Day 8

Saturday, August 4

8:20am GMT - Woke up at 7:30 to try to get on an 8:51am train to Sintra from the station at the zoo. Pretty sure the milk was sour at breakfast in my cereal… Tasty. Not.

9:00am GMT - made it onto the 8:51 train with no problems, the signs for the train part of the station are clear throughout as soon as you get off the metro. We didn't even have to get a ticket with our LisboaCard, just show it on the train (although they didn't even check).

10:30am GMT - Made it to Sintra shortly after 9:30 and made the short level walk into town where the Palacio Nacional is located. It opens at 10 and we were one of the first people in. We got in free with our LisboaCard and I'm glad because although it was nice (see pictures) I'm not sure it was worth paying for specifically. They guide you around the palace in a particular order and we followed it and left.

11:00am GMT - Walked across the square to the Tourist info office and found out how to make it HIGH and I do mean HIGH above the town to the Palacio Pena. Figured it out and managed to take it all the way up and I mean ALL THE WAY UP. This bus doing hairpin turns up the side of a very high hill was pretty impressive. At times it didn't even look like the big bus was going to make it. But it did! Then of course you get your ticket (reduced to 3.50 euros with the lisboacard) and you still have a pretty steep uphill climb to make. There's a little shuttle bus for 1.50 euros but we didn't take it (kinda wish we had, though the walk back down wasn't bad at all)

Wow, the palace is pretty impressive. We didn't go see too much of the inside because really it was probably not all that different from the one we just saw, but the terraces around it were amazing and the architecture of the palace itself (see pics) is quite amazing. After that we made our way down and caught the bus.

1:00pm GMT - walked around the main square in the old part of town to find a place for lunch. Decided on a place a little off the square called Café de Villa. A little cavernous place with all kinds of cheap lunch. They gave me ice for my water! I was happy :p I had pichana, or Brazilian beef. It came, of course, with fries, rice, and salad! SHOCKER!

2:00pm GMT - walked around town a little more, and I bought a couple of souvenirs. I bought a little ceramic fishy that has purple on it, a cute Sintra magnet, and of course, a hand-painted Olive dish made in Portugal. Yes, I'm pitiful. I realize. We made it to the train station, which is next to the bus station, to try to catch a bus to the beach town Cascais. We would have to wait a while for that, but one was leaving to Estoril - 2 train stops away from Cascais - in a few minutes. With some help from an employee with the station we found the right bus and took it. 3.25 euros, paid on the bus. Not bad. It winded through the towns from Sintra to Estoril.

3:30pm GMT - made it to Estoril and then hopped on the train a couple stops to Cascais, and I'm glad we did because it seemed like there was much more to do there. Got off the train in Cascais and just walked around - the main streets in the town are pedestrianized so we just kind of wandered for a while, looked at menus, which was prudent since all the places were closed for their mid-day rest and thus we were not attacked by the "menu vultures" - we picked out a place with yellow and white checkered tablecloths, in case we decided to stay for dinner.

5:30pm GMT - after walking around a little more, sitting in a little park for a while, and buying some tasty-looking pastries for later (by the way while I was looking at said pastries, Amanda went into a soccer place next door, she was looking at the stuff and was talking in English about how it would be easier if she knew his number, and the guy asked if she wanted any help, and so she asked "Caneira?" and he was like "oh.... Caneira? No." TEH FACE was disrespected :( ). Anyway, we were like, it is way too early to eat dinner man, people will look at us funny and say "those craaaaaaazy Americans eating dinner so damn early." So we found this huge turquoise mall. Inside said mall there was, oddly enough, a supermarket. The tomatoes were really cheap. I bought a little jar of olives (duh.) for 99cents. OH. In the mall, there was a 99c store. They had cannabis-scented incense. I was amused. Very interesting place.

6:30pm GMT - we were really hungry. So we found the yellow-checkered tablecloth restaurant. They weren't really open, but they told us we could sit if we wanted. They had a younger waiter who spoke english and he was like "let us dress but have a seat" Anyway. (I wrote down the name, but it is upstairs in my purse) Meal was tasty - I had chicken again but this time it was brushed with something spicy. Came with, what else but fries and a salad! The cover charge included olives - tasty.

8:00 GMT - got on the train back to Lisbon right at sunset - beautiful 40 min or so ride from the Cascais station since it was right about at sunset. After arriving at the Cais do Sodre train station we took a couple metro stops back to the hotel and chilled in the lobby. I ate one of the little pastries I bought (see pics) - a little jimmies-covered ball of delicious fudgy chocolate goo. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My feet hurt :( LOL

Amanda says: SCARY ROOM! And respect TEH FACE.