Travelling to far off lands is always a fantasy, and Portugal seemed as far away as ever and similarly as fantastic as ever.

Flying over a major ocean, handful of seas and two continents we reached the western tip of Europe’s Maritime capital’s bustling city of Lisbon. And probably the only place in Portugal that could fit the adjective. As ‘Take it easy’ and ‘laid-back’ may well be in the constitution of this country where a chilled-out attitude and a refusal to rat-racing seems like a brilliant asset. 

Travelling to Portugal in late-winter has its charms and challenges. For one winter-wear is extremely fun, then its the time of the year when architecture comes to the fore-front as trees drop their leaves and bare out what I love to see, fewer tourists means more room in the city, there is absolutely no-frizz in the (h)air and boots are in the season. On the other hand lugging woollens mean inflated luggage, the bane of appearing like one reindeer Rudolph with the red-nose and the worst, when coming out of the warm fuzzing blankets is a herculean task. But such is the charm of winter which got me, a summer loving dudette, completely sold on the white shimmering hues of the season.

The places touched upon in Portugal were Porto, Faro, Tavira, Sagrez, Lagos, Loule and my favorite Lisbon. In the following posts I recount the trip to a country so mild and so nautical not to forget friendly and warm. The Portugese people stole our hearts away as we played charades to converse due to a lack of conversant language. We did see where Goa got its awesomeness from and why it so reluctantly became a part of the Indian Union.

I did try to learn some phrases in Portugese on the plane, for the record Emirates from Dubai to Lisbon was great, but ended up learning two very important ones, one Sin Carne, means vegetarian and two Obrigado, means thank you.

And well ‘Oi’ is a hello!