Portugal-Where I learned that Spain is simply a "puppet country" to Portugal

It has been quite some time since I last wrote. A lot has happened. I went to Portugal, to start off with. That was an INCREDIBLE experience. I suppose I should just jump right into the explanation of my time there.

I left March 14th on an early flight to Lisbon. I got in around 4pm, and instead of using the atrociously confusing directions the hostel gave me, I just took a taxi, which only ended up costing me about 8 euros. Not bad. Upon arriving at the hostel, I was given a tour of the immaculately clean and beautiful building. I set all my stuff down and decided to walk up the street to the miradouro (viewpoint) that I saw when I was in the taxi coming in. The view from this platform was INCREDIBLE. It showcased just how gorgeous the layout of the city is (right on the coast). I could see for miles, and what especially caught my eye was the Ponte de Abril (The April bridge) that spans across from Lisbon to a small island whose name I've forgotten. On the island, I could see this lit up statue that looked like Jesus spreading his arms out. It turns out that this statue is a replica of the famous one that stands in Rio de Janeiro that you see in all the films. However, another cool thing about this miradouro is that it's a hangout for locals, so I really got a taste of what the Portuguese people are like. I spent most of my time there taking pictures well into dusk and enjoying the fado music coming from a band jamming away in the middle of the miradouro. I left around 7:30 when some guy was harassing me. Being a young, white, female, I decided it was best to just head back to the hostel and read until dinner. Before dinner, I started chatting with a 30 year old German named Stephen. We talked about our likes/dislikes, why we were in Portugal, and what we planned on doing while we were here. He and I ended up deciding we'd walk around Lisbon together the next day. Dinner was amazing that night as well. The hostel brings in a new chef everyday to cook a home-cooked meal for us for only 5 euro. That night we had Brazilian cuisine, which showcased a rice and bean mixture with a salad, and a lemon tart for dessert. It was excellent.

The next day after a surprisingly wonderful and restful night of sleep, Stephen and I headed out to Belem. Belem is an historic neighborhood in Lisbon that houses such sights as a beautiful monastery, a monument dedicated to famous world explorers, and a large tower built in the 14th century. After taking a 40 minute train to this neighborhood, Stephen and I walked along the shore by the marina taking in the beautiful smell of the salt water and commenting on how gorgeous the view was of the island across the way. We spent some time at the Monumento de Discombrieros, which is essentially a large cross-shaped structure with a viewpoint at the top of all Belem. After that, we walked to the Torre de Belem, which was a gorgeous, yet quite small tower on the shore where you could climb up to the top and get a beautiful view of the water, the coast, and the rest of Belem. Words don't do it justice, so when I put pictures up, you'll be able to see how incredible it was. After enjoying the view from the tower, Stephen and I realized that we were starving. We decided to walk more inland to find a small restaurant. After finding one, we found out that pretty much no one speaks English in Portugal, so I had to pull out the phrases I'd worked on before I came to Portugal. It was great fun, and afterwards, we were stuffed. We decided to take a lil' nap before heading to the monastery, so we stopped in a grassy park full of kids playing football and running around. We laid down for about a half hour, and each took a nap.

After napping, we stopped at the monastery along the way. This building was HUGE, and inside the chapel, there were enormous flying buttresses, columns, and large depictions of Jesus. It was gorgeous. You just don't see architectural styles like that anymore. Needless to say, I wish America had more buildings like that of the monastery, etc.

After that, Stephen and I headed back to the hostel to relax for awhile before heading out to the Castelo de Sao Jorge at the top of one of the hills banking Lisbon. The walk up to the Castle was incredible. We came upon some incredible miradouros, small cafes and pasteleries, and small chapels you could go into. Lisbon really is a beautiful and quaint city. The small, winding streets and tiled walls and streets make for a cozy and mediterranean feel. The people are all really sweet, and they don't cause you any trouble when you're walking around. After the 30 minute hike up to the top of the hill, we finally arrived at the Castle, and it afforded us some of the most amazing views of Lisbon. The yellow and white stone that made up the entire castle walls and floors were also incredibly gorgeous. The trees lining much of the castle grounds also made the place feel very fairy-tale-esque. I really enjoyed the castle the most, out of all the buildings I saw.  After spending an hour or two at the castle, Stephen and I took the opposite way down from the castle to the main area of the city. We happened upon a large elevator in the middle of the street, and Stephen told me that this was what they called The Iron Tower. Basically, a really fancy elevator that gives you great views of Lisbon. We decided that since we were here, we'd stop in and take a ride up. It really did have some amazing views of the city, but honestly, I'm not sure it was worth it in the end.

