Lisboa.

Whew! What a week it's been. I'll try to make this not too long and boring :)

First of all, we went to Lisbon. Oh how I loved it. I didn't want to leave. Other than not understanding Portuguese at all, I loved every part of the city. It's beautiful, historic, fun, amazing...exactly what I want out of a European city :D We left Sevilla at midnight on Thursday. This is a crazy thing to do. Transportation between Sevilla and Lisbon is pretty limited. So our options (by bus) were to either leave at midnight on Thursday and get in Lisbon at 6am, or leave Friday afternoon and arrive Friday evening. Well, we had to leave Sunday morning, so we wanted more than just Saturday to spend there! So we opted for the early (late?) bus. When we finally got there after 7 hours of non-sleep, we headed to the hostel. We eventually found the hostel and were told that we couldn't check in until noon. It was 7am. And we were exhausted. Fortunately they did let us leave our bags there, so we just decided we'd find a pastry and wander around. We had read in a guidebook before going there that Lisbon has as many pastry shops as Spain does tapas bars. Which means about 10 per block. After wandering around a little, we found a pastry shop that looked amazing. Not only did it look nice, but the guide book said it was the best in the city. After being around for 181 years (!!!!), you better be on top of your game. And oh, were they. We were the first customers, had to wait about 15 minutes for them to open. When we walked in, we saw a case full of goodies. We all ordered something and sat down to enjoy it and plan our day.



After our delicious breakfast, we decided to do some more exploring. We new that there was an ancient castle in the city, so we decided to try to find it. It took a bit of wandering around in the tiny, curvy, uphill streets. But we eventually stumbled upon it. Wow. I've seen my fair share of ruins, but no castle-ruins! This place was magnificent. Huge. And ruled by cats. Gross cats.



But that's beside the point. We saw the moat. We climbed to the top of the walls (which was terrifying as the steps are narrow and there are no hand rails. I almost peed my pants a couple times) and just walked all over the giant castle, taking in the views from each new vantage point.







By the time we finished exploring, it was about time for us to be able to check in. So check in we did. Everyone decided it was naptime. I tried to sleep, but there was construction outside so I couldn't sleep at all. No matter how much I willed my brain to fall asleep, it wouldn't do it. I just laid there for a couple hours while every one else was passed out. Eventually Sofie also woke up, so we decided to go in search of some lunch. We walked around a little more and stumbled upon a cute little wine shop. Besides the typical Portugal cherry-liquor and Port wine, they had cheese, bread, jams, honey...all kinds of goodies. The lady spoke to us in Spanish with a Portuguese accent. Very hard to understand. But we left with a loaf of bread and some cheese. When we got back, everyone else was finally up. So we did some more exploring and later went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (where Sarah excitedly ordered a "glass of milk" off the menu, and got a glass of steaming-hot milk. Not quite what she was expecting).

Saturday was going to be a busy day. There were sill a lot of things in Lisbon we wanted to see, and I was determined to see Sintra. Everyone that has been to Lisbon before told me to go to Sintra. It's supposed to be like Disneyland, except in real life. Because it has a lot of beautiful sights, I wanted to make sure we got there in daylight so we could see everything. But first we had a cathedral/street market to go to, and some more sights in a different part of town. We left the hostel at about 8:30 and headed to the street market. Which was fantastic.

I so wish that Sevilla had one like it. I haven't found one yet, although I haven't been to all the markets. Anyway, we then went into the church which was amazing. Beautiful tiles covering the walls, an ancient cistern underneath, lots of dead people....and then we climbed up the tower to the top of the church. My goodness. Such fantastic views. The building was so beautiful in and of itself, but then on such a beautiful day, it was such incredible. Blue skies with white clouds, blue water with sailboats, white buildings with red roofs....just lovely!











After we had admired the view, it was on to Belem, another part of town where a bunch of major sights are: a huge, ornate monastery; contemporary art museum (bleh); famous statue...amongst other things. It was already about 3:30pm when we were heading to Belem. Sintra is about 45 minutes from Lisboa and I knew that everyone would want to spend a good amount of time in Belem. While we were waiting for the bus to Belem I was trying to decide if I should just head to Sintra myself since I didn't have any desire to go to the art museum and could have done without the other stuff, or just stick with the group. They all promised we could hurry through so we could all go to Sintra together. I figured maybe we'd get to Sintra with at least a few minutes of light left so I stuck with them. Should have trusted my gut. Don't get me wrong, the monastery was fantastic. Wish we had had time to go inside. And the Monument of the Discoveries was pretty cool.





But by the time we finished at the museum (again, bleh. I just do not get Contemporary/Modern art.) it was getting late. My group is amazing though and rushed through everything that they would have liked to spend more time at for me. So thanks bunches to all them. By the time we got to the metro station, took the metro to the train station, and got our tickets, it was getting close to sunset-time. We hopped on the train as the sun was going down. The guy came through checking our tickets and told us we had to pay more. Huh? He spoke no English. We spoke no Portuguese. It was interesting. Fortunately, some cute Portuguese boys translated for us: we were on the wrong train. Dumb. Soooo, we had to get off at the next stop and then board the correct train to Sintra (all in all, it didn't end up taking much more time, just cost an extra euro. We were going to have to change trains anyway if we had got on the right train). When we finally got to Sintra, the sun was gone. There were still a few little rays of sunlight left for a few minutes, but that was it. The main sights in Sintra are lit up at night, so at least we got to kind of catch a glimpse of them. We started walking to the historic city center, and passed numerous statues on the way.





Then we found a restaurant. It looked cute and not too expensive, so we ordered our meals. It was then that we realized this "restaurant" had no kitchen....just 4 microwaves behind the bar. Yikes. I couldn't imagine how they could make "baked" cod or anything else in the microwaves. But they did it. I ordered cod with "cornbread and cabbage." By "cornbread" I think they just meant "bread chunks" and by "cabbage" they meant "spinach." Well, it tasted good anyway. Despite the microwave issue. After dinner and some wine, we left. Since there really was no point in going to the sights, we just headed back to Lisbon. So sad. Basically we paid 6 euros for a train ticket to eat dinner in another city. Oh well. It was a funny experience anyway.



When we got back to Lisbon, we went to bed and got up the next morning to head back to Sevilla. Sadly. Although it was raining when we left, so that made it a tiny bit easier. Lisbon definitely moved into the top part of my "favorite places on earth" list. I'm not sure what number it's at, but its up there. I'll have to actually compile a list of my favorite places someday...

Anyway, Sevilla is no Lisbon. I guess Lisbon is no Sevilla, either. Sevilla has its great points. But it doesn't have the architecture, the castles, the beautiful tile-covered buildings, the pastries (well, it has pastries, but not of the same caliber), the street markets, the Brasilian lemon tart, the elderberry lemonade, the statues and sights or the overall ambiance that Lisbon does.











I would love to return before this trip is over, but don't think I'll make it. Too many other places to check off the list. Plus I could do without another 7-hour, overnight bus ride.


Oh, and check out how Portugal celebrates 100 years of being a republic. We stumbled across this one night while walking home. It's projected onto the other side of this: