Surf's Up: a Great Reason to Go to Portugal this Autumn
The summer is over, but there's no reason not to get close to the sea in autumn too! And no, you don’t need to fly to the Maldives. It’s also possible in Europe, in beautiful Portugal, where you can enjoy a very mild and warm start to autumn. How about prolonging your summer by learning surfing or kitesurfing? There is no better place in Europe to do this than in Portugal. And you could visit gorgeous Lisbon - a city of small, cosy streets, classic trams and medieval architecture.

Lisbon is a very beautiful city. When you visit it for the first time, you get the feeling that it has gathered pieces from many other cities all over the world.


For example, the main bridge that links Lisbon with Almada looks very like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And the Christ the King statue, right at the very end of that bridge, looks a lot like the Statue of Jesus in Rio, Brazil.


The same goes for the city streets. The first thought that popped in my mind when I saw the trams was that I was back in San Francisco.

But Lisbon wasn’t our main destination. So, after a short sightseeing trip, we headed over the bridge through Almada to our surf camp, approximately 40 minutes away from Lisbon.

The morning started with an early surfing lesson. Waking up at 7:00 AM, before even breakfast, wasn’t easy but it was totally worth it. The water was calm and the waves relatively small - perfect conditions for beginner surfers. I’ve been snowboarding for over 7 years now but surfing was something new and completely different for me. Actually, I was shocked at how difficult it was.


After surfing, it was breakfast time and the real fun could begin. We could choose between windsurfing and kitesurfing. I went for the latter option. The winds that day were quite light and not strong enough for proper lessons; nevertheless, we managed to learn how to build and control our kites, how the wind works and all the basic rules of kite surfing.

Unfortunately, we had only a few days, which wasn’t enough for us to learn all the skills needed, but it was a great introduction and gave us the motivation to keep learning in the future. And our instructor showed us a few tricks at the end which inspired us even more.

I also managed to try windsurfing, which turned out to be much easier than kite, yet I enjoyed kitesurfing more.

This trip was a great way to prolong our summer, meet fantastic people and explore Lisbon, which brought back so many great memories from all over the world.

So, get away from your office desk and go and have some adventures! It’s really fun to learn surfing and even more fun when you start getting good at it.
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