Travel,  Europe,  Portugal

Peneda-Gerês National Park

March 14, 2020 /

Unexpectedly, the penultimate day of the trip to Spain and Portugal became the biggest highlight of the entire itinerary. Due to the high unknown coefficient, it experienced the ups and downs without risk. Everything has to start with the high school principal in the San Francisco Bay Area that I met the day before yesterday. He just went to climb the mountain in Peneda-Gerês, the only national park in Portugal. He showed me the pictures. The scenery was very beautiful. He suggested that I go. At that time, I thought that Porto was almost the same anyway, and I thought I would go there if there were no other arrangements. So following his advice, I took the train from Porto north to Braga for more than an hour at four o'clock yesterday afternoon. I planned to stay there for one night, and then took the earliest seven o'clock bus (two hours) to Peneda the next morning- Gerês National Park and come back in the afternoon.

As a result, when I arrived at the youth hostel I booked in Braga and checked in and asked about the bus time the next day, I was told that because tomorrow is Saturday, the earliest bus is only available at 10:00. When I arrive there at 12:00, the bus will return at 5:00 pm. Point, then I wouldn't have time to climb the mountain much less rush back to Porto to fly to Barcelona and fly back to the US. So there were only two options: stay in Braga and not go to the national park for one night, or take the bus that night to go to the small town in the national park to spend the night there, go hiking the next morning and take the noon bus back. The uncle of the youth hostel helped me to find out that there was only a bus at 7:30 that night that went to the town in the national park. I checked the accommodation there online, because it is the off-season and the new crown virus, there are many vacancies and not expensive. So I decided not to live in the hostel that I just paid for, and took the only bus that night to the national park.

The bus drove around the mountain road for nearly two hours. There were not many people in the car. I asked when I was about to get off the bus. There was no one who could speak English. I could only communicate in bad Spanish. Get off at the station. After getting off the bus, it was already dark, and there was no one or a car in the town. I was going to look for the hotel I checked on the map on my mobile phone, but there was no signal. The uncle said he knew he could take me there. On the way there, I tried to communicate with him in Spanish. Although he only speaks Portuguese, he can understand the Spanish I speak. The problem is that I can't understand most of what he said, hehe. When he arrived at the hotel, he turned around and went home. As a result, the eldest sister at the front desk told me that because it was originally a low season for tourism, and the new crown virus spread across the country, their hotel in this small area will basically be closed tonight and will not accept guests. . I was really panicked at the time, where would I go to sleep in this dark night with high winds, a sudden drop in temperature, and a sparsely populated place! ? After jogging out, I caught up with the uncle who brought me here before. After telling him that the hotel was closed, he said he knew a few other hotels, so he took me there again. I went to ask two or three more places, they were all closed, and the owner even called to ask their friend who runs a hotel. There's nowhere or it's closed. He was very helpless, and when I was a little desperate, I saw that my mobile phone had a signal. I checked the nearby accommodation and found that there was a place we hadn't asked before. He took me there and knocked directly on the door. The door was opened by a couple who could still speak English! The airbnb they live here, the landlord doesn't live here, they called the landlord but the landlord didn't answer, they said the house is very big, they let me enter the house, it is impossible for me to sleep on the street in the middle of the night. The uncle took me everywhere to find the hotel for a total of an hour, and he left with peace of mind after seeing that someone received this uncle. He was a kind man, thank you.

The couple said they were the only ones living in the house with five or six rooms. But the other rooms were locked, the living room was huge, and they said I could sleep on the sofa if I didn't mind. I was so excited that I almost cried, sleeping on the sofa? Just let me sleep on the floor. He also asked me if I had eaten or not, and if I wanted to drink some red wine to warm up. I was beyond words how excited I was. They hadn't had dinner yet, so they cooked and ate together. This girl's chili is absolutely delicious.

