Sintra, Portugal (and a little of Lisboa)

Last weekend we travelled to Portugal and stayed in Lisboa. On Friday night, we went out and celebrated my 21^st birthday, which was super fun. Apparently when people party in Lisboa they pretty much just spill out onto the streets. Our beers were in plastic cups and everything, just like a block party and it was really warm! On Saturday we travelled to Sintra, a small town about 30min outside the city, and it was amazingly beautiful. The Portuguese apparently love the color yellow because they painted all of their buildings a light pastel yellow color, which looked beautiful against the greenery and the 60º weather.

First, we visited a park, Quinta de Regaleira, that was beautiful. It was huge and I’m sure we hardly made a dent in everything it had to offer in our two hours of exploring it. There were underground caves, a lake, various towers and mini castles that you could climb up and see out over the entire town. Afterwards, we visited a Moorish castle that took about 30min of driving up a steep hill just to reach. Then we had to work our way up the castle steps into the sky to reach the top, but it was well worth it! The castle was incredible, and although I almost didn’t make it to the top (the stairs were so tiny and it literally felt like you were climbing into the sky without anything to keep you from falling off the edge!). At the top, we could look out and see the Atlantic Ocean, which was really cool––I had never been on the opposite side of it before!

Sunday was spent in Lisboa, which was an interesting experience. I didn’t realize how spoiled I was by living in España until I went to Portugal. There, hardly anyone spoke English and they didn’t speak Spanish, so we were more than a little frustrated in trying to communicate. I guess I should have expected it, but for some reason I have such an easy time in España that I never thought I’d have trouble anywhere else. In any case, we did a little sightseeing at a tower on the Tagus River and then visited a Flea market that had some cool stuff. It was beautiful weather so we spent a fair amount of time just sitting outside and taking in the sun. As far as the city goes, I don’t think that I have any desire to go back. It was incredibly dirty (rats/mice in the street!) and the people were not friendly (at one restaurant we didn’t even get a waiter). However, the little town, Sintra, was wonderful, so I suppose the Portuguese countryside is where I would like to visit should I find myself in the country again. More to come after more adventures : )

Portugal, photos

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BARCELONA

Last weekend we spent four days (or actually only two, if you count Friday and Monday as two days of traveling for twelve hours on the bus!) in Barcelona and it was amazing! So far I think it is my favorite city, architecturally. We spent the first day seeing the sights, one of which was the Parc Guell, which was designed by Guadi. I can’t really explain it, but it was full of colorful ceramic tiles, rooftops decorated in all sorts of pastel cracked ceramic, and architecture made out of the existing nature. Gaudi was apparently convinced that nature should not be disturbed, but should be built around; therefore, so much of the park is molded out of the stone that already existed there. The park is situated on a high point in the city, so standing at the highest point we were able to see the sun setting over the palm trees of downtown Barcelona, which was insanely beautiful.

On day two, we visited Gaudi’s famous cathedral situated in the center of the city, La Sagrada Familia. My friend Hunter and I decided that the outside of the cathedral sort of resembles one of those drip castles that you make at the beach (although I doubt that Gaudi meant it to look like that haha). The most interesting thing about La Sagrada Famillia is that it actually isn’t that old, compared to so many of the others built in Europe. Gaudi designed and built it in the late 1800s-early 1900s, so the inside of the Cathedral looks very new.
We also went to the Picasso museum and saw authentic Picasso paintings that were incredible to see. I can't say that I'm much a fan of his cubism, but it was amazing to see the wall-sized paintings that he painted at the mere age of 15. Both the Blue and Rose period were lovely, as well.

Later on, a small group of us roamed the inner streets of Barcelona and found the Cathedral of Barcelona, which was much older; I actually liked this second one better because it seemed as though it had weathered so many storms and had lasted through so much history.

At night we walked down Las Ramblas, a walking street that stretches from the pier inward. Along this street are tons of bars, restaurants and street performers, which were fun to see. We ended up in a tiny bar off the beaten track that had the theme of a rainforest (but was actually really cool, nothing like the cheesy rainforest café that used to be in the mall). We ordered a couple rounds of Sangria (which was the best that I’ve had since I’ve been here) and practiced speaking in Spanish to each other, I think we’re starting to get really good!

We leave for Lisbon, Portugal in less than 24 hours, so more to come after that! ¡Ciao!

Barcelona

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