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day 3 - Sintra, the angry ocean and the oldest trolley ever
On Sunday we took a day trip to a place called Sintra which is like a “suburb” of Lisbon, but really it felt like a totally different city. So, we woke up at 9:30 again and went downstairs to have our amazing breakfast. Today we were hoping the menu would be a little different, maybe a muffin or bagel today instead of just bread. No. Same bread and coffee. So we ate without complaints and got ready for the day. We actually split up into two groups, the catholic people went to Fatima, which is another city where a famous saint is or something like that, and the rest of us to Sintra. We rode a metro to the huge multi-transportation center and then caught a regional rail to Sintra. It was an hour ride, but it went by rather quickly. When we got off the train a
huge smile spread across my face because it was like I had stepped into a postcard. It was BEAUTIFUL! First of all it was the first I’ve seen of actual “countryside” and natural greenery since I left so that was almost heartwarming. Second, the town is in a valley of sorts with mountains and hills all around and the beach on one side. Third, there are a lot of cool castles and churches and palaces all over the city. After stopping by tourist information, we decided to go to the Park and Palace of Pena. We hopped on a bus and rode almost to the top of the highest mountain around. Talk about scary. Drivers in Portugal, and here for that matter, are insane. The road was winding all up this mountain with a drop off on one side, and only one lane, but both directions of traffic, and no speed limits. The guy was hauling and every time we would go around a corner he would lay on his horn to let people coming down to move out of the way. On one of the turns the driver didn’t honk and of course there was a car coming. It was a very near disaster, but luckily the car swerved just in time. But just barely. At the last stop we got off, and right there you had to buy tickets to get into the grounds of the palace. Once we were in, we stopped right away at a little outdoor café on the mountain. Of course we got espresso, and like always it was so good! I also had this little ham and cheese pastry thing which was good, but it kinda coated your mouth when you ate it. One of the girls with us decided to get this desert thing, but not hommade, like factory made…I don’t know what to call it. Like all our snacks, in a wrapper, but it was bread with chocolate sauce in the middle and it was so good, so we all got one! So much for just stopping for espresso. When we were done we started the trek to the top of the mountain. There was a trolley to take you there, but it was 1.50 euros so we just decided to walk. Bad idea. It was like straight up for quite a ways. It was rather funny because we were all making jokes and stuff about how we shoulda just paid 1.50. When we made it to the top it was all worth it! It was such a pretty palace and you could see so much from up there. I took a million pictures. We walked all around the place, to every spot you could go both inside and outside. By the time we were done, we were all tired and in need of some lunch. We got back on the bus and rode it into town and just got off at a random spot. We stopped at this close resturaunt and sat down. The food wasn’t really that
great, but it was alright. Then we decided to go to the beach because the pictures in our tourist pamphlet looked cool. We went to the bus stop and one of the girls with us had a map and asked the bus driver if he took us to the beach we wanted to go to. He told her no to wait for the next bus and it would. So when the next bus came, she asked again and he said no, he only went as far as the train station. On the map it looked like no buses went to the beach, only the trolley and the trolley was close to the train station so we got on the bus. At the train station we got off and started walking. It wasn’t very far at all, but when we got to the trolley stop it said they only came every hour on the hour, so we had to wait 30 minutes. When the trolley got there it was like a mad dash to get on this thing and get a seat. It started out that all 6 of us were in the same bench made for max four people, and it was rather entertaining...Bhavika was on my lap and another girl was sitting totally sideways on the edge of the seat. Then, right before we left, this couple sitting right in front of us decided to get off, so two people sat in their seat and we got to "stretch out" a little. We sat on the trolley for like 15 minutes before it started going, and for the first 10 they didnt ask for any money or anything so we were definitel
