Whirlwind Week One

What a first week! I would 100% come back to Portugal and I still have 15 more days to explore. My first thoughts on the country is beautiful, friendly, and a bang for your buck. With having my best friend from college, Jordan, with me this first week, I wanted to make sure she got everything she wanted to see in her time in Portugal. With that, I hate to say that I'm already feeling burnt out and I still have 51 more weeks, yikes. Though, I knew when people came to visit it would be more fast paced then when I'm was on my own. Until my siblings visit me in Ireland, I will be taking my time and maybe some days curled up with with some popcorn and Netflix.

LISBON

It is said that Lisbon is built on seven hills and boy did my glutes agree. It doesn't help that my number one rule of visiting a city is to find its highest point. Well, Lisbon had many and of course I had to check them all out. Below is the view from Miradouro da Senhora do Monte.

Also before continuing, I wanted to give a shout out to Lisbon Destination Hostel. By far to date, it was my favorite hostel to stay in (thanks Mom and Dad for my Rick Steve's Portugal Travel Guide that suggested the hostel). It is literally in an old historic train station centrally located and the staff and guests was extremely friendly.

As for touristy stuff, I hit pretty much all that the city has to offer. The only thing I didn't do was

Castelo de Sao Jorge because during my walking tour, the guide said it wasn't worth the 10 euros to get in. He said the best part is the view and you can get a better view at the spot I mentioned above. But now I can say I have explored the old city of Alfama, taken the Santa Justa Elevator, sunrised the Belem Tower, wondered through Jermonies Monastery, and partied on pink street. Below are a few pictures from the tourist sites.

We were lucky enough to hit Lisbon on a Sunday, which is the only day the LX Factory is open. Jordan wanted to see if she could find any souvenirs there. I'm trying my best to not buy souvenirs cause I will be lugged them with me the rest of the trip. But I did want a new pendant for traveling and I found the perfect one.

SINTRA

Everyone I've talked to who has been to Portugal says that Sintra is a must, plus its only a 40 minute train ride from Lisbon. The main tourist attraction of Sintra is the Pena Palace, which did not disappoint. I'm personally not a fan of other people in my pictures, so I wanted to be the first in to get some shots in beforehand. In winter, the park opens at 10 am, so we were naturally there at 9:30 am and bought our tickets before hand. When we got there, there was already about 15 people in front of us, but they all looked like tour groups. Once they opened the gates, I forced Jordan to walk briskly up a 14% incline to the castle. It paid off as we had about 20 minutes to ourselves on the terrace.

We knew we wanted to take our time exploring the grounds. We spent about 3 hours walking around the park and had a little picnic at the highest point. As we walked around we got many different view of the palace and many different type of terrain. We made it all the way across the park to realize to get to the Moorish Castle, we would have to cross back. But, it was well worth it as the Moorish Castle was definitely a cool spot to explore with some killer views, like the one below.

The next day we picked up the car to started our trek down to the Algarve, but we wanted to first drive out to the coast of Sintra. I manage to drive the winding roads on a manual car to get to Cabo da Roca as shown below. After a few pit stops, we started our jamming 4 hour drive down to the Algarve, more specifically Lagos.

LAGOS

The southern part of Portugal is known for its beaches and its nightlife. Lagos as of now is the only place in Portugal, where I feel like we were effected by the fact it was winter. The waters were a bit rough, so we didn't get to explore any caves or do anything on the water. And as for night life, the city itself was dead. We managed to find 3 open bars next to each other, but all others were closed cause it was off season. It's ok cause I would definitely be back. The beaches were breathtaking with the cliffs of the coastline and teal blue of the ocean.

Now time to explore Porto, the island of Sao Miguel and Maderia.

Click here for all photos of Portugal.