Day 7: Metros and Models and Fishies, oh my!

The struggles continued in Lisbon after we returned from Sintra. Basically, public transit sucks (and those who know me know that it pains me to say this because I LOVE the metro). At least, once you're on it and have the info you need, you are good to go, but it's the paying for your ticket and finding the station you need and any other sort of information that is impossible. Which means we may have gotten some free bus rides because we had no idea how to get ticket. Oops.

We were also unable to meet up with Carissa's cousin who was coming in on a cruise because the information we did find didn't turn out to be reliable. And then we tried walking but the terminals are 2.5 miles away so... yeah. It was truly a case of the Mondays.

Also, it seems like everything in Lisbon is closed on Mondays so we improvised by making ourselves into the art. Carissa and I were the models and Eric stood in as photographer! This is us turning a negative into a positive :)

These are our three attempts at getting a jumping picture in front of the Monastery of Jeronimos...

They didn't quite work out so we switched to leap frog. Then gangnam style (ride your pony!) in front of the horses, and Eric in front of the Monastery

Carissa and I in front of the Monastery

The Monument of Discovery, and then Carissa and I playing on a sculpture outside of the modern art museum

The Tower of Belem calls for a wheel barrow race, Carissa says baby got back

Can you spot us?

Fun in front of the gate at Rossio, aka our fails at trying to get a cute "sitting down" picture

We then walked around the Rossio district that our apartment was in. I got into trouble by going into yet another Zara and this time I didn't come away empty handed. Score one for the home team. Eric is also offered pot multiple times by men on the street. I'm not sure what this says about him haha.

After that we headed over towards the bus station and the Oceanarium that Lisbon built for the 1997 World Exhibition. If I had any sort of ability to learn science I so would have been a marine biologist so this was fun for me! I may have taken a lot of photos of fishes.

This jellyfish was technically not part of the aquarium but scary enough it warranted a photo. Watch out for the seas in Lisbon! We also made friends with a scuba diver.

SEA TURTLESSSSSSS. And coral. It's pretty.

(hums jaws theme) and duckie!

Penguin exhibit made me think of Happy Feet

These otters were too cute. And were such show offs. Not that we minded!

Carissa and I in the rainforest, and that thing that killed the Crocodile Hunter

Can you spot the fish? And we found Dory!

Who says only little kids can have fun in gift shops?

The Oceanarium from the outside. 

Following the Oceanarium, we have LOADS of time to waste until our bus to Seville, and what do you know, there is a shopping center conveniently located right next to it! I may have made my second purchase, but this time at Mango--my second favorite store. I'm back in my happy place.

However, we still have 2.5 hours so we get gelato (7 days in a row mind you), buy water, and stake out the bus station. We decide that the terminal right underneath the bus station looks like the Ministry of Magic from Harry Potter. However, once night starts to fall it becomes the Ministry of Hobos so we decide to take ourselves back above ground.

Ministry of Magic Hobos

And finally we are off on our oh so not comfortable over night bus ride to Seville!

Day 6: The Struggle Train and Sintra

Getting on that midnight train to Portugal... Well it was really more like the 10pm train (details). But anyways, at this moment in time we are still on said train and it is about 3 hours late. Why, you might ask? Because there are forest fires along our route.

We have apparently been stopped since about 4am and only just now began to move again. And as we are on our way we are passing by the fires that hopefully have been contained but seen yet put out. We can see the fire trucks next to the tracks working to tame the flames. We can also smell the smoke and feel the heat. It's a very weird experience. 

So now we'll be getting to Lisbon closer to 11am which is sad because it cuts into our time to see the palaces in Sintra. But we gotta roll with the punches....

We have now disembarked in Lisbon and the struggles have continued. First we missed where we should have gotten off the train because it was only stopped for a few minutes and by the time we had our luggage down and ready to go, the train was moving again! Needless to say this was unexpected. So on to the next station which meant we had to make a new plan. This one involving the metro to get to the train station that would take us to Sintra. And after struggling with the ticket machine, we were off! 

Once we arrive at the train station we are then tasked with storing our luggage. Thank goodness there were enough lockers open so that was easily handled, as was our ticket. So we walked to get on the train and as soon as I get on the doors start closing behind me... Without Eric and Carissa on board! So I channel my inner superman and try to hold the doors open and force them wide enough for them to get in. Success! They are through, we sit down and I massage my arm where I know I will soon have a bruise. We also managed to not sit by the smelly man who was behind us in line so another success! There won't have to be a repeat of what Channing and I did when we were in Monaco. 

We settled in for the short ride to Sintra and I am so glad we went on this day trip. The palaces/mansions/ruins were so cool! We only had time to hit the three we were most interested in but it was so worth it! We also probably climbed our booties up more stairs than I can even count. Seriously. We started at the bottom and worked our way up to the top of the mountain.

The first spot was the Quinta de Regaleira and it was a fabulous mansion complete with some beautiful grounds. It even had these really cool tunnels that went underneath the building and connected you to other parts of the property. And I only banged my head once! Which made Carissa fear I would get a concussion (silly woman) but nope, not even a scratch this time! The Regaleira also had this really cool well that you could climb up and see down.

The Initiation Well, One of the towers, and the Mansion

Next was the Palacio de Pena which basically looks like Medieval Times. No joke. It was pretty awesome and even was brightly colored--and we all know how I love bright colors. It also gave us some awesome views of downtown Sintra and some of the other sites, making it well worth the hike to get up there.

Right outside the main gate, looking up at the palace, and enjoying the colors

And last was the Castelo dos Mouros, which is an old Moorish castle or the ruins of an old castle. It also gave us some awesome views because it was on a peak opposite the Pena palace (more climbing mind you). And getting to the top of these ruins was not easy because these stairs have no rails so if you fall, you fall. Which was kind of scary. We also decided that it resembled the Great Wall of China from some angles, so it had that going for it, too.

The Mouros from various angles :)

Once we climbed back down it was onto the bus and headed back to Lisbon. We have a full day tomorrow and are trying to cram a lot in before our bus to Seville. Wish us luck!

And for the rest of the lovely pictures from Sintra, click to

Day 4-5: Cerralbo, Segovia, and San Lorenzo

Apologies for the lack in blog post yesterday. The lack of internet and overnight trains will do that to you! So in order to not get too behind, I am going to combine Days 4 and 5. But don't worry, it won't be too long because we didn't do anything too terribly exciting over those two days :)

On Day 4 we went to visit the Museo del Cerralbo. It's a Marquis's home and boy did he collect a lot of stuff! Needless to say he was very rich and used that money to buy antiquities which I enjoyed seeing. He had stuff from the time of the ancient egyptians to the times of Christ to the 1900s. Fascinating stuff I tell you!

The grand staircase, the formal ballroom, and a study

Ancient antiquities: Egyptian head from 1st millenium BC, Samurai!, Roman sculpture from 2nd century AD

After that we took a train to Segovia, a little town 30 minutes from Madrid. It's known for the Roman Aqueduct and it's Alcazar. We started off grand by getting lost and going the wrong direction but it was totally so we could climb those 92 stairs and get a workout. After that we beelined it for the Alcazar and took the tour. It had some great views of the town and a really cool/creepy moat way far below. We also had time for the Cathedral so we took a pit stop and did a little look around. Then it was time to get back to Madrid have some dinner!

Atop to Alcazar looking into the town of Segovia, the facade of the Alcazer

The great cathedral and the Aqueduct!

The next day we slept in a bit and went to El Escorial where the Monastery of San Lorenzo is located. And it is HUGE. Seriously, very large. And even after visiting it is unclear to us whether it's actually a holy place or a summer palace for the royals. Maybe it was both? But I digress, the most interesting part was definitely the crypt the kings and queens of Spain were buried. We took the stairs down under the cellar not knowing what we were about to see only to stumble into a marvelous room of marble and gold with the names of the rulers on caskets.

After San Lorenzo we headed back to the apartment to pack up and get ready for our overnight train to Lisbon. We had some free time so I thought about shopping but didn't end up going, my Mom would be so proud! So we cleaned up, packed up and headed to the train station!

Next stop Lisbon! (and I promise, since I'm posting this after our first day in Portugal, there will be TONS of pictures for the next post!)

And here are some of the other photos from Day 4 and 5:

Day 3 (bonus): The Pets We Leave Behind

As many of you know, both Carissa and I left some cats behind but I haven't heard anything interesting about what Watson has been up to (feel free to give me an update Jody!). However, Carissa got some interesting texts from her sister about Scabbers, the crazy stray she's adopted.

Apparently Scabbers has been making sacrifices to encourage Carissa to come back home. Needless to say, this has not been something Timeri has enjoyed. And with that I give you the pictures below...