y thinking it was a free ride, and getting pretty excited about that. On of the guys even said, "everyone take note of this, it is something free in Europe...this never happens..." Not even a minute after he said that, a guy came around saying it was two euros to ride. Um. Crazy. The bus is only 1.30 and its much nicer than the trolley. But, we paid anyway, cause we had no choice. The trolley started right on time and im telling you i thought it was a huge joke when this thing started moving. Not kidding i could have walked beside it and win. seriously. At first we thought, oh we're just getting started, it will pick up. No. It didnt. About 10 minutes into the ride, it was the most hilarious thing of my life. I wish all of you could have been there to experience this moment and laugh as hard as i did, becuase words just dont do it justice. So just imagine, we're all agitated that we have to take this dumb trolley in the first place, then we have to wait 30 minutes for it, then we have to pay 2 euros, and then it is slower than a snail. Not only that, its on these really old metal tracks and the "wheels" havent been greased probably since jesus was here so about every 30 seconds, the most god-awful sound would come from the trolley. Like think of the worst squeal/squeak you can, and that was this noise. Metal grinding on metal...most likely sparks flying from the bottom of this thing. awful. At this point what other option do you have besides for laughing? About this time we were talking about how funny it would be if a bus passed us. No joke maybe 5 seconds later a bus came speeding past us. Hilarious. So we dont really know how long the trip is, and we go around this turn and the trolley starts slowing down so we are like awesome, we're almost there. Nope. It was just slowing down to slow down. About that time, a horse and buggy passed us on the road. Yes, for real. I think i might have peed my pants it was so funny. We started making jokes about how we could get out, get a coke at the market and then still get back on without even having to run for it, and other similar things. By this time we had probably been on the trolley for 15 minutes. Now some of us had this notion that the trip would only be about 15 minutes because it looked really close on the map, so we were getting ancy. But, the trolley just kept going and going and going. With no sign of beach anywhere ever. 20 minutes passes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, we start winding through people's back yards, out into the country side, 40 minutes...finally 45 minutes after we left, we arrive at the beach! What a relief to finally get off the trolley! Since we got such a good ab workout from laughing we decided we deserved ice cream. :) we went to just this little store and got magnum ice cream bars (which eva longoria is the poster girl for). I got double carmel...heaven. So good. While we were eating our ice creams we walked down to
the beach. It was real sand! (unlike the small pebbles that barcelona knows as sand). And, the waves were the biggest waves i've ever seen in my life. They were probably taller than me. Ok maybe not quite, but close. We didnt have bathing suits, so we just stood in the water. I was running back and forth kinda chasing the waves out and then running from them when the next one came in, playing around. It was really fun, but i didnt want to get my purse wet, so i walked up to give my purse to sloan, who wasnt standing with the rest of us, and just as i did, a huge wave came in and drenched the rest of them. AHAHA. it was really funny. They were all sandy and salty and such, and me who was playing the water...dry! The wave was so big that it came up the shore to where people had been laying sun bathing and got them, their towels, and their clothes wet too. With that, we decided to take a walk up the hill to view the ocean from a little farther away. At the top we took lots of pictures, and the came back down to go to the bus stop. While we were walking down to the bus stop (about a 3 minute 
walk), the stupid bus passed us. I wanted to cry. But once again all you could do was laugh. When we got to the bus stop, we couldn't understand the schedule, so I walked across the street to where the trolley was stoped and asked the driver. He spoke great english, but had no clue about the bus. We decided to just take our chances and wait for a bus...anything to avoid another repeat of the trolley ride. The bus came about 30 minutes later, and we all happily piled on. We were making jokes the whole ride back about how we were going to pass the trolley even though we left 30 minutes after it did. And, sure enough, we passed it. I waved at the driver when we passed and he recognized me, laughed, and waved back. Another hilarious moment on the sintra trip! We got off the bus at the train station and shortly after, a train came. Me and this other girl had to pee really bad, but of course the bathroom at the train station was closed and gated off, and contrary to popular beilef, the train did not have a bathroom on it. I checked. By the time we got back to Lisbon, my stomach hurt so bad I could barely walk from holding it in so long. I went to the bathroom there, but my stomach continued to hurt really bad all evening. We met the other people from our group that had gone to Fatima (a catholic must see city) back at the hostel and all went to dinner together. Since it was Sunday, we had a really hard time finding a place that was still open when we went. One place let us stay and eat, and it was actually quite good food. Since my stomach was still hurting i just had chicken and potatoes. It was getting pretty late, around 11:30, and one of the guys with us, Preston, had to get on the subway to get back to the apartment he was staying at. The metro closes at 12, so he hurried and left. The rest of us went back to the hostel and went to sleep because we had to get up early