10.1.12-Happy October!!
So thanks to whoever gave me suggestions for the palace name-it didn't
tell me who wrote it haha. But I'm pretty sure it is the Pena National
Palace, I definitely remembered the Pena part, but I couldn't remember
the name (probably because it was in Portuguese!)
Anyway, now that I'm positive it was the Pena National Palace, I can
tell you all about my time there, as well as getting there! :)
I honestly didn't know what to do in Lisbon. I'll be real here, I
didn't even know what there was to do, aside from hearing beaches and
the Oceanarium. So I thought I'd beach it one day, Oceanarium the next,
and walk around the town on another day...I think I got one of those 3
things done haha.
Danielle, Amy, and Colleen were all doing this scavenger hunt through
Lisbon that SAS was hosting (it cost a lot of money and I just wasn't
too interested in it), so I didn't have anything to do the first day.
That morning, I ran into my friend Adan and he told me he wanted to go
see the Palace in Sintra. So I went with him, Eugene, and Brian for the
day. We all decided we wanted to hike up, I had been dying to hike for
a while now! But naturally, I forget just about everything I need to
hike. Hiking boots, water, snacks...I ended up buying snacks and water
and luckily I had my tennis shoes.
Little did we know that the Pena National Palace was on a mountain. So
we ran into some other SASers, who decided to take the bus up, but no,
we decided we were going to hike up to the Palace, and then hike to the
very top of the mountain to see the cross! (The name of the cross was
Santa something..)
I'll be the first to say that I'm a little out of shape. I haven't used
the exercise room on the ship because I'm afraid when a wave hits the
wrong way, I'll go flying...that would happen to me too! So it was a
pretty tough hike. It was also a good 2 hours up to the Palace. We get
there about 5 minutes after the bus who had taken our friends up did.
Which meant we had to have been at a racing speed, since we saw it drive
by us once!
The Pena National Palace was absolutely stunning. I will definitely
post pictures when I have the opportunity! It was so colorful as well!
There are bright yellows, oranges, grays, reds, everything! The
architecture was so unique, and when we went inside, it seemed like
everything was made for people who were much smaller than me! Not to
mention the decorations, but the view was breath-taking as well. We
looked upon all of Sintre, and we still had more to hike!
So we basically considered walking around the Pena National Palace
grounds our "break." Which wasn't a break because we were still going
up and down stairs, hills, everything! We quickly learned for our next
few days that everything we always want to do in Portugal and Lisbon in
general is "up a hill."
But we kept pressing onward to summit the mountain! Well, Adan is
apparently not too keen with a map, because we first ended up close to
the bottom again before we made our way back up to the Palace. We were
not happy with him haha. It's funny now that the day is over!
However, we finally made it up to the top of the mountain after another
grueling couple hours of hiking! We felt so accomplished because we had
reached the summit, and finally could rest. I have a picture of the
boys laying down on the rocks taking a nap! This was a well-deserved
nap to say the least!
After taking pictures, taking the view, and resting, the four of us then
made our descent to the bottom. But Adan, who knew he had so much
energy, because he really wanted to go to the Moorish castle. (I think
that's what it was called-it's on the same mountain as the Pena National
Palace). We humored him and went along, even though we were dead tired,
and of course, it was up another hill.
It wasn't as impressing to us, probably because we had just come from
not only the summit of the mountain, but the Pena National Palace as
well, but the view was still great! (The castle is lower than the Palace).
All in all, it was an amazing day, and I loved hanging out and hiking
with the guys! That night to celebrate we all went out to where the
locals go, and of course, it was also up a hill, but overall, it was a
great experience and I'm glad I got a chance to see it! :)
More Portugal in a little bit!
SH
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