One month in Portugal with worldpackers !

          You have your work, your friends, your home and suddenly you decide that the safety net wich you created with so much love and tenderness in not enough for you anymore. Last summer I graduated from university, had already completed my internship and here I am with absolutely no clue about my future, about what I want in my life, what will make me happy. So I just disappeared in Portugal for one month. Was it a success? Did I book the first ticket back to Greece by the time I set my foot to this country? Well keep on reading my friends.
 
Worldpackers is a company which helps young people to travel around the world without spending a small fortune as they provide free accommodation, meals and sometimes a pocket money in exchange for their skills. These skills vary from photography to cooking or even painting. Mine where storytelling and photography so I found a job in a hostel/surf camp, called “Perfect Spot Lisbon” and was located well in Lisbon, in order to provide their business in social media and press. Did I mention that I always wanted to learn how to surf? 

---

          So here I am, in a residence five minutes from the ocean trying to decide what to cook with my roommate Kamila, who is also a volunteer in the hostel. By the afternoon we had already finished all of our work, so we just hit the ocean to spend the rest of the day surfing. As you can imagine we were starving by the end of the day and the good thing with our hostel is that it has a huge kitchen equiped with pretty much everything so in no time pretty much everybody was gathered in the kitchen for an “international” dinner.

           This is the second thing that I loved through my experience in Portugal, the first one was the ocean. The fact that you can meet so many interesting people, all of them travellers. Some were travelling for the last year, some of them have just started their journey, and some of them were only for their holidays. But you know the main characteristic was that they were all very keen to know with each other and have a great time while spending their time there.
​



​
​

         
​ 
​
         Besides good food is for sharing, and trust me Portugal has amazingly good food. Since I was supposed to stay there for a month I mostly cooked but I had promised to myself that once in a while I would take him out for dinner. By that time I discovered “Mules and Gin” which serves around fifteen different types of mules and around ten different types of gin. If you happen to be there you have to pay it a visit. Another place that it can easily become a spot in Cascais is “House of Wonders”, a terrace for smoothies, tapas, sweets and great cocktails, totally recommend it.

---

          In general I used to spend my days in Cascais because I was working, living, surfing and doing horse riding there but if I wanted to check Lisbon, I could just take the train and in thirty minutes I was in the centre. Lisbon is located in seven hills so there are many viewpoint or you can just “miraduro”, the view is amazing and if you are a fan of sunsets I should advice you to go to “Park”, which is literally a parking lot with a hidden door leading to one of the most beautiful terraces you have ever saw.
 
          Between surf, horse riding, the work in the hostel, and my small adventures in Lisbon, I did not realize how my holidays came to an end. I did not forget that, in the beginning of my article I told that I came in Portugal for a reason. Well I advice you that if at any case you find yourself lost in a more than one ways you just have to book a ticket. Through my journey I realized not only that destiny is to invest myself in the travel industry as a digital storyteller but also I had the chance to meet so many inspirational people, one of them actually is sitting with me while I am writing this article. Hope that you found my experience inspirational, see you soon possibly bringing news from another destination.

Author:  Ilektra Chatzopoulou  
Email: [email protected]