the next morning and meet our cab to go to the airport and fly back to bcn. At about 1:30 we get a call from the other girl staying at the apartment saying that Preston wasn't home yet and asking if we knew where he was. Well, we hadnt heard from him either, and it only should have taken him 30 minutes max to get back, not and hour and a half. So, of course we started freaking out, but there was nothing we could do. The next morning, we still hadn't heard anything, so we had no clue what had happened, or if he was even alive. It was really scary, but we had no choice other than to just pack up and go to the airport. We got there about and hour before our flight started boarding and they weren't there yet. No problem. But then, and hour later, the plane started boarding and they still weren't there and we hadn't heard from them at all. By now we were all sick to our stomachs and pretty worried about preston. Then, when we were fixing to get in line to board the plane, here both of them come, walkin
g up like nothings wrong. We were all like what the crap. 1. Where have ya'll been? 2. Why the heck didn't you call us back last night when he got back? and 3. What happened, and are you ok? It turns out that Preston made it to the subway on time, but when he had to change lines, the other line had closed early for matinence. So he had to go out of the subway on a random part of town and figure out how to get to an apartment that he didnt have the address to in a country where he doesnt speak the language at 12:30 at night. He got on a bus and attempted to ask the driver if he went to the side of town he needed to be on and the driver said yes, and then started driving the complete opposite direction than he needed to go. So, Preston got dropped off on the opposite side of town and the bus was done for the night. He had to walk all the way back and every taxi was full when it passed him. And, he was alone at 2 in the morning, lost. No fun. Finally he made it to a bus that took him the right direction and made it back to the apartment. When he got back it was around 3:30 am. The flight back was good, I slept most of the way. A dude with super long dreds sat right in front of me and at one point i woke up and some of his dreds were laying on my knee. I almost puked, moved them, and went back to sleep. At another point, the flight attendants came by with the cart while i was sleeping, but i woke up and one of them had my leg in her hands and was moving it out of the aisle so they could get by. Talk about waking up to a surprise...a random lady holding your leg. awkward. And, yet another point, i woke up with drool all over my face and running down my chin! gotta love it. Anthony was sitting across the aisle from me and said i was definitely snoring as well. All of this in a less than 2 hour flight. When we got back we had to literally run to drop off our stuff, grab lunch on the go and run to class.
huge smile spread across my face because it was like I had stepped into a postcard. It was BEAUTIFUL! First of all it was the first I’ve seen of actual “countryside” and natural greenery since I left so that was almost heartwarming. Second, the town is in a valley of sorts with mountains and hills all around and the beach on one side. Third, there are a lot of cool castles and churches and palaces all over the city. After stopping by tourist information, we decided to go to the Park and Palace of Pena. We hopped on a bus and rode almost to the top of the highest mountain around. Talk about scary. Drivers in Portugal, and here for that matter, are insane. The road was winding all up this mountain with a drop off on one side, and only one lane, but both directions of traffic, and no speed limits. The guy was hauling and every time we would go around a corner he would lay on his horn to let people coming down to move out of the way. On one of the turns the driver didn’t honk and of course there was a car coming. It was a very near disaster, but luckily the car swerved just in time. But just barely. At the last stop we got off, and right there you had to buy tickets to get into the grounds of the palace. Once we were in, we stopped right away at a little outdoor café on the mountain. Of course we got espresso, and like always it was so good! I also had this little ham and cheese pastry thing which was good, but it kinda coated your mouth when you ate it. One of the girls with us decided to get this desert thing, but not hommade, like factory made…I don’t know what to call it. Like all our snacks, in a wrapper, but it was bread with chocolate sauce in the middle and it was so good, so we all got one! So much for just stopping for espresso. When we were done we started the trek to the top of the mountain. There was a trolley to take you there, but it was 1.50 euros so we just decided to walk. Bad idea. It was like straight up for quite a ways. It was rather funny because we were all making jokes and stuff about how we shoulda just paid 1.50. When we made it to the top it was all worth it! It was such a pretty palace and you could see so much from up there. I took a million pictures. We walked all around the place, to every spot you could go both inside and outside. By the time we were done, we were all tired and in need of some lunch. We got back on the bus and rode it into town and just got off at a random spot. We stopped at this close resturaunt and sat down. The food wasn’t really that
