European Adventure Part X: Day 4

Today was simply amazing. I won’t do a big intro, because it was a long day. Let’s get to it.

LEAVING LISBON

I couldn’t make myself get up as early as I’d originally intended. I had been planning on taking the 8:30am train to Sintra, but it just didn’t happen. I decided to take the 9:00am instead, but wanted to get to the train station around 8:40am so that I could deal with getting tickets, finding the train, and any other random insanity.

Yeah…none of that happened. I rolled into the station at 8:53am and discovered that there was a huge line to the ticket machine. I BARELY made it in time. It was reminding me of European Adventure Part I, with that last train in Paris. Not nearly as dire, but the whole running onto a train and then it leaving thing.

I dozed on the 45 minute train ride to Sintra. Sintra is a town north of Lisbon. I need to look more into the history of it, but I was going because there were palaces thrown all over the town. It’s also UP in the hills. I don’t know if you call them mountains but I was up HIGH. The train arrives at the base of the hill and then you have to go up.

HILLS. SO MANY FREAKING HILLS.

I took the shuttle bus up to my first stop Monserrate Palace. Everyone will go to Sintra for Pena Palace or the Moorish ruins. Yes, those look beautiful but I had it on good authority that those were overrun with tourists. Based on how many people were on the train up to Sintra, and how many disappeared to the bus that takes you to those places, I felt like I’d made the right decision. Monserrate Palace was alway from the main drag of things, and it was quiet and peaceful when the bus dropped me off. I went down, down, down, the path to get to the palace. I did realize that I’d have to come back up the hill when I was done but the lure of the palace off in the distance was real.

I got to the palace and it was so ornate. So many carvings, on the walls, on the ceilings, in the floors. There were a lot of hard surfaces and I couldn’t help but think that living there with children running around and yelling would be a true trial, I think it’d make a wonderful home in the summer since it’d be nice and cool.

A MINI ADVENTURE

The part of Sintra I was in had one way road. This meant that I order to get my next destination, the Quinta da Regaleria, which was behind me, I’d have to go all the way around, back to the town and back up the hill. Why didn’t I go to Quinta da Regaleria first? I’ll explain later.

I decided to take an Uber instead of waiting for the shuttle bus whose schedule I didn’t really understand. I had somewhere to be at 3:00pm and wanted to have time to explore the Quinta da Regaleria. Well, GPS doesn’t work so well up in the hills, and I got an Uber driver on their first day. The bus would have likely taken me 40 minutes, and the Uber took about 45. But we made it, and I got to see more of Sintra I guess.

QUINTA DA REGALERIA

My next stop was a bit more crowded. What sucked was the insane hill I had to walk up just to get to the entrance of the grounds. I decided to stop for a relaxing lunch before exploring. As I said, I need to look more into the history of these places. They were so beautiful and ornate and I don’t really understand why they were made or who made them. It’s not like me, I usually love to know the history of places, but there was a lit of research for this trip and I just didn’t get to Sintra in time.

I was kind of crazy to see all of the different places on the grounds. There was the Initiation Well that we actually got walk all the way down and into the tunnels below. It was so neat.

I FOUND THE PLACE WHERE I’M GETTING MARRIED

I left the Quinta da Regaleria and then had to walk back up that intense hill again, but this time go across the street to the Tivoli Palacio De Seteais. This is a former palace that is now a hotel, and it has a SPA. I was a there a bit early, I’d planned on roaming the grounds, but they were able to take me early. I think because I worked in a hotel spa I have a special place for them in my heart. This one was so unique. No amenities, and only three treatment rooms, but it’s tucked away in the gardens of the hotel. While my service provided was getting everything ready since I was early, I sat in the garden with some tea and the most incredible view. It was one of those moments where I got to pause, soak in where I was, and just be grateful to God that I get to explore the world the way that I do. There was something so special about those 15 minutes.

The Spa service was so amazing that I felt like I left my body a few times. I was so zenned out and relaxed. I roamed the rest of the grounds after my service and didn’t want to leave. I started planning a wedding there in my head. Sure, people would be annoyed having to travel so far, but once you got there you’d get it.

I stared out at the view for as long as I dared before heading back down the hill in cab. I wanted to stay longer, but I didn’t want to miss the 6:00pm train out of Sintra since I had to get back to my flat in Lisbon to pack!

A LAST WALK IN LISBON

I stopped by Agathe’s, the artist who I’d done the tile workshop with, to pick up two new tiles. Mine had cracked in half! Then I took the Metro back down to Baixa-Chaido, for a last stroll through Lisbon. I can admit that I was a little sad. I passed by the restaurant where I’d had dinner the first night, and the waiter there remembered me and greeted me by name. He said I should stop by for a drink since it was my last night in town, but I was wiped.

I went back to my flat, headed up some leftover, packed up, and soaked in such a wonderful final day in Portugal. I will definitely be back.

UP NEXT: ROMA! I meet up with my friends! It’ll nice to talk to someone other than myself and strangers.