Sintra and Porto

I was in Lisbon, Portugal when SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for covid-19, started wreaking havoc in the nearby country of Spain. I wasn’t particularly worried. The virus seemed to have been affecting the elderly population most, and healthy, young people like myself seemed like they would be fine. But then on March 11 President Trump announced a travel ban for most of Europe—I had to decide what to do.

Before all of that happened, though, my plans were to fly to Tokyo and stay there for three or four weeks. My team had an IRL (in real life) team meetup planned there for the week of March 15, so they’d be joining me for one week of it. When the virus started getting out of hand in Asia, however, my team changed plans and decided to join me in Lisbon. I was going to extend my stay for three more weeks and then fly to London afterward instead of Tokyo. Then I could meet up with friends who had travel plans for Scandinavia and my sister who had a whole Europe tour planned.

With the extra time, I thought it would be a good idea to book some different types of accommodations to figure out which kind I liked best. I had been living in an Airbnb for a month, and I wasn’t a huge fan of it even if the apartment itself was really nice.

I booked a week at Selina Secret Garden, a digital nomad focused hostel, and two weeks at Outsite Lisbon, a digital nomad focused co-living space. Both were located in the Cais do Sodré neighborhood, and both had a co-working space attached. Selina was organizing my weekly Animal Flow fitness classes, and Outsite was my second choice to the Airbnb that I had stayed at.

The dorm in Selina was nice for a dorm with bunks, but most people staying there weren’t actually digital nomads. They were just folks passing through on vacation. Nobody except me was there for more than a night or two at a time. And the whole place was also oddly quiet for a hostel. On more than one occasion I had the whole rooftop to myself.

One night there was only one other guy on the rooftop, a bartender from New York. We chatted for a while and made plans to hit up a nearby Italian restaurant the next day. When the scheduled time rolled around to head over, he never showed up. I waited for half an hour to no avail and ended up going on my own. It was his loss because the carbonara there was exquisite.

While I was staying at Selina, my team at Automattic was becoming uncertain of if we should continue to do the IRL meetup in Lisbon. Portugal had only confirmed one case of the virus at the time, but the US and other areas were not doing as well. The day before we needed to make a final decision, Automattic canceled all travel. My IRL team meetup in Lisbon was becoming a NIRL (not in real life) meetup instead.

With the couple extra weekends I had decided to do a day trip to Sintra. Sintra has several great tourist attractions: the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, the Castelo dos Mouros, the Palácio Nacional da Pena, and the Quinta da Regaleira. The tourism website for Sintra was really well put together, and they had a few sample itineraries to choose from as well as good instructions for how to take the train there. On my last day at Selina I woke up early and embarked on the day trip.

My first stop was the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, a Gothic styled medieval palace which now serves as a museum. It was a rather quick stroll to get through. Some parts of it were under renovation when I was there, so I didn’t get a good picture of the front with all the scaffolding up. I grabbed a bagel for an early lunch and headed to Castelo dos Mouros. It has a wonderful view to offer—you can see for miles.

The last place on my list was the Palacio Nacional da Pena. I easily spent the most time walking around the grounds there, but I wish I could have spent even more. The palace and the palace grounds were breathtaking—like a setting from a fairy tale.

The first thing you experience when you arrive at the entrance is a lengthy line to buy tickets—the palace is a popular spot in the afternoon. But eventually I got my ticket and I made the walk up to the palace.

They had some nice displays as you walked through the palace, and the interior was just as extravagant as you’d expect from, well, a palace. Photos weren’t allowed inside, but I think the outside was more photo-worthy anyway.

While the brilliantly colored palace is the centerpiece of the area, surrounding it is 200 hectares of forest and gardens. Its easy to find yourself lost on the many trails weaving through the trees. Most paths were marked on the map, but there were still many smaller ones that weren’t. I found myself taking these “secret” trails rather frequently and winding up in places that I didn’t always expect.

I walked around until the park closed, making it to nearly every point of interest on the map, but not quite all of them. Despite the long lines and crowds at the entrance, further away from the palace I was often walking around without a person in sight—only really crossing paths with one small group at a time. I suppose with the castle being the main attraction, most people spend most of their time there.

I thought the castle was cool, but the thing that really turned it into a fairy tale for me was the Chalet e Jardim da Condessa d’Edla in the far opposite corner of the grounds. Being about a two kilometer walk from the main entrance, I’m not surprised that there were only two other people checking it out when I arrived. Still, it didn’t really feel that far to me—you stumble upon numerous little fountains and statues along the way, and it’s a very pleasant walk. When you get there, you’re greeted by this building which is the very definition of a fairy tale cottage in the woods. You can go inside and learn about how it was designed and built—well worth the walk.