great, but it was alright. Then we decided to go to the beach because the pictures in our tourist pamphlet looked cool. We went to the bus stop and one of the girls with us had a map and asked the bus driver if he took us to the beach we wanted to go to. He told her no to wait for the next bus and it would. So when the next bus came, she asked again and he said no, he only went as far as the train station. On the map it looked like no buses went to the beach, only the trolley and the trolley was close to the train station so we got on the bus. At the train station we got off and started walking. It wasn’t very far at all, but when we got to the trolley stop it said they only came every hour on the hour, so we had to wait 30 minutes. When the trolley got there it was like a mad dash to get on this thing and get a seat. It started out that all 6 of us were in the same bench made for max four people, and it was rather entertaining...Bhavika was on my lap and another girl was sitting totally sideways on the edge of the seat. Then, right before we left, this couple sitting right in front of us decided to get off, so two people sat in their seat and we got to "stretch out" a little. We sat on the trolley for like 15 minutes before it started going, and for the first 10 they didnt ask for any money or anything so we were definitel
y thinking it was a free ride, and getting pretty excited about that. On of the guys even said, "everyone take note of this, it is something free in Europe...this never happens..." Not even a minute after he said that, a guy came around saying it was two euros to ride. Um. Crazy. The bus is only 1.30 and its much nicer than the trolley. But, we paid anyway, cause we had no choice. The trolley started right on time and im telling you i thought it was a huge joke when this thing started moving. Not kidding i could have walked beside it and win. seriously. At first we thought, oh we're just getting started, it will pick up. No. It didnt. About 10 minutes into the ride, it was the most hilarious thing of my life. I wish all of you could have been there to experience this moment and laugh as hard as i did, becuase words just dont do it justice. So just imagine, we're all agitated that we have to take this dumb trolley in the first place, then we have to wait 30 minutes for it, then we have to pay 2 euros, and then it is slower than a snail. Not only that, its on these really old metal tracks and the "wheels" havent been greased probably since jesus was here so about every 30 seconds, the most god-awful sound would come from the trolley. Like think of the worst squeal/squeak you can, and that was this noise. Metal grinding on metal...most likely sparks flying from the bottom of this thing. awful. At this point what other option do you have besides for laughing? About this time we were talking about how funny it would be if a bus passed us. No joke maybe 5 seconds later a bus came speeding past us. Hilarious. So we dont really know how long the trip is, and we go around this turn and the trolley starts slowing down so we are like awesome, we're almost there. Nope. It was just slowing down to slow down. About that time, a horse and buggy passed us on the road. Yes, for real. I think i might have peed my pants it was so funny. We started making jokes about how we could get out, get a coke at the market and then still get back on without even having to run for it, and other similar things. By this time we had probably been on the trolley for 15 minutes. Now some of us had this notion that the trip would only be about 15 minutes because it looked really close on the map, so we were getting ancy. But, the trolley just kept going and going and going. With no sign of beach anywhere ever. 20 minutes passes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, we start winding through people's back yards, out into the country side, 40 minutes...finally 45 minutes after we left, we arrive at the beach! What a relief to finally get off the trolley! Since we got such a good ab workout from laughing we decided we deserved ice cream. :) we went to just this little store and got magnum ice cream bars (which eva longoria is the poster girl for). I got double carmel...heaven. So good. While we were eating our ice creams we walked down to
the beach. It was real sand! (unlike the small pebbles that barcelona knows as sand). And, the waves were the biggest waves i've ever seen in my life. They were probably taller than me. Ok maybe not quite, but close. We didnt have bathing suits, so we just stood in the water. I was running back and forth kinda chasing the waves out and then running from them when the next one came in, playing around. It was really fun, but i didnt want to get my purse wet, so i walked up to give my purse to sloan, who wasnt standing with the rest of us, and just as i did, a huge wave came in and drenched the rest of them. AHAHA. it was really funny. They were all sandy and salty and such, and me who was playing the water...dry! The wave was so big that it came up the shore to where people had been laying sun bathing and got them, their towels, and their clothes wet too. With that, we decided to take a walk up the hill to view the ocean from a little farther away. At the top we took lots of pictures, and the came back down to go to the bus stop. While we were walking down to the bus stop (about a 3 minute 
walk), the stupid bus passed us. I wanted to cry. But once again all you could do was laugh. When we got to the bus stop, we couldn't understand the schedule, so I walked across the street to where the trolley was stoped and asked the driver. He spoke great english, but had no clue about the bus. We decided to just take our chances and wait for a bus...anything to avoid another repeat of the trolley ride. The bus came about 30 minutes later, and we all happily piled on. We were making jokes the whole ride back about how we were going to pass the trolley even though we left 30 minutes after it did. And, sure enough, we passed it. I waved at the driver when we passed and he recognized me, laughed, and waved back. Another hilarious moment on the sintra trip! We got off the bus at the train station and shortly after, a train came. Me and this other girl had to pee really bad, but of course the bathroom at the train station was closed and gated off, and contrary to popular beilef, the train did not have a bathroom on it. I checked. By the time we got back to Lisbon, my stomach hurt so bad I could barely walk from holding it in so long. I went to the bathroom there, but my stomach continued to hurt really bad all evening. We met the other people from our group that had gone to Fatima (a catholic must see city) back at the hostel and all went to dinner together. Since it was Sunday, we had a really hard time finding a place that was still open when we went. One place let us stay and eat, and it was actually quite good food. Since my stomach was still hurting i just had chicken and potatoes. It was getting pretty late, around 11:30, and one of the guys with us, Preston, had to get on the subway to get back to the apartment he was staying at. The metro closes at 12, so he hurried and left. The rest of us went back to the hostel and went to sleep because we had to get up early the next morning and meet our cab to go to the airport and fly back to bcn. At about 1:30 we get a call from the other girl staying at the apartment saying that Preston wasn't home yet and asking if we knew where he was. Well, we hadnt heard from him either, and it only should have taken him 30 minutes max to get back, not and hour and a half. So, of course we started freaking out, but there was nothing we could do. The next morning, we still hadn't heard anything, so we had no clue what had happened, or if he was even alive. It was really scary, but we had no choice other than to just pack up and go to the airport. We got there about and hour before our flight started boarding and they weren't there yet. No problem. But then, and hour later, the plane started boarding and they still weren't there and we hadn't heard from them at all. By now we were all sick to our stomachs and pretty worried about preston. Then, when we were fixing to get in line to board the plane, here both of them come, walkin
g up like nothings wrong. We were all like what the crap. 1. Where have ya'll been? 2. Why the heck didn't you call us back last night when he got back? and 3. What happened, and are you ok? It turns out that Preston made it to the subway on time, but when he had to change lines, the other line had closed early for matinence. So he had to go out of the subway on a random part of town and figure out how to get to an apartment that he didnt have the address to in a country where he doesnt speak the language at 12:30 at night. He got on a bus and attempted to ask the driver if he went to the side of town he needed to be on and the driver said yes, and then started driving the complete opposite direction than he needed to go. So, Preston got dropped off on the opposite side of town and the bus was done for the night. He had to walk all the way back and every taxi was full when it passed him. And, he was alone at 2 in the morning, lost. No fun. Finally he made it to a bus that took him the right direction and made it back to the apartment. When he got back it was around 3:30 am. The flight back was good, I slept most of the way. A dude with super long dreds sat right in front of me and at one point i woke up and some of his dreds were laying on my knee. I almost puked, moved them, and went back to sleep. At another point, the flight attendants came by with the cart while i was sleeping, but i woke up and one of them had my leg in her hands and was moving it out of the aisle so they could get by. Talk about waking up to a surprise...a random lady holding your leg. awkward. And, yet another point, i woke up with drool all over my face and running down my chin! gotta love it. Anthony was sitting across the aisle from me and said i was definitely snoring as well. All of this in a less than 2 hour flight. When we got back we had to literally run to drop off our stuff, grab lunch on the go and run to class.
1 comment:
Barbara Ann,I am oh so super envious of you. I am sure that the trolley ride in San Fran. doesn't even compare that one. I traveled from Napa to San Diego for 2 weeks this summer with out you and it wasnt the same. It looks amazing over seas. Have fun and take lots and lots of pics. for me!!!!
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