Lisboa and Sintra

Well, it has been 4 nights in Lisbon and this has, by far been the best place yet. I think Portugal is the california of Iberia and Lisbon is the San Francisco. (They even have a golden gate bridge...same design, same color. same architect I think) It is hilly, has an arty vibe, beautiful views, and lots of good restaurants and fish! Unfortunately, Ive been having some trouble getting up photos so it might be a while! Like until the end of the trip! So I suppose my words will have to suffice...

On my first night in I headed out to dinner with some people from the hostel at a Brazilian place and had AMAZING fish along with some vinho verde (young, fizzy wine) and then out to the bars...we ended up meeting some portuguese people to lead us around and help us find places that were open since it was sunday! We ended up at a gay club having their weekly foam party...after 4 years of spring breaks I managed to avoid them, and here, in lisbon, I was drenched and up to my neck (and above my neck at one very scary point) in foam. Twas a great time helped out by the fun irish and british folks around.

The next day we went to the tower of belem (someday I will have the pics up), walked to some church, and walked and walked...I guess a theme for travelling. Along the way I learned all sorts of things about the British...did you know they donºt have summer camp...well, at least these brits didnt?:)

The next day I was on my own to go to the Castle of Saint George and wander the Alfama (the old moorish district) as well as the rest of the city. I love that the streets here are covered in mosaics (all of them!) and so many of the buildings are covered in beautiful tiles. Oh, I also went to the art museum(?Gulbekian?)...forgot about that. Was a pretty small collection (I guess one guy donated it all) but well laid out and gorgeous Ottoman stuff.

Today I headed out to "bucolic" Sintra. This beautiful city was sort of the resort of kings and others...there was a fabulous Disneyesque castle and a great moorish castle...Ill see if I can find a picture of that castle, itºs pretty cool! I hiked ALL the way up which seemed like a good idea until about 20 minutes into it...1.5 hours later, I was hurting...and on the way down. Tomorrow is going to be a RELAX day.

What else? Some italian guy at the hostel just handed me some Porto, pretty good! Have really liked the hostel here, very social atmosphere, and itºs interesting to hear all about peopleºs adventures. One guy here just finished the Camino de Santiago...most people are doing whirlwind tours of europe hopping all over. It seems like a much better way to meet other backpackers and I guess a good idea if you want to see it all at once, but I prefer my slow crawl across these few places...I think I would go crazy if I was hopping around all the time, but I guess I would have more company...

well, i need to figure out where I am going tomorrow...I guess north, just havenºt picked where yet.

Ok, would love to hear from you all!