El otro lado de la península (The Other Side of the Peninsula)

Just got back from Portugal at 5:15am. Overnight bus there and back, two days in Lisbon, one day in Cascais (a beach town, no pictures on my blog because I didn't bring my camera), another in Sintra. A beautiful, fantastic weekend. Wonderful travel companions, excellent itinerary. Everything went very smoothly. It could not have gone better. It was a nice vacation and really great to get a taste of Portugal before I leave. I want to go back eventually--there are several more cities I would love to see. Maybe I can add it to my Spain road trip that I'm planning to take at some point. Right.

I don't have much interesting social commentary about the weekend. Generally, there were a lot of tourists where we were, but almost no Americans, which was a welcomed change. It's interesting how Portugal is so off the map for so many US travelers. My short time there absolutely wasn't enough, and I'm left with a craving to go back. The architecture, castles, and countryside was unlike what I've seen before. Very unique, and interesting that it's so close to Spain. Also, the hostels where we stayed were some of the best I've ever stayed in--one was even ranked the cleanest hostel in the world in 2008!

We could understand some Portuguese. It's interesting how some of the words are so close to Spanish, but others are entirely different. Still, between English and Spanish, we got by.

Now I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

At Lisbon's UNESCO world heritage monastery in Belem. Very neat.

And the tower, also in the Belem neighborhood! (After we went to supposedly the best sweet shop in all of Lisbon. My mouth waters just thinking about it.)

Liz and Amy in Sintra, a village just outside of Lisbon. We took the train there for a day. Beautiful -- surrounded by hills (or little mountains?), cute little city center, lots of castles and a UNESCO site.

Probably Sintra's most famous castle. On the top of a hill/mountain... we climbed all the way up and then decided it wasn't worth going in, but we snapped a few conquering photos before we left! The castle was quite beautiful on the outside and I had the pleasure of using muscles in my legs that living in Sevilla doesn't really require.

I'm a sucker for the "Old House With Laundry" shot. This one is in Sintra.

Amy and Liz in a castle tower in the UNESCO site in Sintra. I made them act like Rapunzel later.

The gardens had crazy caves that ran underground. This is an old well that you can climb down into to access the caves! I was scared. I held both Amy and Liz's hands and made whiny noises the whole time. But I did it anyway!

I told you, I'm a sucker for the laundry shots. This one is in the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon.

Liz and a Lisbon house. I love this photo.

We climbed up the Alfama and walked around St George's castle. It's on the top of one of Lisbon's hills and had great views of Lisbon. Straight down is the center area where we stayed. Off in the distance is a bridge that looks exactly like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

Amy and Liz entering part of St George's castle.

The classic Lisbon picture: winding beautiful Alfama streets and Tram #28. The trams were too packed with tourists for us to ride on them, but they were pretty to look at, nonetheless.

I'm very happy with the trip. It was relaxing, even though it was packed, and I loved spending time with Amy and Liz. Now it's back to a whirlwind of work (finals and papers), packing, goodbyes, and endings until Angie comes in 10 days. Yikes, I can't believe it. Too much to do! Too many ends to tie up, too many conclusions I don't want to have. But such is life.