Portugal - Day 1

September 8, 2025: Another transition day! Today is a major one, moving from Ireland to Portugal. We had to be up early to catch our shuttle to the Dublin Airport to catch our 7:45AM flight to Lisbon. It’s a 2 hr and 50 min flight. Our flight had a short delay, but we had plenty of time to grab the red line to Lisbon-Oriente station. We grabbed some sandwiches for lunch and had our first Pastel de nata before our next train arrived and we headed out on the Alfa Pendular line to Porto. Our train ride to Porto was another 2+ hours, but we had nice seats with a table, so it was a very comfortable ride. When we arrived in Porto it was a little chaotic. We were trying to purchase a transportation card, but couldn’t figure out how to get the machine to change to english and of course, we don’t read Portuguese. There wasn’t anyone available to help, so we decided to just call an Uber which would take us directly to our Airbnb. Unfortunately we arrived during rush hour, so it took much longer to get there than the train, but we finally made it. Our host met us at the flat and gave us a tour as well as a great explanation of how to get around the city. She was amazing and so is our flat. It is just beautiful and in the perfect location for all of the thing we have planned. We are so happy with our choice!

Once we got settled in, we headed down to a restaurant where we had made reservations down by the Douro River. When we got there, it was closed. We are not sure what the mix up was, but we ended up just selecting a restaurant close by and all was well. We had our first bottle of Portuguese wine and a nice meal. Two big differences we have notices already. One of course is the topography. Porto is situated on the hillside along the Douro river and the terrain is often steep with uneven pavement whereas most of the cities we visited in Ireland were pretty flat and easily walkable. We will definitely be getting our exercise here! The other is that Ireland is definitely a beer country where as Portugal is a wine country. The only beer Jimm has been able to find so far is Super Bock, a Portuguese lager. For me, it’s perfect because wine is almost always my first choice! We are very much looking forward to learning more of the differences and exploring this beautiful city and country.