Eating Cookies, Bread, and Drinking Water . . . At the Castle

Today was day two in Portugal and let me tell you, it was an epic one. It looks like I knocked out early last night and slept like a rock in the lower bunk bed. Rest, well-taken. I felt much more rested and energized for the day. The day started off with a pretty good breakfast at the Hostel. I was so happy that breakfast was complementary; even if the orange juice was more watered down that usual—hey, I’ll take whatever food I can get. Euros don’t grow on trees, “homies.” Haha

Before Melissa, we saw a bunch of animals and produce.

Lu, Edgar, Angela, and I met Melissa back at the same fountain from yesterday at the main plaza. She was wearing a cute sundress. From there, we went to the train station and caught a thirty-minute ride to Sintra. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: I LOVE public transportation! You know, the public transportation systems here are really wonderful; the trains and buses are so clean and the rides are really smooth.

Anywho, once we arrived in Sintra and got off the train, we saw an epic castle wall in the distance as we looked up. It was also much cooler there and extremely windy in general. I only brought summer tank tops so I had to endure the brutal wind! But eventually I got used to it. We spent the whole day at a couple of the most famous points of interest: Parque e Palacio Pena and the Moorish Castle.

What an adventure.

There was a bus that drives people to the Palace but since they were charging four plus euros for the ride, we were like “Eff that!” and we decided to WALK. We could use the extra euros. Haha weren’t exactly sure what we were getting ourselves into but it turned out to be a really awesome adventure. We walked up a winding scenic path at least two or three miles UP until we saw a glimpse of the castle through the trees. Man, this castle… or should I say palace… was seriously a dream come true. It really felt like I was at Disneyland… on steroids. It was way too surreal. Ah, but anyway, you should have seen us, we took so many pictures even before we entered the castle haha. It was so EPIC! Once we got to the castle, we walked through arches and pathways, explored the inside a bit (since it’s a museum now), took pictures every two minutes and ate our cookies and bread on the patio of the palace. Just a typical day in paradise. The time seemed to fly by. We walked down another foresty path to the bottom before heading to Castelo Mouros (the Moorish Castle). Now, this place was… just too amazing for words! The wall of this castle really resembles the Great Wall of China! It was so… breath-taking. We walked up and down cobble-stone paths and steps, looked out of towers, and captured gorgeous, flawless scenery. We were so high up. You could see all of Lisbon from the top of the castle…

This day ended with us taking a 6:30pm train back to Lisbon, catching the Mega Picnic and a Tony Carreira concert in the main square, and eating off the 1 Euro menu at the Portuguese McDonald’s. Lovely Day.

Obligata = Thank you (in Portuguese)