36 hours in Lisbon, Portugal
So, we rocked up in Madrid and I had a couple of hours before I needed to head to the over night train which luckily wasn't far from the drop off point. So, I sorted out my hostel booking for Madrid (it had gone haywire and it was a stroke of luck that I double checked on arrival) and went out for tapas with a bunch of people from the bus. After a couple of failed starts, we found a great tapas bar which worked a little like a sushi train, you just choose what you want to each and they charge you based on the number of toothpicks you have at the end. So, after a quick feed, I was back off to the hostel to collect my bag and head to the train.
It was surprisingly easy to find and I had a top bunk spot in a small 4 bed cabin. There was a Chinese mother daughter duo and a German girl in my cabin. The train set off at around 10pm and the mother daughter duo went pretty much straight to bed, so the German girl and I really had to follow suit and read by bed lamp or something. The trip itself wasn't bad but I didn't sleep very well, not quite sure why but I'm sure the lurching corners and swaying of the train didn't help. We arrived early in the morning and I made my way to my hostel in the hopes of leaving my bag there till check in. The hostel was easy to find and get to and they offered to keep my bag and let me have a shower (absolute godsend!). By the time I was refreshed and dressed, they'd let me know my bed was actually empty and that I could go ahead and check in which was so good! They also let me have breakfast, which was much needed as it was about 9am by this time.
Once fed, watered and my bag installed in my room I headed out to go adventuring. I had an all day transit ticket so I got on the first tram I saw and headed off, no idea where I was going, and quickly realised I had probably wanted to go the other way. So a stop further along the way I got off, had a wander around a city park and then caught a tram back the other way. The trams are hilarious! Rattlers that hoon up and down the 7 hills of Lisbon and through the narrow streets. In fact, they are so narrow that the tram had to stop and wait for a driver to come and move their car because they had parked a couple of inches too close to the tracks and we couldn't get by.
At the other end of the tram line, packed with tourists, we arrived at The Castle of St Jorge. Perched right up on top of the hill and mostly just walls and view points it was a pretty spectacular view over Lisbon. They have a periscope/ camera obscura as designed by Leonardo Da Vinci which shows a cool 360 view of the city and surrounds including the longest bridge in Europe. After a good wander, a spot of shopping, a Portuguese Tart and some lunch, I headed back to the hostel to recharge. I ended up hanging out in a hammock for a couple of hours.
Eventually I decided I should go out to Belem and see some of their monuments and have another Portuguese tart as they apparently are the best from Belem. Annoyingly I missed out on finding somewhere open and selling tarts as it was a Monday evening and so many places are closed on a Monday. So eventually I headed back sans tart and skyped wonderboyf while listening to street performers in the square below break dance, belly dance and generally have a bit of a hip hop/ krump off. I must have been tired because I was dead to the world not long after.
The next morning I got up and put my bag in storage then headed out on a tour of the flea markets. They weren't as kooky as I'd hoped but I enjoyed pottering around and having a look at the junk people were selling. If only I could have fit the novelty penis (which I assume was a water spout/ feature) in my backpack, would have been a great Portuguese souvenir :p
After the flea markets, I went to a little local diner one of the hostel guys had recommended. I had no idea what I was doing or ordering but it was an incredibly 1950s feeling and I had some weird crumbed and deep fried sausage with chips and an egg. Not quite what I'd wanted but amusing all the same. Afterwards I headed to the train station via the street of a million stairs (happily I was going down them, not up). I caught a train out to Sintra which I'd vaguely read about and thought it sounded like a good afternoon out. 40 mins on the train and I end up in a lush, green, leafy old village with a tourist bus that runs regularly around the mountain which houses some amazing old castles and ruins.
I stopped at the Moorish Castle and bought a combined ticket for that and another castle, then realised I might be hard pressed for time. But off I went to explore the Moorish Castle. Effectively it's the remaining outer wall and look outs but my god that things had a billionty stairs! Absolutely spectacular views and you can see how it was a rather defensive position. Afterwards, I caught the bus up to the Castle Pano which was more of an 18/19th century castle but still spectacularly moorish in influence. Of course it required walking up the mega hill and more stairs to get up to it, but in all it was breath taking. I was really glad I'd bought the combined ticket and forced myself to make time to see it. The insides were very typical of the more rich and decadent dynasties, carpets and trinkets and serving ware and fancy furniture, but it was the building itself and the stunning views that I really loved. After a little over an hour I headed back down the hill to catch the bus back to the station.
I was pretty tired and had figured I was either a glutton for punishment or gunning for the title Thighs-of-Steel after my day's efforts when I realised I then had to carry my backpack back to the train and navigate my way to the over night. I got back to the hostel with a hasty dinner and they even let me have another shower which was much needed after all that climbing. So, after a short break for shower and food, I was back on my way with my pack, bound for another top bunk in a moving cabin. Happily I had some rather social cabin mates so we chatted for a while and I worked on a job application until it was entirely too late and we should definitely sleep. I slept far better on the return train, waking maybe once, probably all that castle climbing.
I arrived before I knew it back in Madrid.