That night we had home-made Chinese cuisine for dinner, which was actually quite excellent. I'm used to having crappy Chinese food like Lucky Kitchen, etc, but the lemon egg drop soup, and the homemade egg rolls and sauce and stir fry were actually quite incredible. That night I also met some more interesting people. I met a guy from Texas currently living in Barcelona getting his masters in classical piano named Jose, and a young woman from the Netherlands named Anna. After talking with Jose for awhile, he decided that he wanted to join us wherever we were going off to the following day. That night, I slept even better than the night before.

The next morning, Stephen and I got up, and found that Jose had taken off to go to the Castle. So, Stephen and I decided to go to Sintra by ourselves for the day. However, fate intervened and the train station we thought we were going to use to get directly to Sintra was closed. So, by this point in time, after walking a half hour just to the train station, we decided we wouldn't have enough time to fully enjoy the small town of Sintra, so we went back to the hostel to figure out something else to do for the day. We got back to the hostel, and as we were deciding to go to Cascai/Estoril, Jose came back in from the castle. We invited him out with us, and eventually, we all headed out to Cais do Sodre train station to go to the small resort beach towns of Cascai and Estoril for the day.

Upon arriving at Estoril, we ran into our Parisian friend John who had just come from Cascai. He decided to walk with us until his train was leaving. After a half hour of walking along the gorgeous beach front promenade, we stopped at a small eatery along the way that served us amazing fish courses. It was a really great day because I got to know these people really well, and I never would have if I hadn't been travelling alone. I was the youngest of all the people I hung out with, but I really never felt at a loss for words with them. After eating, John left us to go to his train, and Jose, Stephen, and I walked further along the promenade until we came to Cascai. Cascai is a small fishing village that just recently became a rather large resort town for people around Europe. The streets were tiled and full of beach shops selling all you'd need for a great day at the beach along with small ice-cream and gelato shops and excellent restaurants serving some of the best fish in Portugal. Needless to say, I got incredibly sunburned that day, but I ate well and had a really relaxing and informative day.

I wanted to spend that night just relaxing and reading my book and talking with Anna, Stephen, and Jose, but a woman came in from a Portuguese school to teach Portuguese to those who wanted to learn. So, I decided to join in. I learned a lot of the basics, and I even got a certificate out of it :). It was a lot of fun, actually, and it made me laugh hearing all the different accents trying to speak Portuguese. Dinner that night was an amazing lasagna and salad and almond tart meal cooked by an Italian woman. At dinner that night, I met another friend named Rebecca from Iowa who was currently living in London. After talking that night, her, Stephen, Jose, and I decided to go to Sintra with each other the next day.

When we woke up that morning, Stephen and Jose were nowhere to be found, so Rebecca and I ended up going out on our own to Sintra. Sintra was, by far, my MOST favorite thing I did/saw while in Portugal. This small town was reminiscent of medieval fairy-tales. The small streets with the houses close together surrounded by lush, forested mountains gave it that kind of feeling. At the top of the mountain was a moorish castle and a Portuguese palace that Rebecca and I decided to hike up to. We took a bus to the halfway point, and then walked up the rest of the mountain to the Palace. This palace was honestly the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It was all different colors (purple, pink, yellow, orange, and blue), and it honestly looked like either a Disney palace or something a little kid would make out of play-doh. It was truly an incredible sight to see. Not to mention the fact that it was atop a mountain that overlooked all of Sintra and the surrounding countryside. Rebecca and I decided to walk down the whole way instead of taking the bus, and we came across some really interesting sights--an old castle wall along the road, a random moat with small castle towers in it on small islands, and a gorgeous mansion along the way. We weren't able to go to the moorish castle, but we did see it from far away. It sat atop the rocky mountain, and had a very eerie feeling to it.

After this really long walk, we got completely lost at the bottom of the mountain. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, but we eventually ended up in what we termed "the ghetto of Sintra." No one spoke any English there, and when we finally got an answer from a gentleman about where the train station was, he sent us to the completely wrong station. We decided to use our navigational instincts as to what direction Lisbon was, and we finally found our way back to the correct train station and the part of Sintra we wanted to be in. We sat down for a rather incredible yet simple meal of a tuna fish sandwich on sourdough bread, crisps, and two natas to each of us. Natas is THE best small custard pastry I've ever had. The recipe is a secret, so I can never have it again, but I really really enjoyed it thoroughly. Rebecca was one of my favorite travel buddies I met while in Lisbon. She may have been 8 years older than me, but we had a lot in common, and she was a really sweet person.

