Showing posts with label portugal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portugal. Show all posts
Wednesday 4 March 2015

Sintra, Portugal

Sintra Portugal

Sintra was also high on the list of places that I wanted to visit in Portugal. It is only 40 minutes away by train from Lisbon, making it the ideal day trip. Surprisingly, there are a lot of gum trees (research later told me that they were planted for pulpwood) which was unexpected and made me think of Australia. Except the trees were thriving in the conditions as they were quite tall.

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First stop was the popular Quinta da Regaleira. It was quite nice walking around the palace and the gardens and, although I thoroughly enjoyed Lisbon, it was a lovely escape from the big smoke.

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There are a lot of stray cats in Portugal.

One of the much talked about portions of Quinta da Regaleira was the grotto and more importantly the initiation well. Stone steps lined the wall of the well which led down to the very bottom and opened into underground tunnels and caves. It is said that it reflects the Divine Comedy by Dante and the nine circles of Hell (since there are nine platforms). In short, it was very very cool.

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I was a little disappointed with the tunnels; I thought they would be more mysterious and cooler.

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Next up was Moorish Castle. Well, technically I never reached the castle (or even saw it up close) due to certain issues. I reached 3/4 of the way from the bottom of the hill and it was a very easy - although steep - "hike".

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Outer wall.

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Overall Thoughts
Sintra was still quite nice, however I had high expectations and thought it would be a lot nicer than what it was. Nonetheless, it is definitely worth a trip from Lisbon. Lisbon is an incredible city and is one of my favourite places that I have visited thus far. The food, the culture and the people* make the city very enjoyable.

Would I re-visit?
There are too many places I would love to visit in the world. So no. But it is still definitely near the bottom of my "no" list, therefore may possibly be a yes.

* Every time I went to the supermarket, the cashier always refused (well initially at least) to break my "larger" notes which was infuriating. It was a decent sized supermarket so I knew that they were capable. Simply unwilling. For example, a shopping trip that totaled €6.something and I attempted to pay with €20 bill.

Lisbon

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Portugal was one of my must-see countries on my trip, in particular Lisbon. It may also have something to do with seeing Carrie's (WishWishWish) frequent posts about the city, but something always drew me to Lisbon. I left Zürich at a ridiculous hour with the intention of arriving early and having a full day ahead. Shortly after we arrived at the hostel, the people at reception told us about the free walking tour (tips based) and off we went! The tour guide was so lovely! Very engaging and informative of course. We started off at a bar selling jinjingha and I tried some at 10.30am in the morning. Ha. I'm not a big fan of alcohol, but it tasted ridiculously sweet.

Ginjinha  is a portuguese liqueur made by infusing ginja berries, (sour cherry) in alcohol and adding sugar together with other ingredients. Ginjinha is served in a shot form with a piece of the fruit in the bottom of the cup.

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Portuguese tart

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Lisbon was amazing and so different to all the other cities I had visited in Europe. Sure, each city is different from the other, but after a while some do blend together. But Lisbon was radically different with the one carriage trams, super steep cobbled roads and flights of stairs one after the other. It was also 16°C during the day which was amazing.

I don't really like going on tips based tours, especially after reading about Sandeman's (see here). Partly because I don't know how much to pay, and I feel guilty if I don't leave something reasonable. At the conclusion of the tour, this American (from Virginia) was the first to ask how to pay, and then proceeded to pay the guide 1 Euro. One. Euro. Being a busybody, I saw that people all paid around 4-5 Euros. One. Euro. Still baffles me considering she was decked out in moderately expensive brands and seemed to quite enjoy the tour.

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Sunset

The following day, we headed to the historic neighbourhood of Alfama. It was super hilly. The aim was to visit the flea market that was held every Saturday. I am always on the hunt for secondhand film cameras and I thought it might be the place to find some. There was one vendor who had a whole table of pretty awesome cameras, but I passed them up. They seemed to be the same price as on the bids on eBay which was disappointing.

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Afterwards we headed to the other side of the river to see Christ the King. It took a while to get there since the wrong path was taken (a wrong path which meant a very steep road had to be taken). Does this look familiar?

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It was inspired by the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and it was erected to express gratitude that the Portuguese were spared from WWII. 

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Also the bridge is pretty much identical to the one in San Francisco due to colour and type. 

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This sunset photo looks similar to the previous one, but it was insanely difficult to reach (I believe it was Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara). It required climbing up a hill that was almost at a gradient of 45°.