Hello everybody Last Tuesday I went to Lisboa, Portugal with my family. It was a three-day holiday and we had such a great time there. This is my second travel as a Zero Waste. The first one was London, but it was a school trip so I couldn´t choose where to eat and buy things. This was my first trip where I actually cared about the amount of trash I generated.
This is me in Sintra, Portugal, last Thursday.
So, let's start to talk about the carry-on.
I was worried about the liquid part, but it was a real success. So, this is what I took to Lisbon:
- 3 leggins, 3 t-shirts, one jacket, one bra, 3 underwear and 3 pairs of socks. And my pink boots, I always carry my pink boots.
- One shampoo bar (the best thing for traveling by far), one piece of war soap (I always cut a little piece with a sharp knife and keep it in a tin with the shampoo).
- My bamboo toothbrush, my lush toothy tabs (I was worried security guards thought they were drugs or anything like that, so I just took the exact amount I needed), some hair clips and a hair band. I didn´t carry a hairbrush because I was with my mother and my grandma, so they had one.
- I little purse with my makeup (I will talk about it in another post).
- In the liquid bag, I had my handmade toothpaste, my contact lenses liquid (no plastic-free, unfortunately), some mascara and my handmade deodorant.
Of course, I needed another backpack for the trip.
I carried a mason jar, two bulk bags, a fabric cotton bag, my fork-spoon thing and my reusable bottle.
I LOVE this kit, is a little heavy, but it's totally worthwhile.
This is the trash I generated this past three days
I know it is not perfect, actually, half of this stuff was perfectly expendable, but I don´t regret, I am sorry, I was really conscious about the trash I generated. For example, I LOVE toasts for breakfast. Butter+jam+bread is the best combination. But, in the hotel where we stayed there only were plastic single doses. It is interesting, in the three breakfast I had there, I didn´t eat them, just because I didn´t want to use those plastic things. I never thought I would do that. I didn´t have any plastic bag (and they offered me a lot). And a lot of things more.
So let´s explain my trash.
1. My grandma can´t have sugar, so she always carries candy wherever she goes. There was that time, I was STARVING. Seriously I was so hungry. Mi grandma offered me some peach candy. PEACH CANDY. I had to say yes.
2. I never buy souvenirs, but, I decided to buy a pin in every city I travel to. The Lisbon pin came in a piece of carton I couldn´t avoid.
3.One thing I really hated about shops in Lisbon. You have to pick a number in basically every shop you go. Even in the bakery. Why?
4. You have to know something. I LOVE ICE CREAM. I don´t like cones. But I think is better to have a cone wrap in paper than a plastic cup. I had my mason jar, but I was too shy to ask them to serve it inside. I know, my fault.
5. The public transport card I couldn´t avoid.
6. When we were on the plane, my grandma asked for some cookies because she had to have her medicines and she needed to eat something. There was a nice stewardess, so she give us a package of cookies to all the members of the family. My brother ate mine, but I felt responsible for the plastic.
7. Tickets. I couldn´t avoid these too.
To this, we have to add all the paper napkins and tablecloth they put us in every meal, but, I don´t think it is a lot of stuff.
About the people, they were very nice comprehensives. They didn´t give me any plastics bags when refused them. And when I went to buy fruit, they let me use my own cloth bags.
I have to say I found an amazing farmers market in Cascais, and a nice woman helped me to translate from English to Portuguese, and asked the farmers if I could use my own bags, and they let me very happy. I was the happiest person in the world at that moment.
The farmers market I talked about it. It is called
Mercado del Vinho
You can see my full experience here:
