Costa de Caparica

Five full days and 6 nights in Lisbon seems like the perfect amount of time to get in all of the tourist essentials. Having already seen the city sights, Sintra, Cascais, and Belem, we woke up Saturday morning unsure of how we could spend our last full day in sunny Lisbon. After a bit of research, we decided on Costa de Caparica, a seaside town over the bridge from Lisbon, complete with 6 kilometers of beautiful sandy beach.

We took the metro from Rossio and then a coach bus from the neighborhood of Areeiro to arrive at Costa de Caparica. The bus system is completely out of whack and there is not enough bus for the amount of people trying to get to the beach. Luckily we got seats on the way there and arrived in Costa de Caparica only 30 minutes later. We immediately knew upon arrival that this was the perfect way to end our holiday in Portugal.

The beach here stretched far beyond the eye could see and only the vast blue Atlantic could be seen across the horizon. The water was dotted with swimmers and surfers riding the waves that crashed loudly against the shores and a cool sea breeze kept the hot sun from burning us up. After grabbing our own little patch of sand to lay our towels down on, we immediately took to the water. It was cold, just as it was in Cascais, but it was beautifully clear and the surf was perfect. 

Our day was spent lazily enjoying the perfect weather and watching the surfers ride the waves. We grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant and had deliciously fresh mackerel and finished just in time to catch this glorious sunset.

Lucky for us, we had an amazing experience at our hostel here in Lisbon. It was small and social, and the people that work there are great resources for finding fun things to do in and around Lisbon, and just in general awesome people. When we arrived back Saturday night, they invited us to join them on the pub crawl free of charge, in celebration of our last night in Lisbon and because we had already participated in one with them a few days ago. Who could say no to that?! Needless to say, we were very tired on our way to the airport the next morning to get to London, but it was so worth it. Obrigada, Portugal!

Belem and Barrio Alto

Belem is a neighborhood in western Lisbon, reachable by the Tram 15. Two very famous monuments grace the shores of the river there, including the Monument of Discoveries and the Tower of Belem, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monument of Discoveries celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries and features important figures in Portuguese history such as Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama.

From Belem, you can see fantastic views of Lisbon's iconic Ponte 25 de Abril, which is very reminiscent of the Golden Gate bridge.

A humongous gothic monastery, the Jeronimos Monastery, is located right across the road from the river. It boasts high ceilings, incredibly detailed walls, and gorgeous stained glass windows. It also contains the tomb of the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, where the seafood tasted like it was caught right off the coast that day. And if you've ever heard anything about Belem, you've likely heard that trying a Pasteis de Belem is a must. It's a small custard tart with a filo dough crust that's perfectly crisp, and a custard center that's the perfect amount of sweetness. It's served with powdered sugar and cinnamon on the side, and the cinnamon on the custard tastes absolutely delicious. And of course, there's no better place to get a Pasteis de Belem than the Pasteleria, Pasteis de Belem.

Later that night, we met a bunch of Erasmus students and travelers on vacation from our hostel for a night out in Barrio Alto, the bar and nightlife center of Lisbon. The streets become almost impossible to navigate, but the atmosphere is incredibly social. The difference between a night out in Lisbon and a night out in Boston is that everybody wants to talk to each other here. People are all exchanging stories about their home countries, what they study at university, why they're in Lisbon. Nobody seems to care what time it is or to check their phone for messages, which is a nice change of pace from what I'm used to in the States. We had a fun late night, but were eventually happy to get away from the hustle and bustle of Barrio Alto and back into the quiet streets around our home base, Rossio square. 

Cascais and Boca do Inferno

After a long day of walking around Sintra, we decided that a relaxing day on the beach is much needed. Luckily, we're right on the coast of Portugal here in Lisbon, and the beach town of Cascais (pronounced cash-kysh) is only 30 minutes by train. This time we walked over to Cais do Sodre station, right on the Tagus River. 4.80 euro later, we were on a train to Cascais.

Something I found so interesting about the beaches at Cascais is how they vaguely reminded me of being home in New England. The Atlantic is just as cold on this side as it is back home, if anyone is wondering! Sail boats floated lazily, docked at buoys in the water, giving the quaint beach almost a Cape Cod feel. 

