Sintra

I mentioned earlier that I went on a tour with a group from my hostel to a place called Sintra. Basically, Sintra is a small town about 15 miles outside of Lisbon that has a LOT of cool landmarks, including a 19th century palace, a Moorish castle, and a really...odd mansion.

Sofia

Anyway, it was Sean, me, six girls, and Sofia, our guide, who is one of those larger-than-life characters you meet every now and then. She spent several years as an executive producer in Portugal, and when her mom died a few years back, joined up with a few Portuguese artists who had put together Living Lisbon and Living Lounge hostels. Bit of a change, no? I spent most of the trip talking to two girls from Australia: Anita (a lawyer) and Leanne (who works for KPMG). They rather enjoyed making fun of me whenever I said "y'all."

We skipped the castle, but got a great view of it from above from the palace (which is farther up the moutain Sintra is built on/around). The palace is kind of an amalgamation of every different architectural style under the sun, and was made by a rich nobleman to give to his wife.  Twas okay, but I really loved the views. It was a clear day, so we could see all the way to Lisbon.

Next, we went into the town of Sintra, where we at some phenomenal pastries (one with cinnamon and goat cheese and another with almost paste) and went to the most magical place is Portugal. This little shop had every kind of good food and drink you can imagine: port wine, bitter almond liquer, soft sheep cheese, jams made of fruits and Port, mead, and vinegar made from fruit around Sintra. I see many a trip to their website ^_^ Oh! And we also went to a shop that makes the type of ceramic tiles you see all over Lisbon. Wanted to get one or two, but didn't think they'd survive the next two months in my suitcase.

Monserrate park

We went from there to Quinta de Regaleira, a mansion and grounds that a Brazilian man had built to satisfy his...eccentricities. It was amazingly cool, and really weird. The mansion was okay, though it did have a lot of weird rooms, like a library with mirrors in the floor, so it looked like the center of the room was just floating on thin air. The grounds though were AMAZING. For whatever reason, he dug a series of tunnels throughout the grounds, that connect to a small labyrinth, a few wells with spiral staircases up to ground level, and a pond that you have to cross through a series of stepping stones. 'Twas weird and awesome. Sean wants to set a horror movie or five here. I think the phrase "What was he smoking and where can I get some?" was used. The Wikipedia article is interesting.

Anyway, we hopped in the car afterwards and drove to Monserrate park, where we ate some EXCELLENT homecooked Portuguese food that Sofia made, including cod stew. Sofia also made sure we polished off 4 bottles of Vinho Verde (very young, very dry, very tart Portuguese white wine) and a bottle of bitter almond liqueur between the 8 of us, so we were all a bit dozy. It was a most excellent picnic =)

Sofia crammed us all in the van after that and drove us to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. We got there right before sunset, so the lighting was awesome. Got some excellent shots of the rocks, cliffs, and flowers here.

Cabo da Roca

After that, Sofia and the girls started a plot to get to the beach right as the surfers were getting in for the day and stripping off their wet suits. There was something rather....predatory about this. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for Sean and me), the surfers were modest enough not to strip down entirely in public.

After this, we drove through Cascais (a fishing village turned resort for rich British families) and back to Lisbon, with a stop in Belem to get a pasteis de Belem (a Portuguese custard tart). We got back, crashed at Living Lisbon (my hostel's partner hostel) and had some fried chicken, soup, and mango custard cooked by Antonio. Sean and I then passed around a bottle of tawny port we'd gotten at the store in Sintra, then went home and crashed for the night and left for Porto in the morning.