Another notable landmark was the High Cross—at 529 meters up, it’s the highest point in the castle grounds. It offered a view of the palace from afar, above the treetops. There were a few more people than the cottage, but there still weren’t many people up there taking advantage of the phenomenal view.

By the end of the day I was exhausted from all the walking and sightseeing. I, unfortunately didn’t have time for the Quinta da Regaleira. If I ever make it back, that’ll be first on my list of things to see. The 40 minute train ride back to Lisbon was relaxing. I grabbed my bags from the Selina lockers and made my way to Outsite.

It was pretty late when I arrived, so I quietly entered the passcode for the floor, made my way to my room and promptly fell asleep. The next morning I was able to take a look around some more. Outsite was a big difference from Selina. There were five floors, each with five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and washing machine.

I bought some produce from a nearby minimercado and started cooking in the kitchen. While I was cooking up a nice stir fry, a couple guys from the floor poked their heads in to say hi and introduce themselves. Later that night I met a fellow web developer and her sister who were traveling together and also staying on the floor. We hung out in the common area and talked about web development and traveling for a while. I worked in my room and down in the lovely co-working café on the ground floor for a couple days, and then March 11th rolled around.

After hearing the news I talked with a few of my floormates to get their opinions. Were things going to get worse? Would air travel become difficult? Should I leave now? Nobody really had much of an idea. As everyone else was from Europe, getting back home would have been easier for them than it would be for me. I also texted some friends from back in the States to get their opinions on the situation there.

That night after hours of deliberating I bought a ticket for the next day to fly back. I had an overnight layover in Porto, and then I would be staying with a friend in New York City for a week before flying back to Minneapolis (next day flights from LIS to MSP were expensive).

I only had half a day to explore around Porto before I had to catch my flight, so I tried to keep walking and not stop for too long anywhere. I walked around the Praça de Mouzinho de Albuquerque, Trindade, Avenida dos Aliados, and Cais da Ribeira. The whole place seemed nice, and I wish I would have had more time.

Before heading to catch the flight, I found a winery and decided to go for the whole three course meal since it’s all I’d be eating for the day and I had a long flight ahead of me. I went for as Portuguese of a meal as I could with bacalhau (salted cod) and a port wine pear.

The Porto airport was quite busy. A few people were wearing masks, but the concern hadn’t really set in yet. When I arrived at Newark, that was a different story. The whole airport seemed to be almost deserted—a stark contrast.

I attended my team’s NIRL meetup from my laptop in my friend’s studio apartment—needless to say, it couldn’t really replace an in-person meetup. My friend had been working from home already for a little bit, but we stopped at his office to play some billiards and hung out at Luv Tea, a tea shop nearby. Walking around the city was quite a bit different from when I had been their last. Streets were empty—we even saw someone taking a picture of their dog in the middle of the day on Broadway.

With the airports being empty I was able to show up to EWR, go through security, and hop on the plane in no time at all. My parents were nice enough to bring my car to the airport and then drive right back. I wanted to be careful in case I had been infected so I went to my brother’s apartment from there since he was able to work from home and didn’t have to interact with anyone in person. He was also moving into a new house, so I could help him with that.

When I got to his place I had to decide what to do next. I had a few weddings scheduled for the summer, but I wasn’t sure if they would be happening. My first thought was a road trip to visit friends, but even traveling like that seemed irresponsible for spreading the virus if I happened to catch it.

After two weeks at my brother’s place and still no plan, I was still feeling fine, so I went home to visit my parents. I stayed there for a bit, then went back to my brother’s for a bit—stuck in a limbo of uncertainty. Eventually I decided to move to Denver. I had a couple friends and relatives living out there already who I could visit, it’s not so far of a drive to head back for the weddings I was invited to that would maybe be happening in Iowa, and Colorado has a lot of outdoor hiking areas and open spaces to enjoy.

I did some virtual apartment hunting and landed on a place downtown with a lease for eight months, meaning I’d be there till January. My plans to meet up with my sister in Europe were gone, so she offered to help me move. With my car packed to the brim and a few things in her car, we made the long drive to the Mile High City.

Things have changed so much in the past six months that my time living in Lisbon feels more like a dream I had last night than a thing that I lived—it’s kinda weird. Overall, I think I made the right choices—flying back and moving to Denver. Portugal seems to have handled the crisis much better than the US, but at least I’ve been able to do some hiking. 🙂

---

---