I had a blast in Portugal for five days, with the “traveling trio.” By means of introduction (settle in for a paragraph) I’ve been part of a “cooking club” in DC for the past 11 or so years (minus a brief hiatus when I was working full-time while in grad school). CC includes a group of approx 8-10 of us who get together monthly, and the person hosting chooses the theme/menu and sends links to recipes for the various dishes (that’s how it works now but for a long time it was typing out the recipes from cookbooks). Everyone chooses a dish from the list and brings it to to the host’s home, where we do whatever final prep is needed before enjoying the meal. The matriarch of the CC, Becky Brown (she has a great blog called My Utensil Crock) is good at keeping us on-task so we spend a few minutes talking about what we made, how/the recipe worked, what we did to modify the dish, or what ingredients we didn’t have and had to toss in a substitute or maybe just leave it out altogether (usually that’s me). Then we move on to discussions ranging from celebrity gossip to solving the world’s problems. I bring this up because last year i teamed up with two of my CC friends (also not married and adventuresome) to take a trip together to Iceland. We had a fabulous time- I highly recommend Iceland, btw. And we deemed ourselves the “Traveling Trio” and had an interim domestic trip to Chicago before planning an extended Columbus Day weekend trip to Portugal. Then,Teha’s Travels took shape and it worked out perfectly for me to meet Page and Jenny in Portugal in between other adventures. Here we are first reunited (minus my left eye- no selfie stick on this trip):
You should also know that Page is a travel planner extraordinaire, with Jenny a close runner-up. This is excellent for me as I don’t need to do anything in prep for the trips. Page makes (and even prints out) itineraries, that I consistently lose my copy of. Good thing she has back-ups! The best part is that the duo of my trio is also super-fun and very flexible. So even the stuff on the hard copy printed itineraries are subject to change (and often are) based on whatever we feel like doing at any given moment.
We met up in Porto and settled into our home for two nights, “Top Flat,” which was true to it’s name. Porto is a gorgeous city on the water (most predominantly the river) and the Top Flat offered THE most amazing view.
We embarked on a great free walking tour of Porto and learned the history behind the fortress walls, stunning cathedral, and the old train station that is adorned with over 30,000 tiles. 
We enjoyed many of the food and drink offerings from Porto, but got too busy exploring to visit the official port-making establishments along the beautiful river. We did have time to stop and join two local girls jumping in the river on a hot day.
We then ventured on to Lisbon, and started our first full day with an excellent food tour of the city. The food was delectable but the historical info and entertaining nuggets really made it stand-out. 
The tour ended with a ferry boat ride to an island across the river from Lisbon and the three of us explored a bit by walking to the other side, where we found a restaurant whose claim of being waterfront cannot be questioned…to the point we worried about falling in! 
Later that day we lost one third of the Travelling Trio (Page) who had to give into the body aches and chills that had started the day before and gotten worse (she’s a trooper and had suffered silently). Poor Page spent most of the last two days in bed and while Jenny and I kept going, it just wasn’t the same!
That night after dinner we realized the Washington Nats (vs. Cubbies) play-off game was taking place and wondered if we could find an establishment with a cable dish who would put it on. Some googling led us to an Irish bar where we quickly discovered there was no chance of seeing the game. The bar was full of Swiss futbol fans getting amped up for a match the following night against Portugal. 
iNeither Jenny or I knew anything of this particular sporting contest until then but quickly learned it was a big deal as the two teams had been been neck-in-neck for first place and the winner would clinch a spot in the 2018 World Cup. I’dnever been to a pro soccer/futbol match and the enthusiasm around this one sparked my interest so I asked a few (exactly two) Swiss guys if they had extra tickets. The first laughed in my face and explained how HUGE this match was and how it had been sold out forever and they’d travelled all the way there for the game, etc, etc. Undeterred I made my second inquiry that resulted in an “actually, I do have two tickets!” said almost like he’d forgotten. As I actually think he had given that his friend who couldn’t make it at the last minute had a family emergency to attend to. For some reason (it was late and I still hadn’t grasped the importance of the game) I still negotiated with the Swiss guy and for some reason (unknown) he ended up selling them to us for 20 euro each! Given that the supply on tickets online was exactly zero (we checked) I’d say we got a good deal. And now I feel a little bit bad about my negotiations!
The next day was a big one for Jenny and I as we first trained it 30 minutes, to a town called Sintra for a day of site-seeing (poor Page hadn’t moved from bed, and was really loving being completely incapacitated in a foreign country). 
We followed the (thankfully) very precise instructions of Jenny’s friend who had been there the week before. The two of were lost without our beacon, Page! We toured the Pena palace that is out of this world in it’s grandeur. 
King Ferdinand really did it up with his renovations in the 1800s. They really went all out and some may say it’s a smidge over the top, They even have the furniture from back in the day in all the rooms..so many rooms! 
We then explored the vastly contrasting Castle of the Moors, just down the hill. It was surreal thinking about long ago it had been constructed, and how they moved all those rocks! Here were are token castle pics (looking closely for Jenny- think Where’s Waldo).
We rushed back to Portugal and made sure Page was stocked up on water and meds before metroing to the game. Thankfully our seats were not with the Swiss so we could cheer for the home team (yes, I also felt a smidge guilty about this but there was no Swiss gear for sale on the street and one must have gear for a match like this!) 
It was a phenomenal game resulting in a 2-0 win for the home team. The energy in the stadium felt electric as everyone (literally EVERY one) of the 61k+ fans sat/stood transfixed on every single second of the game. Men, women, and children alike did not take their eyes off the field, minus halftime but even then everyone was careful to be back in their seats early. 
Maybe it was because it was a weeknight but we also noticed that very few people were drinking during the game. I guess that would have required getting up and missing some play to get drinks, but even at halftime we saw only a handful of people drinking beer. I just couldn’t imagine a sporting event in the U.S. with the spectators having that level of sober intensity and enthusiasm. Anyways, the game was a blast and we felt so lucky to have stumbled across the tickets!
The next day Jenny and poor Page headed black stateside (yes she still felt like crap and had to take a long flight). I took a quick flight to Madrid where I’d spend a night before my red-eye flight (yes, another Flash Pack tour!) I’d been to Madrid for the Vespa tour I took in July but didn’t spend much time in the actual city and was excited to see more. That night I met up with Javier, the amazing guide of the Vespa tour. He went above and beyond in his duties by not only returning a phone charger I’d left at a hotel during the tour, but also giving me an evening walking tour of the city (I told you he’s amazing!). 
I started the next day with a run in the stunning Retiro park before taking off for more exploring. The museums were closed due to a bank holiday so Javier suggested I hit up the same spots we had the night before as they are different (and equally beautiful) in the daylight, and of course he was right. I explored some bustling must-see plazas, (Plaza de Mayor, Plaza de Santa Ana, and Plaza de Espana) as well as the breath-taking Almudena Cathedral and the well-protected Palacio Real. 
Then, it was back to the good ole airport! [As an aside, it blows my mind how few metro stations in Europe have escalators or working elevators, and even on the train-line where people will definitely be lugging suitcases. Or maybe I’m just being a lazy American.]
Stay tuned for adventures on the third continent of the trip…India!