After a fun-filled weekend in Madrid and Toledo, we set out Monday for Lisboa! We arrived by 10am at our hotel, took a short nap, and then set out to explore a very different European city. First of all, the weather there is quite possibly as strange as it gets in Europe. It was really sunny and bright when we got off the plane, yet two hours later, we were in pouring rain, followed by bright sun yet again. This weather craziness went on the entire 4 days we were in Portugal!
On our first day in Lisboa we jumped on the train for a half an hour ride to Sintra. When we arrived in Sintra we got on a bus that took us to the top of the mountain. We then went into the Castillo of Pena and the Palacio of Pena. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate at all with us and we got drenched as soon as we walked through the ruins of the castle. We were SOAKED SOAKED SOAKED but it was a ton of fun climbing up to the top and seeing the entire city! After enjoying the beauty of Sintra in the heavy downpour, we eventually returned to our hotel four hours later, took hot showers, and set out for dinner in Lisbon. We walked through Restauradore, which is an area full of restaurants and decided we needed a break from Spanish/Portuguese traditional food. We found a quaint Indian restaurant and had one of Mana's favorite meals in Europe! Full of spices and flavorful to the max, we were very happy 2 hours later. We met some locals at the restaurant who then guided us to a local bar in Bairro Alto called A Tasca do Chico where musicians perform Fado (traditional Portuguese singing) and enjoyed a perfect evening full of live music, great company, and local caipirinhas. It was FANTASTIC!
The next day we jumped on a tram and headed to Belem, a thirty minute ride west of the center of the city, where we saw the beautiful Discover Monument on the water, the Belem tower, and the Belem Monastery. We were much luckier with the weather and the sun was brighter than anywhere else we've seen it in Europe so far! We walked through gorgeous gardens and eventually made it the pastry shop that Portugal is famous for: Pasteis de Belem
http://www.igougo.com/dining-reviews-b144324-Lisbon-Pasteis_de_Belem.html
Mana LOVED the pastries here! They are custard tarts that come out piping hot from the oven covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon - just plain MELT IN YOUR MOUTH INCREDIBLE!
After our afternoon in Belem, we headed back to the center of Lisbon, walked through the entire city, and finally decided that since we were approaching the end of sales in Europe (February 9th marked the end of sales in Paris), we would explore the Columbo mall in Lisbon. We jumped on a metro and got out at the mall finding ourselves at a Furla shop.
Sahil told Mana that, during our 3 month stay in Europe, he wanted to get her a gift that she would always remember Europe by, in honor of all the hard work they both put towards getting jobs they were excited about in the coming year. And, since Europe, unlike America, has crazy good sales in luxury stores that go on twice a year, we found the perfect handbag and wallet at Furla for a CRAZY good deal and made it Sahil's gift to Mana for Valentine's Day as well as Mana's gift to herself after depositing her signing bonus! We then decided to do what Sahil likes most: go see a movie! We jumped into a 630pm showing of Nine which played in English with Portuguese subtitles, a 7 minute intermission, and previews that were broken up with Portuguese commercials. It was a really fun experience and Mana loved the movie as well as the cast! Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel and after a long day, decided to make it an early night since we were headed to Porto early the next morning.
On Wednesday, we woke up, headed to the train station, and jumped on a 3 hour train from Lisbon to Porto. While we expected more of a Pacific Coast Highway experience, we saw less water and more lush green mountain terrain. It was beautiful regardless! We played cards the whole way there and when we got to Porto, we were ready to go explore. It is a beautiful town on the water and is most famous for Port wine. We dropped our bags off, got ready, and headed for the Funicular, which is a glass elevator that rides a bit like a rollercoaster down the mountain to the bridge which takes us to the other side of the town. It was a REALLY innovative and cool experience and 10 minutes later, we had crossed the town and entered the Calem Port winery. We went on a 45 minute tour followed by a wine tasting consisting of 4 different wines and learned more about the port wine industry. It was a ton of fun and left us very hungry, so we then proceeded to eat at a tasty Thai restaurant. The whole area was bumpin' and the bars were full and active all evening into the night on a Wednesday - we LOVED Porto and highly recommend that anybody who goes to Lisbon makes it a point to go to Porto as well, even if only for a day.
After bar-hopping and having a fantastic night, we eventually made our way back to our hotel for our last night of our First Big European Excursion. We were really happy with our trip!
On Thursday, we woke up, basked in the sun while we ate lunch on the waterfront, and then headed for the airport. While we loved Porto, we were pretty annoyed with the airport! As nice as it was, we had a security woman take away our contact solution and face lotion, we had the ticket collector make us stuff our bags into one bag when other people had a handbag and a bag, and they made us run around the airport to figure out if we collect our VAT taxes when we leave Portugal or when we leave the EU for the States. After a whole lot of headaches, we finally made it on the plane, had a seamless ride, and arrived back at Charles de Gaulle, home sweet home. Yup, in a month and a half, Paris has really begun to feel like our home!
All in all, we had a fantastic First Big European Excursion and we are looking forward to a great night with our friends who are in from London for the weekend and the perfect Valentine's Day weekend in our home for now, Paris! :)
Up next week: A couple of classes followed by Spring Break/Second Big European Excursion - Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Prague and Berlin (Road Trip with 3 other friends!)
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