After a hearty breakfast and check-out, we headed back, north. Wherever the eye can see, huge sea pines stand with their broccoli-shaped, squat foliage. The doths and storks reappear.
We had a coffee in Setúbal, 45km before Lisbon, which has a very cozy downtown. The spacious squares are connected by narrow pedestrian streets, cozy restaurants everywhere and the inevitable colourful tiles on the walls of the house.
After Lisbon and Porto, it is one of the largest ports in the country, with a population of over 120 thousand people.
Mafalda is extremely proud of its Portuguese cultural heritage:
This is where I made the missed and “necessary” bracelet shopping. I usually like to buy one at a craft fair, where I get to know the seller who does it, rather than buying something pre-packaged and meaningless made-in-china. This is also why shopping in Porto Covo failed. In Setúbal, on the other hand, we found a cute shop where everything is done by the owner. We talked to her, and of course we got to the question “and where are you from?” and when I tell him I’m Hungarian, I get back the question, “Are you serious?” The owner is a Hungarian woman who moved here from America 5 years ago and opened a shop. She doesn’t meet many Hungarians, so we talked while I “looted” the shop.
We had lunch at Mafalda’s parents’ house and drove the rented car back to the airport, where we met Mafalda’s partner, Filipe, who had come from the Azores, so they could have a wedding afterwards.
Here we said goodbye to each other and this adventurous trip ended.