Portugal!

As a last little side trip before the end, my friend Ben and I decided to get over to Lisboa, Portugal. We were only there for two and a half days but got to see a lot of what the city has to offer.

The first day we were there we hit all the big parts of Lisboa, as well as the sights in the side town of Belem.

          We took a long walk down to the edge of the city. Along the way we ran into a couple parks and plazas and ended up stopping at the Elevator (where you could take a ride up to a platform to look out over the city).

 In Belem, we saw the Torre de Belem (Belem Tower) as well as the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) which would both fairly large and represented Christopher Columbus’s journey to the New World.

We finished the day at the Belem pastry café, where we inhaled their famous pastries. Also on a side note, while we were there eating, a woman came up to me and asked me if I was from Sweden. I politely told her no, but she asked me if I wouldn’t mind having my pictures taken with Ben for a Swedish travel magazine about the pastry shop since I looked swedish. Um….what? okay! So we got our pictures taken by a journalist who traveled from Sweden to cover the restaurant to be in a swedish magazine, while traveling around in Portugal from living in Spain but really from the States. Confused yet? Me too. My face will be in a magazine in Sweden! Craziness.

Picture in the Swedish Magazine

Picture in the Swedish Magazine

The second day Ben and I took a day trip to Sintra, which was my favorite part of the trip. The town literally looked like the town from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I busted out the first song in the movie, until Ben and other people starting staring at me. Oops. (In my own world over here folks, sorry!) Ben and I headed to the Quinta da Regaleira, an estate with a luxurious palace and huge gardens. It was definitely my favorite spot. The gardens not only had lots of paths, but underground tunnels, wells you could climb down in, and towers to overlook the whole property. I felt like a little kid in a huge playground.

Sintra, Portugal

Sintra, Portugal

After the Quinta, Ben and I decided to hike up to the top of the city and look out at the view. The hike reminded me a lot of the hikes I go on with my family in the northwest. Lots of trees, lots of steep hills, and lots of little lookouts.

 Overall, it was a very quick trip. But I enjoyed seeing another country and was grateful I had the opportunity to go.