Chatting during the meal, I learned that the French couple was here on their first day, a surprise trip to celebrate their first anniversary together. If they hadn't just arrived here, I don't know if I'd be able to find a place to live, I'm always so lucky. The English of the people who went to France in the previous trip was really difficult to understand, but this girl's English is really good, and I only found out that she is an English-French-Spanish translator. Her father is French and her mother is Colombian. She moved to Bogota at the age of four and lived in Colombia for 17 years before returning to France. Talking about Colombia is endless, this trip is really meeting all kinds of people related to Colombia. They also told me that many supermarkets and restaurants in the village that I went to during the day were closed, so they insisted on packing me a bag of biscuits and two bananas for me to climb the mountain with the next day. Before going to bed, she also suggested that I download an offline mountaineering map for climbing the next day. This girl said that she was helped by many strangers when she went to Ireland with a backpack and hitchhiked with her friends when she was in college. She received them and gave them food. She believed that she could pass on this kind of kindness by helping me when she met me. Also very happy.

In order to catch the only bus going back at 1:30 in the afternoon, I left early in the morning. First, I went to the park ranger at the entrance to ask for directions, and I guessed while gesturing with the map, and finally figured out which hiking trail should be taken. After a lap, I found that there was still a long time left, so I decided to go to another destination eight kilometers away. There was also a bus back there, so I didn't have to turn back.

In the four or five kilometers on the road, only three cars passed by. On this road, they must all go to the same destination. I was tired, so I decided to stop the third car and take a ride. The one who stopped was an old grandfather, who introduced the surrounding scenery while driving, and saw a group of cattle on the mountain, saying that they belonged to his family. It was a farmer! This first hitchhiking only took less than ten minutes, because the car in front would not be able to drive in, so I had to walk.

There are beautiful scenery everywhere along the way. When I reached the first beautiful viewing point to rest on a big rock, I finally met a human other than me on the hiking trail: a couple who drive from Porto to climb the mountain every weekend. and their dogs. It happened to help me take a picture in the most beautiful place.

I continued on foot alone, and when I walked out of the mountain road to the highway and was not sure how to get to the bus stop, I met two people who happened to be passing by, and finally met someone who could speak Spanish! They are both Spaniards, one from Barcelona, the other I haven't heard of. They said they were also heading towards the city station, so they took me there. The two of them have just come to work in this small land for a month. They are both lumberjacks. Now is the off-season for tourism and there is not much work. They say they like it here because the scenery is very beautiful. He also asked me if I got lost when I climbed the mountain today. I said that I occasionally get lost but there are many local enthusiastic people along the way to help. The elder brother in Barcelona is very talkative and said that he thinks the people here are very enthusiastic, but the people in Barcelona are not like this. Passersby will turn a blind eye when they see an old lady who needs help taking out the garbage on the street. I said that people in big cities have a fast pace of life. Most of them take care of themselves, but it also depends on the person. Hearing that I will be flying back to the United States tomorrow, he joked that he could put him in my luggage and take him to the United States. Later, he also said that their daily life and work have been repeated, exactly the same, but today it was different when they met me, and it was very fresh. I was walking when a big truck came behind and was stopped by them. I thought they were going to help me hitch a ride together. Later I found out that the two people in the car were their colleagues. Because they were locals, they knew where the bus stop was. where, but they need to get the work truck back first, and then they'll wait at the foot of the mountain with their own to take me to the station. When we continued to walk down the mountain, his colleague really drove his car back to pick me up to the station. When I got to the station, I checked that it was still early, so I went to the station to wait for the bus after I found a restaurant to eat something. While waiting for the bus, I met a German couple. The girl worked in the hospital and talked about the new crown virus.

After about three hours, the bus changed to the train and returned to Porto. I went to a very authentic local restaurant that I visited before and had some snacks. I asked them to recommend a nearby egg tart shop. On the last day in Portugal, I had to eat two egg tarts before I could leave with peace of mind. . This is the best food I have eaten in five days! Hey, I'll never be able to eat such authentic Portuguese egg tarts again.

These two days are really twists and turns, but more of it is the surprise brought by the unknown, I met many kind and enthusiastic people, and got their selfless help.

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