to explore. With the backdrop of crashing waves, this is a sweet little discovery for us.
We continue around the perimeter and arrive at a fortified part around the marina. Cool old walls with little look out towers. Around the corner from there is a tiny “secret” beach walled in from the ocean, the wall has a small tunnel going out to the open ocean. Cruising around, it caught the corner of my eye, went down the stairs, and found this cool area to hang in and imagine yourself in the past. Looking through that tunnel out to sea, illuminated, causes me to reflect and kinda zone one staring at it.
Have a little pastry treat in town and move on home when the rain comes back. I really enjoyed Peniche as a town more than Ericeira. Ericeira probably has higher quality waves around when it’s on, but the living area is kinda boring. Peniche has some charm, history, and little slices of the peninsula to get lost in. Supertubos is world class when on, we didn’t see it.
Nov 18
Great day in Sintra. Mellow drive from Peniche, stopped at some random place to meet up with Telmo who delivered my forgotten pajamas, and we meet up with Evan to explore some castles. Sintra is a town like an hour outside of Lisbon where several rulers and nobles built up castles and mansions over the years. On the hilltops around town are castles and colorful palaces and down below are magnificent estates. A lot of wealth has poured in over its history. We are here on our way back to Lisbon.
The 4 of us begin our climb to the Moorish castle. Extremely steep, little moto-taxis ask us if we need a ride and we decline, committed to get there on foot. The hike up is beautiful as at first you wind through old narrow cobblestone streets that turn into stone walkways through woods that turn into steps going up the walls. We arrive and tour the tip of the walls in a loop, poking into every little guard tower and lookout point. The views are expansive: the town below, green countryside beyond, and the ocean in the distance. Of course it’s touristy but this is something that deserves to be. The king of Portugal in the 1800s decided to abandon the defensive purpose of this Moorish castle and made it more of a garden to wander in and chill. As a result, parts of it are overgrown and some are tended by gardeners. Sometimes it looks like the mountainside is reclaiming the castle. In the distance upwards is the castle of Peña, colorful yellow and orange, our next destination.
Again, we hike to it, steep cobblestone paths. This one is more of a museum with the rooms of the king and queen intact with their furniture and decadence. The outside is super colorful with huge walls of orange and red and yellow, tile of blue and green on the other sections. The outside is breathtaking while the inside is interesting to see the wealth of the nobles. The exterior is spectacular full of details and patterns to admire. For example, on every corner and ledge are gargoyles and beasts hanging, looking wild, mouth agape to let water run out. Some are lions and crocodiles. The biggest one is this crazy aquatic man beast at the entrance that represents the transition from sea to earth. He’s like a merman with fish tails on top of coral and above it’s a human body amongst grape vines/trees. Watch a spectacular sunset from up here, at golden hour the colors of the palace are vibrant. After so much walking uphill today we reward ourselves with a moto-taxi ride down at night. Thank god we walked up during the day so we could see all the scenery going up and took the easy way down in the night.
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Nov 19
John’s last day in Lisbon and Lauren’s first. We explored the neighborhoods of Chiado and Bairro Alto before going to a flea market on the backside of Alfama. Evan’s been here the whole time so he has some cool spots he wants to show us. Big walking hours through the town checking out sardine cans and eating tasty treats at the bakery. Big canned fish culture out here. The designs and artwork on the sardine cans are elegant, multi colored, and beautiful, the flavors are super cool, and they taste pretty good.
On the flea market side of things, we’re kind of shopping, I’m more people watching, pretty cool scene. Lots of dope vintage vibes but not really looking for clothes unless I see red socks. We keep the shopping train going and a take a little tour of vintage/second hand stores and Evan gets fitted out with a sick blue jacket with red trimming. He’s psyched!
Cruise around a corner and we see the best sunset over Lisbon of the trip. Have a ridiculous dinner at a bougie restaurant, hilarity ensues, and we go to a cocktail bar afterwards that’s spinning vinyl records. Meet some Aussies, I tell them our names are Stinky, Hungry, Cranky, and Humpy and they fucking love it. Really sweet day the 4 of us around Lisbon on John’s last day.
John takes off early in the morning. Say our goodbyes and he’s off to the airport. Lauren’s friend Christina is meeting her in Lisbon to spend a few days here before they go off to the Spanish Basque region. We move to our next Airbnb up the hill. The walk up with boards and luggage kinda sucks but we make it and the place is in an adorable offshoot of the cute Alfama area.
Cruise to a sports bar to meet up with Evan to watch the world cup opener! So excited to some games. Now that the cup has started my days will be consumed with games and planning my days around games I want to watch. It makes me feel like a kid watching these guys play and lay it all on the line. The excitement, honor, and opportunity to play in this tournament still hits. Almost shed a tear watching the players sing their national anthems before the game starts. Feeling my age noticing all the stars of my childhood grow old and get replaced by people younger than me. Such beautiful athleticism, precision, and speed to appreciate as well as the changing of the guard. It’s the fucking world cup! In the evening/night we for a cool little Fado night and Evan and I share a bomb fish stew. It’s a small, cramped restaurant packed to the gills. The music is sweet and sometimes musicians from the street poke their head in and sing a few verses. Enjoy the meal and performance.
Nov 21
Busted a mission across the city to see a zone where people actually live, not just a place geared for tourism. Took the little trolley you see around Lisbon, classic, but the thing is really crowded, slow as hell, and rickety. You almost fall every time it starts and stops. If you’re standing like we are, it’s not relaxing. Last time I take this thing, but I guess I’m glad I tried it out. We do make it off and walk through the city on our way to the Calouste Gulbenkian Modern Museum. Probably should’ve taken public transit but after the trolley I was cool with walking for a while. Modern city with ugly tall apartment buildings and sky scrapers in the financial district, etc. Walk through the real city and not the old and charming/touristy parts we’ve been used to by the water.
The museum is not too big but has some incredible old pieces of Persian rugs from the 1400s, of course tile, amazing silks from the far east, and really cool porcelain and china. There’s also a section of hand written manuscripts and biblical texts with golden writing and tiny, super detailed drawings from the monks of the Middle Ages. This whole early part is very historical and seems more like a museum of the artifacts of old cultures before the modern art. There is also a really cool exhibit of Italian tapestries with wild detailed scenes of children playing amongst vineyards woven into a fabric that is as tall as the ceiling. I’ve never seen a collection of tapestries like this before, I guess Italian nobles had them commissioned and they were popular back in the day. The modern European art is pretty cool too but I don’t spend nearly as much time there and kinda focus on just a few paintings that catch my eye.
Nov 22
Have a really nice farewell lunch with Evan at Diyalo, a Nepalese restaurant close by our spot. We eat momos and chicken with rice along with these hollowed out little fried circles with meat inside that you pour a salsa into. It’s delicious, never had a spherical appetizer like that before, different and nice.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to travel with Evan for the last 60 days. At first, we were to link up in Paris and move through France and he’d stay with me til at least my birthday before continuing his journey. We were having such epic times and getting along so well that when I told him what my ideas were going forward he was excited about them too. At first I think he was self conscious about him piggy backing on my trip but I assured him that I was happy to have his company as long as he was stoked to hit the open ended trajectory I had mapped out in my mind. He was always down to bust a fat mission and on the other hand was cool with chilling and having off days. We had great conversations and got to know each other well, we laughed a ton, had epic surfs, and cemented himself as a dear friend and brother to me. There was never any tension between us, just smooth sailing as we spent 7 weeks exploring the Basque Country and then flying to Lisbon together. Now he’s off to England and Ireland to finish out his Euro adventure. Big thanks to Evan for this incredible time, it was special.
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