When I hopped on the night train to Lisbon I was immediately worried about my decision to NOT get a bed. The train looked like it was from the 1950's! But as it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised! I had a great sleep (even better than at some of the hostels I've stayed at!) so I got to Lisbon well rested and ready to continue on to Sintra.
Although I was wide awake when I got to Sintra, the rest of the town wasn't! The tourist office wan't open yet, and my hostel didn't open til noon! I wanted to start sightseeing but I knew I wouldn't be able to lug around my massive backpack with me (and the only luggage storage place in town didn't open til noon either!), so I just waited it out but reading my book on a park bench.
After I finally dropped my bag off I headed into the historic downtown to check out some of the sights. First up was the Sintra National Palace (kind of the landmark of the town). Next I wanted to see the Moorish Castle, and although I bought a bus pass for the day, I decided not to use it for the castle because according to one of my guide books: "the 3km greenery-flanked hike from the centre of town provides great views." Well they failed to mention a few things with that. 1) Before you even get to the start of the 3km you have to walk about 15 minutes going STRAIGHT UP.
2) Then when you actually get to the 3k, its ALSO straight up. Then, to make matters worse, when I get to the entrance I see people are handing in their tickets. Apparantly since I walked up from a different area I missed the ticket booth. So I had to go an extra 10 minutes (also uphill) out of the way to purchase my ticket, then go BACK to the entrance. And once inside I realize they have another ticket booth right there! Grr!! Very maddening, but heck, I got an amazing workout! Since the castle is extremely old (9th century), most of it is just big stone walls in the dirt. At first I was thinking, "Wow, all that work for just this?!" but then I headed up the tower and saw this:
Just give me a beautiful view and it makes it all worth it! Next up was the Pena National Palace. I WISH I could have lived in this house- it was spectacular! No photos allowed inside, but here are a bunch from the outside:
Attached to the Palace is Pena Park which I didn't explore because 1) its HUGE 2) I was still tired from that massive trek to the Moorish Castle that I didn't think I would survive! I guess I will just have to come back to Sintra again one day...
I headed back to the hostel to relax for a bit and then shower and get ready for dinner. You may have noticed in the pics I'm wearing the same outfit as yesterday- sorry, I'm not usually such a dirt bag but I was on the overnight train and then I couldn't get into my hostel until 3, so there's nothing I could do! I swear, I'll wear clean clothes tomorrow!
Speaking of clothes, today was the first day in a while that I've taken off my sweater! The rain did NOT follow me to Portugal and I got to enjoy beautiful weather today. Hopefully it sticks around for the rest of my trip!
Since the hostel didn't have a kitchen I treated myself out to dinner tonight. I went to a restaurant that Lonely Planet recommended called "Tulhas" and it didn't disappoint! Although I did pay more than what I thought I would...So this is what they started me off with: (this doesn't even include what I ordered for dinner!)
Speaking of clothes, today was the first day in a while that I've taken off my sweater! The rain did NOT follow me to Portugal and I got to enjoy beautiful weather today. Hopefully it sticks around for the rest of my trip!
Since the hostel didn't have a kitchen I treated myself out to dinner tonight. I went to a restaurant that Lonely Planet recommended called "Tulhas" and it didn't disappoint! Although I did pay more than what I thought I would...So this is what they started me off with: (this doesn't even include what I ordered for dinner!)
The waiter said you just pay for what you eat- but I didn't take into consideration that if you eat one olive, then you're charged for the whole bowl! So it was a little pricier than what I expected, but I guess it all evens out in the end considering I've been eating churizo and baguette sandwiches for the last few days! Oh, and you didn't even see what I ordered for dinner:
It's a Portugese dish called bacalhau (codfish). I'm not sure if they serve it in different ways but mine came with potatoes and cream- kinda like a pot pie without the crust! Oh, and I also got a glass of port wine (on the house!) for dessert. I must say, it made me very excited about going to Porto tomorrow!
Although Sintra is slightly north of Lisbon, it looks like I'll have to head back down to the city to catch a train up to Porto. The train that brought me to Sintra is kind of like a commuter train and the last stop is here! Oh well, the trip was only 45 minutes so I'll be on my way to Porto in no time!
Love, Dianna
PS. How could I forget to tell you about my "shower" experience today?! And I put the word shower in quotation marks because you could hardly call it that. So I hop in the shower, turn on the water and wait for it to warm up. And wait. And wait. Realizing its never going to get hot, I decide to improvise by just washing the important bits (hair, feet, etc)- and even that was almost unbearable! At least the shower was bigger than most I've seen so far....
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