Back in Lisbon!
One week ago I arrived back in Lisbon, Portugal. So far, my days have involved the exact same activities that my previous visit - only 6 weeks ago - involved. It's a routine that includes catching up with friends, sipping coffee at outdoor cafes along the tree-lined streets of Campo de Ourique, taking long, long walks along the water and getting work done. It's an appealing routine at the moment!
An Ideal Day Trip to the Beach
I've also had one beach day since I've been here. A group of us went to
Cascais, the old Portuguese fishing village located about 45 minutes from Lisbon by train.
It really makes for a great day trip if you visit Lisbon...
First, take the train from Lisbon to Cascais. Upon arrival, spend some time on the beach that's right there in town. When you've had enough sun, sand and water, give yourself a couple of hours to wander through the quaint town and perhaps have an early dinner at
House of Wonders. Then, just before sunset, start walking along the boardwalk towards the town of Estoril. It's a beautiful, peaceful walk along the water and often rewards you with a spectacular sunset experience as well (SEE BELOW).
You can walk as long as you want as the path takes you back in the direction of Lisbon. Once you're done walking, just go to the closest train station and ride the train the rest of the way back to the city. Too easy!
Animal Farm Exhibit
On Sunday, I went to an excellent photo exhibition at the Oriente Museum here in Lisbon. It's called "
Animal Farm" and is from Taiwanese photographer Chou Ching-hui. The photos highlight the contradictions and challenges of modern life by using zoo enclosures as the settings for each photo, creating images that are intense and surreal. If you're in Lisbon before the end of October, I highly recommend taking a look (details are in the link above).
[FOLLOW UP] How I Stay Connected While Traveling
In my previous newsletter, I mentioned that I am now using a combination of Google Fi and Airalo to stay connected while traveling. I was asked by a reader to elaborate on how my setup works, so here are all the details...
CALLS AND TEXTSGoogle Fi - This is Google's mobile network and it works almost like every other major mobile network company. I signed up for their "Simply Unlimited" Plan, which costs $20 per month. Then I requested a physical SIM card, which they sent me right away. You could choose an eSIM card (which you download instead of insert) but as you'll see below, that won't work with this setup.
For $20 USD per month, I have a US phone number. It's actually my phone number that I've had forever as you can simply transfer your existing phone number from another network if you want. With the "Simply Unlimited" Plan, I can make phone calls in the US, Canada and Mexico for free and I can send/receive text message to/from US numbers from anywhere in the world. If I make phone calls to/from other countries, I pay a rate of about $0.15 cents per minute. However, I avoid this by mostly using Whatsapp for my calls while overseas.
The main reason I pay to have an actual phone number is in case someone from the US really needs to get in touch with my while traveling. Also, it makes life easier to have a US phone number while I'm in the US visiting family and friends.
DATA CONNECTION
Airalo eSIM - This is a company that offers eSIM cards that you can download onto your phone (no physical SIM card needed). Then you sign up for a plan in order to have access to a data connection when you travel. But you don't sign up for a yearly or even monthly plan. You can change your plan at any time based on where you are traveling.
They offer dozens of plans - everything from country specific (such as 5GB for 1 month in Portugal or 1 GB for 1 week in Colombia) to regional plans (for example, these might cover all of Europe or all of Asia) to global plans (these cover 100 countries all at once).
Airalo only offers data though. So you don't get a phone number and you can't make direct calls or send text messages through their service.
However, it works perfectly with Google Fi because you can get a physical SIM card with Google Fi (for phone calls and texts) and an eSIM with Airalo (for data connections). It doesn't work if you have two eSIM cards running at the same time so you need to order the physical SIM from Google Fi for this all to function.
As an example, before I flew to Portugal last week, I opened the Airalo app on my phone, chose the "1 month / 5GB / Portugal plan", paid 13 Euros and that was it. As soon as I landed in Lisbon, I turned on my phone, went into my settings and switched my primary data SIM card to "Airalo". Then I was connected instantly to 5G.
When I go to Morocco in a few weeks I'll pay for the "2 week / 5 GB / Morocco plan" which will be plenty for the 2 weeks I'll spend there. Then as I travel to other destinations, I'll purchase the plan that is the most appropriate for where I'm going. I estimate that it will cost me about $20 - $30 per month to have a data connection everywhere I travel.
In the end, this is a simple and effective set up for those who travel often. For around $50 per month total, and without any contracts at all, I'm connected everywhere I go in the world and I have a proper phone number too.