That night was one of my favorite nights I've had in Lisbon as well. We got back, and that night was Portuguese cuisine. Yum! So good! It was a seafood bisque with noodles and literally every type of seafood you can imagine (crab, octupus, whitefish, mussels, clams, etc.). It was extremely filling and just rather excellent. However, before we ate, Rebecca, Anna, and I were HUNGRY like no other. We decided to walk to a small grocery store about 10 minutes from the hostel. Rebecca and I got crisps and donuts as well as a 68 cent bottle of wine each to ourselves. We got back to the hostel, popped open the wine, and snacked ourselves silly. That night at dinner, we talked with a guy from New Zealand/South Africa who was planning on running the half marathon in town the next day, and he just laughed at how ridiculous we were for buying 68 cent bottles of wine. That night, Rebecca, Stephen, Anna, me, and a couple of German people spent the night out on the patio drinking and enjoying each others company. I really fell in love with Lisbon and my friends that night.

The next day, Rebecca and I decided to be really really lazy and spend the whole day in Cascai at the beach. We arrived there early in the morning so that we could get Rebecca a swimsuit. Turns out that not a single store in this BEACH TOWN sold swimsuits. It was ridiculous, so we ended up just getting her a tank top and shorts. We then found this small private beach where we sat around being lazy for about 2 and a half hours. The only problem with that beach was that we had some random old guy in a speedo running back and forth in front of us for about an hour. It was not a pretty sight to see, haha. After relaxing for awhile, some kids with a soccer ball were causing a raucous on the beach, so we decided to get up and go get some food and find another beach. We got the same meal we'd had the day before at a small eatery on the promenade, and after eating, we just rested on the beach that was closest to us. I got UNBELIEVABLY burned on about HALF my body because I suck at turning myself over so I get both sides tanned from the sun. Around 4 in the afternoon, Rebecca and I just decided to head back. Since this was my last day in Portugal, I didn't feel like doing much except reading my books and doing stuff online. So, that's what I did. I don't remember what was for dinner that night, but I'm sure it was good.

The next day I had an early flight out of Lisbon. I took a taxi to the airport and was on my way within a couple of hours. I arrived back to London around 3 in the afternoon to find out some really annoying news. The baggage carriers in Lisbon had completely forgotten to put EVERYONE'S bags on the airplane. Thank goodness, my bag was eventually just sent to Michigan within a week, but still, it was annoying for that night because I had no toiletries nor the clothes I wanted to wear when I was back in Michigan. That night in Brighton, I went to Celia and Rays for dinner, and spent the rest of the night packing and getting ready to go back to Michigan for a few weeks.

The next three weeks went by quite fast. I spent most of my time with my favorites, Rach, Jillybean, Viv, Kristin, and Lauren. It was half sucky/half amazing time to be home. However, it made me appreciate Brighton and England even more. Being back in Brighton, I really do feel more comfortable here and more at home.

All in all, these next two months in Brighton are going to be amazing. The past few nights have already been good. The first night that I wasn't jetlagged, I went to the pub down the road with Katie and Nina for drinks. That was really nice because I hadn't really had much one on one time with these two girls--one of them being my RA who I've really never spoken much to. The next night was great as well because Greg, Ryan, and I went out for a beer at the pub down the road again, and then decided to head to the beach. We picked up Ramsie along the way, got some beers at the Tesco Express, and then spent a few hours down at the beach drinking and chatting. Katie later joined us, and then Greg and I went to Casba Kebabs for our ritual late night snacking :).

Last Friday I went to Lewes with Celia and Ray, which was also really great. We walked around and ate lunch in this beautiful little garden outside of an old castle where my cousin Anthony got married last summer. After eating lunch, we walked around Lewes Castle up on the hill. We were gonna go in, but decided against it. We then had a drink in a small pub down the road, and then headed back for the day.

Plans for the next month and a half that I have left here are to go to Ireland to meet up with Kristin and her fiancee, and make small trips to places around England, and then off to Scotland and Wales for a couple weekends, go to Devils Dyke/Preston Manor with Celia and Ray, and just enjoy myself more. Till' next time, safe travels, everyone! :)