Lisboa, Portugal- First trip was a success!

Last weekend I went to Lisbon, Portugal with 3 of my friends and had a wonderful time! On Friday we toured all day even though it was pouring rain the entire time! Highlights include the Monastery and the Coach Museum. We enjoyed exploring the Monastery and noticing some of the elements of Renaissance art that we're learning about in Spanish Art History. The Coach Museum was really cool because it had tons of coaches that were used by royalty and they were so intricate and beautiful. That night we had a great seafood dinner (I had grilled Calamari!) and then went out to a bar called "The Docks" before returning to our hostel to go to bed.

The next day we woke up early to find that it was beautiful and sunny outside! We went to Sao Jorge's castle which was a lot of fun and then to a flea market on the street where they sold everything imaginable! They had cool pottery at one booth and already worn jeans and sweaters at one right next to it. It was a lot of fun! Then we took a train to Sintra, a wonderful fairtytale land with a gorgeous castle. We almost didn't make it because we didn't realize that we had to switch trains, but we eventually decided to get off the train when we realized it was about to move in the other direction! The King and Queen of Portugal used the castle in Sintra as their summer home and as we walked through the castle we had fun picturing them actually living there. The most interesting part was that the King and Queen had rooms on opposite sides of the castle and the guide told us that they wouldn't see eachother for 2 or 3 weeks at a time! I would definitely go back to Sintra-- we loved it.

That night we returned to Lisbon to find that it was pouring once again. After a 3 hour nap, we went out to the closest dinner place we could find. We all ordered salmon and are in agreement that it was the best salmon we've ever had! Lisbon is definitely the place to go for great seafood. After dinner we hung out in the hostel and made friends with the other people staying there. We spoke both English and Spanish with them which was fun because we were able to practice our Spanish outside of Granada!

Even though we endured a lot of rain, we had a great weekend and were proud that our first trip was a success!