The rest of Cascais has more of a Mediterranean vibe. The streets are similar to Lisbon, winding and featuring beautiful white cobblestone. Walking along the coastline, we saw spontaneous small patches of sand where locals would set up camp and dip their toes into the water. We stopped into a free exhibition at the Casa de Santa Maria. She had quite the lovely view from her terrace.

Further along the road was a gorgeous natural curiosity called Boca do Inferno, or Mouth of Hell. Looking down, it's easy to understand how this rock formation got its name. The water is bright blue over there, and the mystery of the entire place is absolutely mesmerizing. 

Boca do inferno was definitely the highlight of this day trip. While the natural beauty of it was worth a visit to Cascais, there was nothing particularly special about the beaches we went to.

Sintra and Palácio Nacional da Pena

One of the reasons my friends and I chose to come to Lisbon for this week before school begins is because there are super cheap options to get to neighboring cities for a day. On Wednesday, we slept a bit later than usual (we had gotten back to the hostel around 4 AM, which is really early for everyone here), enjoyed our free breakfast on the top floor of the hostel with the other guests, and meandered over to the Rossio train station and bought our round trip tickets to Sintra.

Sintra is a town of palaces and castles, all from different points in history. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's mountainous and twists and turns with tiny cobblestone streets and beautiful woodsy hiking trails up to palaces, Moorish castles, and panoramic views of the Portugal coastline and Lisbon region. A round trip ticket there only cost us 4.80 euro each and we even met this adorable little boy from Ghana who had a thing for girls and jewelry. 

                                                  

When we arrived in Sintra, literally the first thing we noticed was the Castelo dos Mouros, a medieval-looking castle sitting on what appeared to be the highest hilltop within sight. The informational sheet of paper that our hostel provided us with told us that we should take the bus to the top, and we laughed imagining climbing to the top in our sandals. 

After peeking our heads in some ceramic tile shops, we made a detour through the Parque da Liberdade. We found ourselves climbing a few sets of stone stairs here and there and exited the park on higher ground than where we began. Then, we noticed signs pointing in the directions of the Castelo dos Mouros and Pena, castles sitting on the high hill tops of Sintra. We instead decided to find the church that the signs pointed to, and incidentally began our descent that would eventually take us to the highest point, over 1000 feet above where we began in the city center.

When we arrived at the Castelo dos Mouros (we never actually found that church), we were stunned. It looked like something right out of a fairy tale. It was built during the 8th and 9th centuries and had gorgeous views over the entire city. After comparing the features of this castle with the Palace of Pena, we decided we would rather pay for access to the grounds of Pena and just look around the perimeter of the Moorish castle.

We had initially thought Castelo dos Mouros was the highest spot in Lisbon. What we couldn't see from down below was that there were two destinations even higher than this one on the other side of the mountain. We looked around at the giant red busses shuttling people to the top and just decided to keep climbing on. 

Pena and its grounds almost need a grander word than palace. The outside of the palace literally looks like the inspiration for a Disney castle. We bought a full access ticket so we could see the terrace, grounds, and a short tour of the actually somewhat humble insides of the palace (I'm using the word humble loosely. This is a palace that we're talking about). The queen, or rainha, definitely had the best living quarters, including this gorgeous terrace. 

When we saw the views out of these yellow archways in Pena that literally made me feel like I was sitting in the clouds, we thought we had made it to the best views in Sintra. However, we were wrong. The best views in Sintra by far were at Cruz Alto, or high cross, sitting 528 meters above sea level. Once again, we found ourselves climbing. When we reached this panoramic view of the entire Lisbon region, all pain in our feet and knees seemed to instantly dissipate.

We viewed the valley of the lakes after (the grounds surrounding this palace literally were the size of a town), and then took a bus for our descent to save us the hour or so of walking it probably would have taken. We stopped by a small shop that offers tiny tastings of Portuguese wines and jams, and I discovered that I really dislike port wine. We also had a small taste of Ginja, a Portuguese liquor made with cherry. We drank it out of chocolate cups. I enjoyed the chocolate a lot more than the Ginja! We grabbed some pastries that Sintra is famous for at a local Pasteleria, and then went on our way back to Lisbon.