Day 3 - Sintra, Portugal

We took the bus and then the train from our campsite in Lisbon to a nearby town called Sintra. Unfortunately we learned that they didn’t have campgrounds there, and were too cheap to check our bags at the train station. So with packs on our backs we started wandering around towards the historic part of the town (keeping our eyes out for soft open spaces to sleep on the side of the road). In the morning, we toured the huge castle that overlooks downtown historic Sintra. It was neat, and the highlight was the old kitchen with two enormous cone shaped cement vents where the ceiling would be. We had our best lunch yet (bread, cheese and tomato sandwiches and carrots) and spent some time searching for a place to stay. The cheap hostel was full and the expensive hostel was expensive, so we decided to do more wandering and worry about sleeping later.

For the rest of the afternoon, we walked in the misty rain up this HUGE mountain so that we could see another castle. I guess we took the long way, and a few hours later we came to this crazy Medieval park in the middle of the woods. There were huge rock formations, weird ponds, and winding pathways - made all the more mysterious by the cool misty weather. With our ponchos on over our huge backpacks, we looked like sad, traveling turtles on the road to perdition. After we wandered around the park, we came to a unique castle that we explored for a bit. But we were pretty wiped. It’s quite liberating carrying everything with you on your back, but also kinda tiring. We made our way down the hill (which was much more pleasant than going up) and back to the train station where we ended up buying tickets back to the campground in Lisbon.

Observations:

1. We walked around a LOT in Sintra. This was only fully realized in retrospect.

2. Diana and I both really like kettle corn. We got some from a cute old couple on the street, and let me tell you it was worth every euro cent.

3. Europe is crazy old. There are old things everywhere.