Lisboa, Portugal

Holy Portugal!  What an interesting and cool country.  First and foremost the people Could not have been nicer, more welcoming, or happier.  It seemed as if everyone was always in a good mood.  The bus ride was just a wee bit Langer (sarcasm) than we though…it took us 6 AND A HALF hours, ouch.  The bus ride there and back were actually not too bad, everyone was excited and talking the whole time on the way there and we were all passed out most of the way back.  When we got there we walked into our hotel, the Holiday Inn Continental – not your standard Holiday Inn.  It was really nice, with an awesome breakfast, they had lox which are my favorite.  We didn’t get there until past 9 on Friday, so we got situated, met up and went out to this area called Barrio Alto.  IT WAS CRAZY.  Not that I know the bar scene in the States, but I know it is nothing like how it was in Lisboa.

the street was jam packed!!

One of the little bars we went into, there was a DJ mixing live music in pretty much every one.

We took the metro down there, and met a Group of girls from Holland and Hungary who were traveling all around and one of them complimented me on my American Accent, which was definitely a first!  Funny to think that I have an Accent to other people, but sure enough we all do.  Anyways, we get out of the cab and there are just hoards of people everywhere.  The bars were not all that big but there were just so many of them!  Beer was super cheap, 1.50 Euro for a big 35 oz beer, so we would get a beer and just walk around in the streets and then move onto the next bar, and do it all over again.  Everyone was cool and the vast majority spoke english or spanish, so we made our way around.  Marijuana has been decriminalized in Portugal, and that was pretty rampant in the streets, there were people smoking joints like they were cigarettes, just outsider the bar, which was interesting. We were approached on a regular basis and asked if we wanted a various array of drugs…No thanks creepy guy. 

 

Saturday was most definitely the best day of the trip, and the highlight of Europe thus far.  We originally planned to go to the beach all day, but it was raining so we decided to go Sintra, Portugal (about a half hour outside of Lisboa).  Best decision ever!  In Sintra, we went to this Castle called Castello de los Muerros, where the Royal Spanish Family lived in the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th centuries.  It was like nothing I have ever seen before, the architecture was incredible – extremely intricate with no detail spared.  The sheer size of this Castle was intimidating, and oh by the way it was built on a mountain at about 1,000 feet elevation, with 50 foot sheer drops off of the walls.  I can’t even imagine how they built the foundation for it or went about creating this outrageously big structure.

We hiked up to the highest point we could in the park where this castle was, this is a great pic of how ridiculously big the castle was.

picture from outside the castle

Now for the inside.  Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures on the inside for one reason or the other, but they were NOT messing around about pictures.  They had security guards with coat and tie on, radios, and poker faces, the whole bit.  They also had cameras in each room with motion and heat detectors: there is some serious history and extremely valuable stuff in this mansion.  There was a room for every conceivable purpose!  Study, sitting room, drawing room, dressing room, tons of bedrooms, two chapels, a HUGE kitchen, a paper machete (not kidding) room…the list goes on and on.  It was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen, I did manage to sneak a few pictures, but not very good ones because the flash gave you away bigtime.  The view off the walls was the best part, it was really foggy when we got there, but right as we walked outside to walk the walls, the fog lifted and it was a gorgeous day with awesome views and tons of pictures!

little guest dining room, this was the least lavish thing there, security stepped up as rooms got nicer and nicer.

The castle was built on the side of a mountain, it's crazy how they built this so long ago in such a tough place.

Amazing view, this picture doesn't do it justice.

Saturday night we went to the best little Portuguese place for dinner.  We took a cab down to the restaurant district and walked around until we found this place, what a gem.  The owner, Juan, accommodated 8 of us outside with 2 folding tables, but it was probably 70 degrees with clear skies, a perfect night to eat outside.  He brought out loafs of bread on the house, and for dinner I had a chorizo appetizer, which is a smoked sausage that was teeming with flavor – so rich and hardy it was awesome

restaurant sign! total mom and pop place

chorizo appetizer, talk about some serious flavor.  All my boys back home yall would love this, dad this would be right up your alley.

Awesome white wine and bread!

For the main course I had Sea Bass, and Portugal did not disappoint on its famous fish.  It was so fresh and cooked perfectly, they served it just like you caught it, except it was cooked!  I had never eaten a fish like that before, and it was a neat way to do it, but that was awesome, as was the house white wine.

Oh, hey, whatsup dinner?

Seabass that was on point

For how good it was, it was very cheap – 85 euro for 8 entrees (5 were fish, big fish too), 2 appetizers, and 3 jugs of white wine.  Pretty damn good!  Sunday we did some sight seeing of monuments, I'll do another small blog about that later on this week.  Cooking class this afternoon, gonna be awesome!  Hasta luego