lisboa

so portugal is pretty cool...before i came back to oxford for my second term, i went to portugal for three days, and it was a great trip. we spent the entire time in lisbon (lisboa in portugese), the capital, but did take a day trip one day to sintra. lisbon was like other european capitals in many ways, but was also really unique. it is right on a river and the atlantic ocean, which was gorgeous; there was great architecture, reflecting the same moorish influence as in spain; the weather was nice and relatively warm compared to the rest of europe (low 50's and sunny); the hostel was really cool; and it was just overall a good time. seeing as their aren't a ton of really famous sights to see in lisbon, and really all of portugal for that matter, we were able to see a ton of things. the first day we were there, we saw this really cool castle/park over looking the city, and we explore the old part of town, this cool neighborbood with a lot of character, called the alfama. over the next few days, we walked down the river, saw a few cool churches, a sweet monastery, and some cool towers with awesome lookout points/panaromic views (which i am definetely a sucker for). the day trip to sintra was also really awesome. the town itself wasn't that big or impressive, but we did some hiking up this mountain to a palace and old castle ruins overlooking the ocean, which were gorgeous! overall the trip was awesome, a lot of fun, and i got to see another part of the world that i would not have gone to otherwise. the only things that were decent, not bad but decent, were the food and the hospitality. the food was really average and every night we had small, unfilling, and unsatisfying dinners, which resulted in us going to the hard rock for a second dinner...but that's not all bad...then the only other slight disappoint were the people. in general the portugese are known for not being a very accomodating people, especially to americans who don't know the language, and actually we didn't really have any major problems, but the people just weren't that friendly...nonetheless, it was a great trip and i am really happy i ended up going (if i ever sounded like it wasn't that great in talking about it right after, it's just because i was comparing it to switzerland and i have since learned that that's a terrible idea. don't do it.)....anyways, portugal was really cool and unique and a great welcome back to europe....