Last day!

Hello everyone!

I'm sitting in the hostel at the moment and soon we will be heading off to the airport!

Today we caught the famous number 28 tram around the city. It was very interesting seeing it go through the narrow streets and whiz down the hills!! A tiny little tram! We were lucky to get a seat.

Afterwards we just strolled around town. We sat near the beach and enjoyed the beautiful weather, then had lunch at a little bakery. We have €16 left for our airport train tickets and then some chocolate at the airport - woo!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for reading for the past 10 weeks! I can't believe how fast it has gone and I've really enjoyed writing this blog to keep everyone updated. I hope you have all enjoyed reading it! I like being able to put pictures up while I'm over here so friends and family don't feel so far away!!

Have missed all of you and can't wait to be back in the best city in the world with all of my favourite people! And also can't wait to have a cheese and Vegemite sandwich! Hahaha!

Love to all,
Until next time (hopefully May-June next year!!),
Claire
Xoxoxox

See you SOON!!! :)

Sintra

Hi everyone!

Today was our last full day here and it was a fantastic one!!

We caught the train to Sintra, a hilly town about 40 minutes away from Lisbon that is where all the royals used to build their summer residences. When the revolution occurred they all up and left and as a result there are perfectly preserved buildings full of gorgeous old furniture there!

There are so many palaces there but we decided to do the main three - the National Palace of Sintra, the Moorish Castle and the National Palace of Pena. The Sintra one was really nice, I loved all the azulejos (tiles). I'm a bit obsessed and took lots of photos of them!! I also really like the camellia exhibition they had on in the gardens. The flowers were so colourful! And we were once again lucky with the weather as it was 15 and beautiful and sunny!

Next we caught the bus to the Moorish Castle. The hill is ginormous so they run a tourist circuit bus around to all the castles. When we were on the bus someone said 'Is that a hawthorn scarf?!' to billy, and we made instant friends with an Aussie couple who have moved to London and are travelling around. I love that about Aussies. We can be anywhere in the world and our football teams bring us together! They were really nice, we talked the whole way and then stayed with them for a bit at the castle before splitting up.

The castle was amazing! It was ruins of walls and towers, but the views were breathtaking. Because it was a clear day you could see really far in the distance including the ocean and neighbouring hills. So beautiful! It was very windy though!

We walked from here to the Palace of Pena which also had really beautiful views and lovely antique furniture and tiles. The gardens are meant to be good too but due to the bad weather the other day (there was a thunder storm at night) a lot of trees were down so some of the garden was closed. Never mind!!

We got the bus back down to the town centre and had a chocolate shot of ginga (again that Portuguese drink) and then billy had a port wine slushie. Everything is ridiculously cheap here. Those were all €1, and we had a delicious lunch at the Palace of Pena and paid about $30 Aussie total for a baguette and fries each as well as a big Caesar salad and a drink each at a lovely restaurant! Going to be a shock going back to Australia and paying lots more for food!

Tonight we packed up all our stuff and then had a really nice dinner at a small restaurant in Alfama. Again ridiculously cheap. $40 Aussie for 2 main meals, a starter, an appetiser (bread and dips) and drinks. Woo!

Tomorrow we are just going to relax around the city centre near the hostel and then head off to the airport at about 3pm (2am Melbourne time). Our flight leaves 5am Melbourne time. I will post one last time tomorrow about what we get up to :)

Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox

St George's Castle, Alfama area and market, Queluz Palace

Hello all!

Today we started our day at 2 lookouts in the Alfama area. We just sat and watched the world go by for a little bit and then went to St George's Castle. It's an 11th century castle of which only ruins and some walls remain. We had a great time looking at the canons surrounding the castle and climbing up all the towers and walking the castle walls!! There were peacocks everywhere up there too which was strange!! And it was VERY windy!!

Next we got a bit lost in Alfama because this suburb has lots of windy streets! But eventually we found our way to the Saturday flea market where there were a lot of people and lots of cool junky items! It was right behind the National Pantheon church.

We had an ice cream in the sunshine and then caught a regional train to Queluz, a suburb where there is a royal palace that was the summer residence of the royal family and was built in the 18th century. We saw beautiful old furniture and rooms and also really enjoyed the gardens! We had a hot drink and a pastry each in the cafe and then walked amongst the orange trees, sunshine and fountains.

Tonight we are going to a piri piri restaurant for dinner!

Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox