By this time I had been in Lisbon for two full days and was having a blast. I then got knocked on my ass by the bar crawl on the second night. Not getting back till 4am was rough, what was worse was trying to get out of bed the next morning and not miss out on a day in a beautiful city. My original plan for that Sunday, my third day, was to take the train to Sintra, a town that is about 40 miles or so North West of Lisbon. This was changed because I didn’t get out of bed until a little after noon. The train to Sintra was going to take about 45 minutes and there were two major sites I wanted to see so I knew I would not have enough time.

                I decided to stay in the city instead and opted to visit the Castle of Sao Jorge. This castle is located in the center of the city (for the most part) and on top of a tall hill (taller than all the other tall hills in Lisbon). The castle itself wasn’t what most would think of as a castle, but more like a really large fort. The views from the top of the city were incredible, you could get 360 from the port all the way past the center of Lisbon. It was nice to wander the castle, climbing the steps to walk along the walls and seeing what new view of the city I would get. I fell in love with using a fake film app on my phone that makes the photos look like they were taken on 35mm film.

                Once the temperature dropped and the wind really picked up, I headed down and back to the hostel. I ended up chilling at the hostel for the rest of evening, sitting on the roof top and planning my next day.  I would take the train to Sintra no later than 10:30am. I booked a timed ticket to the Palacio da Pena, the most famous castle in Sintra, for 12:30pm. Once I saw the palace I would head to Quinta da Regaleira, a small mansion with beautiful grounds and structures.

                That next morning, I stuck with my plan, I made it to Rossio station to buy a ticket for the train and barely made it because the line for tickets was so long. Most people didn’t understand how the super easy to use ticket kiosk worked. I luckily made the 10:01 train. If I hadn’t, I would have had to wait till almost 10:40 for the next one. The train ride was pleasant even though the train stopped at about twelve different stations before finally pulling into Sintra. The route to Sintra was full of buildings and city scapes, no rolling country land that close to the city.

                Upon arriving in Sintra the first thing to tackle was determining how to get to the Palacio da Pena and what time I should leave for the palace by. The palace is located about 4.7 miles away from the city center of Sintra. I would have considered walking only the palace is located at the top of a mountain of steep hills. When I put the route in my gps, it estimated it would take me almost two hours to walk. I would have missed my entry and I had no desire to walk that far up such steep terrain. I’m all for saving a few euros if it means walking but I do draw the line somewhere.

                That left three options: take a taxi (which would have cost almost 25 euros one way), a tuktuk, or pay for a local bus ticket for the day that would allow me to get on and off the bus at certain stations for 24 hours. This was the option I chose. Because I was also going to Quinta da Regaleira the bus option was more practical, seeing how I would probably ride the bus at least three times. The tuktuk was not practical because the drivers were charging ten euros for one way. While walking down to the city center is better than going up, it’s still not a favorable walk.

                I hopped on the bus early and figured I would walk about the palace park before my ticket entry to the actual palace. Luckily the ride was only 20 minutes because by the time we had gone about half a mile I was feeling motion sick from the jerking motions of the bus and the winding, steep roads. But as soon as the bus crested the hill toward the palace I knew something was wrong. There was a massive queue of people lined up along the road and the palace wasn’t even in site. The bus driver let us know that this was the end of the queue for the palace and that we should get off there, even though the entrance was a good quarter mile away.

                Once off the bus some inquiry led me to discover that the palace had been closed in the morning for a government event, they would not open the gates till 12:30. I found this out around 11:50 which meant I still had a good forty minutes. I joined the queue because the gates to the park were closed as well. Then began the wait. Everyone waiting in line was quite bored so I made pretty fast friends with the people in front of me, a young French couple and an older American couple. I discovered that the American couple, named Ed and Kay, were from Charlotte, NC like me. It was such a coincidence to find someone from the same city in a small town in Portugal.

                Once it hit 12:30 and the park opened, Ed, Kay, I entered together and opted to walk up to the palace instead of waiting for the bus inside the park entrance that would take you up the steep hills to the top. The park claimed it was a thirty minute walk to the palace entrance but it took us maybe ten minutes. Being some of the first people in the park meant we didn’t have to queue long to enter the palace courtyards. It was stunning to walk around and marvel at the mosaic tiles that lined the walls. The palace was colorful, painted a bright yellow that contrasted nicely with the red clock tower of the chapel within its walls.

                Entrance to palace let us gain access to the grounds and terraces. We got to walk through the inside and see the rooms that used to house the last official king of Portugal. While there was stone work all along the outside of the palace, there was almost none on the inside, it was all illusion paint for work to save money. By the time I had my fill of the palace and explored all I could I headed out and discovered just long the queue was now. While it took use maybe ten minutes to enter the palace grounds and then no time to see the interior of the palace, the queue was now over an hour long to enter to interior of the palace. I felt incredibly lucky. The interior of the palace was nice, but not worth an hour wait.

                When I exited the park, I debated waiting on my bus or just walking straight to the Quinta. The walk would be about 40 minutes downhill, and while I wasn’t opposed to that, I had already paid for the bus for the whole day and didn’t want to waste euros (the bus was 12.50 euros). I decided to squeeze on the bus and I made it to the Quinta much faster than if I had walked. I had my doubts about whether or not I would be able to fit on the bus since so many people were trying to get on.

                The Quinta da Regaleira was much less crowed than the Palacio da Pena. I also bought my ticket online for this park and was able to walk on through with no queue. The park is massive and confusing to figure out. There are many structures and buildings to see and while there is one main path that winds through the park and connects them, there are also smaller paths that intersect and lead to new parts of the park, so you might think you are following the circuit in a clockwise fashion and then realize you are in a completely different part because you deviated to look at something.

                The main draw of the Quinta is a spiral well that is covered in moss. From the outside the structure looks like a bunch of rocks covered in moss, but there is a small entry into the rock pile that reveals a spiral staircase that winds down the walls to the bottom of the well. The well was beautiful and really cool. It was difficult to take pictures because the workers of the park keep the queue moving so people don’t have to wait a really long time to experience the well. I liked this idea but it also made me feel rushed and unable to fully appreciate the architecture of the structure I was walking through.

                I got lost multiple times in the park, wandering from fountains, to lookouts, to gate posts, and eventually the chapel and mansion. There was beautiful stone work on the chapel entrance, similar to the Jerome Monastery. I am entranced by chapels, particularly the stone work so of course I paused for a while to admire the little chapel that probably couldn’t hold more than thirty people.

                The mansion was quite regal on both exterior and interior. It’s commonly referred to as a palace, but the size puts it more as a mansion for a rich Barron living in the hills of Sintra.  I was getting tired by the time I finally worked my way through the entire park so I walked back to the city center to check out the shops and grab a bite to eat. I didn’t want to wait for the bus this time and it was a much quicker walk (ten minutes). I found a small like café down a tight alley where I enjoyed a snack and a ½ litre of Sangria. Fresh Sangria has to be one of favorite things about Portugal and Europe in general.

                I of course ran into one last issue the next morning when I departed from Lisbon to make my way to Madrid. I didn’t check the time on the metro and just assumed it would be open when I left my hostel around 6am. It was not. The metro did not open until 6:30 and I needed to be at the airport not later than 6:30 so I would have enough time for security and to possibly check my bag. I quickly made my way back to the hostel to use the wi-fi to order an uber who showed up in two minutes and got me to airport in 15. He might have run some red lights I did not ask him but by hey, he got me there faster than the metro would have. Lesson learned, check the hours the metro runs.

                Lisbon was a dream and I can see why so many people fall in love with the city so quickly. It’s a big city that still feels like an old town. There are plenty of nearby towns for great day trips, and the public transportation is cheap and reliable (granted you check the times). I am glad I got the chance to visit Lisbon and it will be added to list of places I would readily visit again.