La Dolce Vita: Lisbon, Portugal

Heading to the airport for Lisbon we were finally able to breath a sign of relief- our finance classes were OVER and we were about to take off for our second 10 day adventure. We arrived in Lisbon around 7 PM and hopped on a bus towards the city. Luckily for us, we happened to run into the nicest lady every who gave us great tips and helped us navigate our way towards the hostel. She had lived in Portugal until the age of 10 and currently lived in Texas, but continued to visit Portugal every year. When we got off in Rossio Square, she immediately bought us a dozen roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, claiming they were to die for. She sure was right, the chestnuts were AMAZING and I got them everyday while we were there. So, tip number one, if you ever go to Lisbon the first thing you need to do is buy some chestnuts. We said goodbye and got her email so we could tell her how our trip to Lisbon went and proceeded to our hostel. We stayed at the Living Lounge and it was like a sheik city apartment. Every room in the hostel was decorated in a certain theme and they had a chef that made a fabulous three course meal every night (with all you can drink wine), since I'm a vegetarian though I only got to hear my friends rave about the fab meals. I went exploring around the hostel, and sure enough when I walked out of a coffee shop, I saw the other group of our friends that were staying in a nearby hostel. We all met up and went out together for the night. We walked to the Barrio Alto area, tons of great bars in this part of Lisbon. Don't be shocked when you walk down the streets and get approached by sketchy men asking "Marijuana, cocaine ma'am?". I would just glare at them and say thanks but no thanks (perhaps with a bit more profanity in there). Other than this, Lisbon felt incredibly safe at night.

The next morning we woke up and did some exploring. We walked along the water and then went to St. George's castle. The strongly-fortified citadel, which, in its present configuration, dates from medieval times, is located atop the highest hill in the historic center of the city. The castle is one of the main historical and touristic sites of Lisbon. After visiting the castle, I had a quick lunch and went shopping, other than a few souvenirs for friends I tried not to splurge. Some advice that the woman we met on the train gave us was, "whenever you see a staircase in Lisbon, just go up it". And that is exactly what I did. The streets in Lisbon are amazing, all cobblestone and rarely any cars drive through so you can freely walk around without worrying about getting run over, not to mention the weather was beautiful during our visit. I went to bed early that evening, still playing catch up from the prior late night.

We'd heard from many people that we needed to visit Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage site about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon. We began our trek towards the Pena Palace, just following the signs along the way. After about 45 minutes we starting wondering when the hell we were going to get there. We stopped to ask a couple we saw walking down the the trail and it turns out we were a whole 10 km hike away from the Palace. Now, I'm a fan a half marathons but preferably not up windy steep roads. Luckily, it turns out there was a bus everyone pays to take to the top which we were able to get on.The Pena Palace has a profusion of styles much in accordance with the exotic taste of the Romanticism. The intentional mixture of eclectic styles includes the Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Islamic and Neo-Renaissance. References to other prominent Portuguese buildings such as the Belém Tower are also present. Almost the entire palace stands on rock.
The palace was fantastic, it was so eccentric and unlike any other castle or palace I've seen thus far in Europe. The outside was covered in bright purple, yellow and red tiles, and inside they had many rooms of the palace used by the Kings and Queens set up so we could envision it in the past.

Unfortunately I had to head to the hostel in order to get back by 7, I had a skype interview scheduled for a position on a committee for the Business Horizons job fair put on each year (the interview went well and I'll be working on the logistics committee starting next semester :)). After wards, Melissa and I went to the MuDE Museum, the Museum of Design and Fashion. They had fabulous outfits ranging from the 1920s onwards by world renown designers. They also had a section devoted to design was popular furniture and accessories from the 1950s and 1960s, it was like a flashback to the Brady Bunch, and I loved it! We went to sleep shortly after to get some rest before our 7:30 AM flight to Madrid!