Fairytales and knights in shining armour: Sintra

Sintra is, as Hans Christian Anderson put it, "the most beautiful place in Portugal. It is where fairytales live. Castles and forests and parks and lakes and hidden torrets and mossy stone walls and cobbled streets. The hike up to the castle was highly entertaining as I soon discovered that flip-flops were not invented for high gradient hiking. Slipping and sliding and losing the odd shoe here and there, nearly knocking a tourist over one of the walls, and eventually I made it to the top - where they charged me 6 euros...

At first I was ranting. SIX euros. What the hell would be worth six euros? It seemed ridiculous!

But then I climbed up the stone stairs and looked over the wall, saw the view and realised, Oh, so this is what is worth six euros.

From the top I could actually see numerous castles and palaces scattered in the overgrown forests surround the hill. And I could see for miles and miles. The Moorish Castle - probably the most worthwhile tourist expendature that I have ever seen. I just wanted to settle down there, pull out my notebook and start writing about knights and chivalry and quests and dragons and every other fantastical thing you can imagine. {

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And then I tried to find my way back to the town centre, and again, I got lost and ended up with this lovely guy who walked me right to the centre (with a minor detour into a park because he wanted to show me the view). And there I ate a travesseiro - yet another delicious pastry that Portugal has to offer.

That evening, I ended up going with Rui for a wonderful tour through the hidden spots of Lisbon, seeing the best views, drinking kyporinyas and beers as we walked through streets where the nightlife was just beginning, sliding down handrails, and taking loads of photos (the latter was mainly on my part).

Afterwards it was time for the feature of the night... Brazilian dancing.

And I learned something. Dancing is not my forte. Definitely not. But it was great fun anyway and lovely to watch! But, with the heat, after five seconds of being on the dance floor, everyone was sweating buckets! We ended up hitching the fan so it remained facing in our direction.

All in all, Lisbon has been a pretty fantastic experience. But I need to leave Portugal soon, very soon. This food is way too good. I think my last stop in Portugal is going to be Faro, and I'm heading there tomorrow. It's by the coast (the actual coast), so it should have some great beaches. And then I'll re-enter Spain and make my way up to Barcelona, where I will go and annoy Robert. That should be fun.

written by  Brigid Jelsma on May 24, 2011 from Sintra, Portugal
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Portugal
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