Spring Break: Part Trois

The view from our hostel

Sintra was amazing and one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.  We took a train there from Lisbon and walked up the winding road to the center of town, passing tiny colored buildings along the way.  We first checked into our hostel, which was brand new and was refreshingly clean, and then walked into the center of town.  Sintra is known for its many castles, and we wanted to hit two that day.  We took a bus to the first castle--called the Moorish Castle.  It was originally an army fort, and it had these amazing stone walls that you could walk along across several hills.  Then we took the bus to another castle.  This one was called the Pena Castle, and it is what Disney modeled their castles after, which totally makes sense to me after seeing it.  The outside is the coolest part with the multicolored pastels.  Well, the view's pretty awesome too.

Moorish Castle

The view from the Moorish Castle

Pena Castle

View from Pena Castle (the Moorish Castle is on the top of the hill to the right!)

Then we came back into the little town and went out to dinner at a spot recommended by the guy at the desk of our hostel.  It was one of the best dinners I have had in Europe so far.  We had some kind of fish/potato mix with a lot of really good sangria.  We gave our waiter a 10% tip at the end of our meal, and he was so shocked that he told us that we must take shots of ginja (this cherry liqueur that is big in Portugal) with him.  So, along with the other waiters in the restaurant as well, took mini shots!  It was tons of fun.  Then we got back to the hostel and watched Chocolat in our comforters on the couch (the perfect way to  end an evening...).  

The next day we headed off to Barcelona to meet up with Hildy (from CC) and a bunch of other people from AUP.  The highlights of Barcelona were walking around the oldest part of the city (Barrio Gotico)  which has these irregular pedestrian streets.  We went to some very cool markets that sold everything imaginable.  We went to Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe and to a very cool park with an amazing concrete mastodon statue, of which Hildy and I had a very difficult time trying to climb the trunk...  We went to the Olympic Park and walked around the futuristic plaza.  We also saw a bunch of Gaudi--we went to Park Guell and Sagrada Familia (the cathedral).  The cathedral was amazing and had these huge tree-like columns and wonderful stained glass.  He built it so it would have to be worked on for several generations to come, so it won't even be finished for many years!  The last night, we went to one of Hildy's favorite restaurants and had some Spanish food that was amazing.  My favorite was a Spanish tart, which was kind of like a quiche.  Then we went to a cool bar, with what was supposed to be live music but ended up being a dj.  We still had lots of fun because the venue was sweet.  Then we went to a club on the beach for a bit and danced.  All in all it was a wonderful trip!  We saw and did so much cool stuff, although I am happy to be back in Paris now for a bit...

one of the markets!

Barrio Gotico

The view from the Gaudi park--Park Guell

The inside of Sagrada Familia Cathedral