lisbon

lisbon is one hilly town.  i experienced this hillyness as i got lost on the way to my hostel.  probably the worst wrong turn you could make which involved me walking down about 50 cobblestone steps with my backpack on, to ask a kind portugese granny where my hostel was, and then to be directed back up the stairs.  uber. fail.  not to mention i slipped on the cobblestone and almost ate shit on the way down to the hostel.  not my finest moment.  it would've been quite the sight for everyone at the viewpoint to see around me.  

however, the tides turned once i got into my hostel, and i met not one, not two, but THREE oregonians!!  these were the first oregonians i've come across during my travels.  two guys, brent and travis just graduated college and are traveling together, and kait, freelance web designer, quit her job and is going around the world for a year.  we all live in the eugene/corvallis/salem/portland area and are duck fans so we got along fabulously ;)

team oregon!

we headed to the main square to wait for our walking tour to begin, but our tour guide never came, so good ol' rick came to the rescue with his walking tours!  we followed one around town that took us to a nice viewpoint and a church that was built in rome, then taken apart and re-pieced together here.  it is the most expensive chapel in the world.  you can probably guess why!  kait was our tour guide for that walk and didn't even ask for a tip at the end.  kind soul. 

oldest beer hall in lisbon

pricey chapel

afterwards, we went to the gulbenkian museum and took advantage of the free entry on sunday to see the exhibits.  this museum housed paintings/artifacts/everything from different cultures throughout history.  there was an ancient egypt room, far east, etc.  there wasn't anything there that was absolutely mind blowing but it was still cool to check out.  we got out of there in about an hour which was perfectly fine with me ;)

brent knew this piece of art. proud moment.

the next day i headed to sintra to check it out after having it recommended to me by many friends.  it's unique because it's a unesco world heritage site with a lot of cool 19th century architecture.  it channels disneyland slightly if you ask me.  brent decided to come on this excursion with me so it was great having a partner in crime!

once we arrived there, we realized that everyone except for us got the memo that it was RIDICULOUSLY windy and cold there.  everyone had on windbrakers, scarves, fleeces, pants while brent and i rocked shorts and t's/tank tops.  it was brisk to say the least.

first we headed to the pena palace which was on top of a hill (read: extra windy) but it was awesome!  royalty still lived in the palace up until the early 1900's which i thought was really cool.  i loved how magical looking it was.  i could climb on top of the towers and pretend to be a guard back in the day.  brent and i definitely sprinted around the outside of the palace because the wind was blowing so hard. afterwards we headed to the remains of the moorish castle which is essentially the castle walls, or as brent put it, the great wall of china.  the castle was built 1,000 years ago!  you could walk around the wall which we did and i'm not going to lie, at times i was a little nervous because the wind was blowing hard enough to push me over a little.  yea yea, laugh it up.  by the time we were done with the castle, brent and i were 1.) starving and 2.) ready to return to warmth on the train!  we grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed back to lisbon.

pena palace

 

 

 moorish castle

 

 

 

 

on my last day in town, i went to a flea market in the alfama neighborhood that is only open on tuesdays and saturdays.  i feel like more often than not when you hear flea market these days, it's not really a true flea market.  but this one definitely is.  i mean i've never seen so much trash attempted to be sold before in my life.  i know, one person's trash might be another person's treasure but i really have a hard time believing that anyone wanted to buy a used pair of havaiana flip flops...it was fun though to walk around and see what people sold.  i'm sure half of the electronics that i saw were stolen from naive tourists.  the man promised me a good price, but i politely declined.

guillaume & hugo from the hostel

afterwards, i headed off to the belem neighborhood with guillaume from my hostel.  lucky me, personal tour guide!  guillaume is william in french, and his name is actually the portugese version that, but i can't pronounce it, therefore he is guillaume.  belem is a cool neighborhood west of the town center which back in the day, was the send off point for sailors to set out and explore the world.  there is a really awesome tower there and a monastery that was absolutely stunning.  

monastery

 

after walking around all day, i was pretty pooped after and headed back to the hostel to pack my bag one last time before heading off to chicago.  i cannot believe how quickly time has flown these past few months.  i have mixed feelings about leaving.  while i am tired of living out of my backpack and craving mexican food, i know that after a week at home, i'll be ready to go again.  thanks se asia and europe for an amazing three months.  i can't wait to come back!  ciao.