The next day, Friday, we woke up and went to a small city outside Lisboa called Sintra. It was supposed to be this amazing beautiful sight seeing city so I was really excited. As we walked toward the train station we had one of the most amazing views.
I could already tell that this was going to be an amazing day. The day before was so beautiful and fun and this morning already showed to have a lot of potential. So we walked to the train station and we walked by this funny statue that I had seen the night before but my camera had died when I took the pictures of the tree so I didn’t get a pic but now I decided to go for it. He was a super gangster.
It was a little bit of a walk to the airport and I was pretty tired but so excited that it was worth it.
We arrived in Sintra and Brock was so happy that he hugged me.
So here is the map of Sintra.
Look how excited I was? We started walking up towards the mountain.
Sintra is famous for having 4 really neat, old castles. We saw the first one, the Moorish one, up and we decided to hike up towards it. On the way we found this amazing park.
It was so beautiful. I was amazed by how much I felt like I was thrown into a fantastic world of stories and fables.
We just wandered around for a while soaking in the sites and seeing everything and taking pictures. It was a lot of fun. We had originally planned on just passing through and being up to the castle pretty quickly but he ended up sitting in the park for quite a while. There was one place that was just plain amazing.
We got a group picture.
There were a bunch of really pretty flowers.
They said that they say went well with my shirt so I took a picture with them.
Cheesy I know but I really love that shirt. I remember the day I bought it. It was one of my first days home and Michael and I went shopping at the DI for some Aerobics clothes for his class. I saw it there for 2 dollars and just had to have it. I have loved it ever since. We had a lot of fun sitting there for a while taking pictures.
I loved this little staircase.
I just felt like I was walking up the steps of Amon Henn. (I cant believe that I have forgotten the spelling of that.) But, basically I just love all staircases.
I just realized that. I really do have like 100’s of pictures of me on a staircase. We found a house where Hans Christian Andersen lived while traveling through Portugal.
We couldn’t really find the way to the castle so we had to ask around but no one was in the street. We finally found the way but as we entered the path it was closed because some boulder had fallen and knocked over trees and the whole place was a danger zone. The workers sent us up this other path that was really obvious that it was the road less traveled by.
I figured out later that it was actually the outside wall of the castle that we were walking along and we definitely weren’t supposed to be.
We finally made it up to the area by the castle entrance and it was a pretty cool set up.
I can just imagine being a knight defending this place from oncoming attackers. It was such a fun place.
Because we got in illegally we had to back track a bit and buy tickets. We found out there was another castle that we could get a joint price for so we got them both and went on into the castle. Here was the first entrance way into the castle.
It kind of reminded me of Mulan and the Great Wall of China.
There was an amazing view though.
The castle was built around a barracks and a natural spring so it had a pretty small circumference. It was really more of a fort to be honest but it was pretty cool. But it had a pretty good view of the palace off in the distance.
Except that that pole was right in the way, but isn’t it cool that it is an open flag? Look at the city down below.
We headed down and I found the perfect spot to relax and read.
This stone couch was surprisingly comfy. Did the picture capture the COMFYNESS?
We went over to the Palacio da Pena. They had a little garden down below with an amazing tree.
Wasn’t it really cool.
It was defiantly fun to climb. The palace was amazing.
Look at this crazy guy guarding the entrance!
The castle was awesome.
Look at this spider.
This whole room was covered in ivory.
Here’s a few more pics.
We went down from the castle and wandered around the grounds a bit.
This guy was famous apparently.
I didn’t notice till just now that he was a Mason. I thought it was just an A at first. Anyways, it was all so wild and natural.
Speak friend and enter.
The walk back was just as fun and they were filming a BMW commercial. That just goes to show how awesome it is.
I’m going to live here one day.
From there we headed out the the western most point of Europe. It was pretty darn neat.
West Side!
I took a picture for a few people but really wanted to be a part of it somehow.
The open fields looked amazing.
Wow, I’m falling “into the west”.
It was an amazing view.
We tried some jumping picture but they were really hard to get ones that weren’t blurry. Brock, from far way, got some though.
I decided that these places reminded me of the Highlands of Scotland.
I am The Highlander.
There were a bunch of really cool spots for pics.
From there we headed to a place called…Well I don’t know what it was called but it was cool and to the west of Lisboa on the coast. We went to the beach.
Somebody dared Sarah to kiss me and the picture turn out to be awesome.
It was pretty sad that she had to be dared to give me a kiss on the cheek…(Behold the power of pitty.) We headed home from there and had to wait for the Train. We thought that our travel passes worked to we just hopped on. The ticket guy found out half way down the line and kicked us off so we bought tickets but had to wait for the next train. It was really cold.
There was a debate about whether you’d like them or whether they were just plain ugly. What’s the verdict? I figured you’d like these but they were pretty expensive.
Here was a sign for a certain public service.
What do you think?
The Castle was actually a little more expensive then I was up for so we just chilled at an amazing look out.
It was a pretty nice looking park.
“I’ve got a sexy stache!” And this guy did too.
From there we headed down one of the coolest streets.
It was full of artists and it was amazing.
At the end of the street was a pretty amazing Plaza.
From there we took the tram back to Belém and got lunch and pastries.
I bought a bunch for my family so that maybe they wouldn’t hate us. We rode the tram back with an amazing old man.
He looks familiar to me… I mean, look at the facial expression. Old man what? Exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned the old Portuguese men. So I told you that our Hostel owner was a dreamboat. Well all the girls wanted a picture with him.
I’ve seen better. Brad Pitt for example. That may be the only one. Needless to say that Missy, Sarah, and Kyte were in love.
As were most people. And then we left the OLD TOWN Hostel for good.
If anyone ever stays in Lisboa, I HIGHLY suggest it. We made our way back to the Airport and were home. It was great. I love Lisboa.
