Wednesday to Sunday. Five days in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, with Sabrina.
Conclusion:
Lisbon is nice but not as nice as I thought
Sintra is now officially one of my favourite places on earth
and I will probably not be able to climb so many stairs in just a few days ever again
We arrived by train in Lisbon. Trying to make these vacations as economic as possible we decided to discover the city (nearly) exclusively on foot. Lisbon itself already is quite hilly and then we also visited a lot of monuments and, as I love high places, of course we had to climb every single tower and every single wall so that by the end of the trip our legs were stronger and fitter than ever!
After finding our hostel (number 53 had somehow dissappeared...) we walked around town and tasted some of the innumerous cakes and custard slices.
The Portuguese speak a perfect English but Sabrina could also find her way in Spanish. We had a lot of fun by replacing all the s's and c's with sh sounds, adding an "ao" at the end of the words and pretending we were speaking Portuguese :D Well, only when noone was listening, of course!
Conclusion:
Lisbon is nice but not as nice as I thought
Sintra is now officially one of my favourite places on earth
and I will probably not be able to climb so many stairs in just a few days ever again
We arrived by train in Lisbon. Trying to make these vacations as economic as possible we decided to discover the city (nearly) exclusively on foot. Lisbon itself already is quite hilly and then we also visited a lot of monuments and, as I love high places, of course we had to climb every single tower and every single wall so that by the end of the trip our legs were stronger and fitter than ever!
After finding our hostel (number 53 had somehow dissappeared...) we walked around town and tasted some of the innumerous cakes and custard slices.
The Portuguese speak a perfect English but Sabrina could also find her way in Spanish. We had a lot of fun by replacing all the s's and c's with sh sounds, adding an "ao" at the end of the words and pretending we were speaking Portuguese :D Well, only when noone was listening, of course!
On Friday we went on a day trip to Sintra which is about 40 minutes from Lisbon. We had really bad luck with the weather but nevertheless I absolutely loved that place! It has surprisingly many palaces and castles and the foggy and rainy weather gave it a certain enchanted touch.
Walking from the train station to the center we passed some kind of sculpture avenue. I thing there is also a garden with artwork that belongs to it, but we didn't have time to visit it.
Walking from the train station to the center we passed some kind of sculpture avenue. I thing there is also a garden with artwork that belongs to it, but we didn't have time to visit it.
First we visited the old castle on one of the hills of Sintra. It dates back to the 10th century but is pretty well preserved. It has some wonderful walls that reminded me of the Chinese wall and the fog was just amazing and fitted very well to the overall atmosphere.
Next, we made for the Palace of Pena which is like a Portuguese "Neuschwanstein". A colourful fairytale palace from the 19th century. As Lisboa lies in the south of the Iberian Peninsula you can find a lot of moorish influences in the architecture, like tiles and round shapes. We did not have any view (normally you can see the castle and whole Sintra) but I still enjoyed the place. Especially the garden was wonderful. It seems like the queen spent a lot of time there and personalizd it after her fancy. What I really liked was that the gardens weren't as strictly laid out as many other palace gardens are. It had...secrets..if you know what I mean ;)
And at last, after warming up with a cup of creamy hot chocolate, we visited my favourite place. The Palace of Regaleira and...its magical garden
The palace seems to be taken directly from Rivendell and in the garden you can find a construction of the most astonishing kind. It is an unfinished well, built like a tower in the ground. Spiral stairs allow you to go to the bottom of the hole. I was absolutely blown away by this place. It felt so unreal, mystical and enchanted like dwarf and fairies coming to life.
The fotos can't capture it's magic but they might give you an impression. I also took a video which I unfortunatley cannot upload here.
You can enter the well from above or from one of the tunnels. The first starts in the middle and leads to another unfinished well. The other one starts a little higher up and ends behind a waterfall. And then there are some smaller ones building a real systems of caves and tunnels.
It was all so...unexpected!
The palace seems to be taken directly from Rivendell and in the garden you can find a construction of the most astonishing kind. It is an unfinished well, built like a tower in the ground. Spiral stairs allow you to go to the bottom of the hole. I was absolutely blown away by this place. It felt so unreal, mystical and enchanted like dwarf and fairies coming to life.
The fotos can't capture it's magic but they might give you an impression. I also took a video which I unfortunatley cannot upload here.
You can enter the well from above or from one of the tunnels. The first starts in the middle and leads to another unfinished well. The other one starts a little higher up and ends behind a waterfall. And then there are some smaller ones building a real systems of caves and tunnels.
It was all so...unexpected!
On Saturday we went to the cinema in the afternoon. There was an international animation film festival going on and we visited a presentation of super-shorts. Animated film clips of 2 or 3 minutes from all around the world. They were critical, funny or artistic. 80 minutes in total - I enjoyed it!
Sunday, before taking the train back to Galicia, we took the train to Cascais - a coastal town in the west of Lisbon to breath some fresh air and see the "Boca do Inferno", the Hell's Mouth. The rocks of the coast are arc shaped there and the waves entering and bursting out on the other side tend to make a demonic sound when the sea is rough - hence the name...
Sunday, before taking the train back to Galicia, we took the train to Cascais - a coastal town in the west of Lisbon to breath some fresh air and see the "Boca do Inferno", the Hell's Mouth. The rocks of the coast are arc shaped there and the waves entering and bursting out on the other side tend to make a demonic sound when the sea is rough - hence the name...
Right now I am preparing everything for my departure - giving last classes, finishing the bureaucracy, having dinner with friends...
I am really torn between wanting to go home and staying.
The next post will be written in Germany and it will be the last one.
Until then, enjoy these fotos because it took me the hell of a time to uplaod them in the quality they deserve :D
I am really torn between wanting to go home and staying.
The next post will be written in Germany and it will be the last one.
Until then, enjoy these fotos because it took me the hell of a time to uplaod them in the quality they deserve :D
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