I’m a Low Energy Traveler + Portugal Photos
Spain comes next time.
Welcome to the Friday Flight!
I’m back with… travel stuff. Crypto can wait. I think we can all use a break.
Hasta la próxima semana!
Past Friday Flights
10/21: 1 Year After My EY-Exit
What I’m Up To
TL;DR: Jet Lag from a Vacation in the Iberian Peninsula
The Things:
Back from my European Vacation, experiencing jetlag where I wake up at 3 am consistently. Visit Portugal and Spain :)
I ate a 25+ course meal with 11 drink pairings at Disfrutar, the 5th best restaurant in the world in Barcelona. Cheaper than the price of a GPU…for both people eating.
WAKANDA FOREVER - also their album is too good.
AMEX Centurion - there aren’t enough airport lounges for this to be a value add. Priority Pass - Only Useful in Europe, all lounges in the US have expired, closed, or only available at like 4 am.
Here’s 120 jobs I found.
I’m playing God of War Ragnarok right now.
Best Twitter Threads:
What I Reflected On
TL;DR: I’m a Low Energy Traveler + Portugal Photos
I’m a Low Energy Traveler
In my normal, pre-career break life, I often had very well planned out days and weekends. Each day filled with work calendar meeting, and each weekend filled with activities. Sounds exhausting, right?
It is.
My vacations are quite the opposite. When I go on vacation, I’m one of those people that plans very loosely with a lot of not committed options available. You won’t find an appointment at 9a.m., followed by an outting at 11 a.m., with tickets at 1 p.m. on any of my itineraries.
Instead, what you’ll find is that I have the flight to the destination, I have flexible lodging, and I’ve learned about the history and geography of a city / country so that by the time I get there, I can quite literally do random and spontaneous things based on what I learned.
For me, travel isn’t about scratching everything on a bucket list - or a task list. That sounds like awfully like a day job. I don’t yearn for high energy travel that entails going to 5 countries in 7 days. That is exhausting.
Instead, I prefer to take it slow and do 7 days in one country - one city or two.
I like to immerse myself in the more subtle and simple things in the destination I am in. I like to do normal things I’d do at home, such as running, in the city that I’m staying in. I like to go to their markets, go catch a sunrise, and even take their public transit. I like to eat and find my eatery where the tourists don’t go to, but the locals do. Turns out, I even like making breakfast.
Maybe a day will be a shopping day. Another day will be a walk-around a random neighborhood day. Another day is a stay-in day.
I might sprinkle in a specific reservation-only activity to get my cultural integration of the city started, but those are not frequent. If I know someone in town, we’ll meet up for drinks and dinner.
I have no issue with “missing out” on all the “things tourists should be doing”. If I like a place, I’ll come back. I’m a low energy traveler.
My vacations are to not necessarily built to recharge me. That’s a lot of pressure on a vacation to do that. My vacations are meant to offer a different perspective, with the hope of reinvigorating me for all the things that make life exhilarating. Being somewhere, learning another language, and temporarily living another life - well that’s what I go for.
So there you have it. I’m a low energy traveller.
Oh right - I’m talking about travel without photos. Where are my manners? Here are my Portugal photos.
Porto
A easy and simple city to relax in as a couple, or with family.
Porto is such a hidden gem. It’s a simple and easy city to simply be in, and has all the accommodations that would fit both young and retired adults. From that bridge shown above, you can quite literally walk to all the key parts of the city in under 15 minutes.
Go here for Port wine, which is a sweet dessert-like wine, and get lost in traditional Portuguese dishes including Pasteis de Nata at Manteigaria (get it when its freshly made, with an espresso on the side), and a Cachorrinhos at Gazela (its sounds and looks basics, but it’s a divine drunk food. Shoutout to Orpheu (center photo) for the best Portuguese Tapa and Cocktail Ports. Spend half the day (evening side) at World of Wine.
Lisbon
Where you go to hang with friends, or make new ones.
The Capital of Portugal, Lisbon is a city built across 7 hills. It is essentially San Francisco without high-rises, complete with an unlimited amount of fusion restaurants, bars, nature (there’s a national forest inside the city limits) and their own bridge identical to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
It’s probably the best young-person’s city (20-35) and to best describe it: You go here to hangout with people. I highly recommend getting the tasting menu at Mini-Bar by Jose Avillez. You can also do day trips to Sintra (book with Nuno and Bruno from Happy Tours Sintra), check out the waterfront town of Cascais, or be like me and eat your way through it all.
Do you want to learn more about Portugal?
I read this:
and I watched this:
He a dedicated Netflix episode on Lisbon.
See you next time - I’ll have some Spain things.
Shoutout to John B. for the FTX Twitter Thread.