Lisboa!

Hey everyone!! I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while...I had a lot of stuff going on and then it was midterms and I'm surprised I actually found time to catch up with you guys...
Anyways! On October 12th we left for Lisbon, Portugal at 1 am on a trai ride that took about 7 and a half hours but went directly to Lisbon. Most of the girls left on the evening of the 13th and got in on Monday at 5 am and then went to class at 9 am...I figured this wasn't the best of ideas so the other Amanda and I left Saturday night and lost a day in Lisbon but at least I got sleep!! =] The first day there we wandered around old Lisbon and saw monuments and such...

Square that was 2 minutes from our hostel!

Jerónimos Monastery - no one wanted to go inside so we didn't =[ 

All of lisbon has these cable car lines for trams and such that are their main form of public transportation.

The group!
from left to right: Michelle, Ivy, Me, Ericka, Karen, Amanda, Delaney, Erika

Delaney and I on the red bulls that we found!

Helping Delaney off the bull because they were too tall

Me outside of the Tower of Belém!

Super low ceiling in the storage room/dungeon

The brave people of the group who decided to come up in the tower! 

Me at the top..going up was terrifying and going down was even more terrifying. The steps were wide enough for one person but the traffic was two directional and there were no railings =[

Delany's friend met us back at the hostel and took us for a tour of the city in the evening

...and then we went and had dinner. Erika with an octopus leg...yes I ate it =/ 

The second day, Amanda and I  got up early and went to the train station to buy tickets to go to a little town just outside of Lisbon called Sintra. Sintra is like the fairytale town of Portugal...castles EVERYWHERE. I'm pretty sure you could spend at least 4 days here and still not see all of it. We spent an entire day there and only saw two places (3 if you count the main area of town).

After getting off the train I looked around for all the elegid castles and saw little buildings peeking up on top of a hill....I was not going to be walking up that hill so we paid 5 euros for a bus that took us up :p 

On top of the moorish castle wall looking over the town square where the last picture was taken. 

Pena Nacional Palace. The place is a UNESCO world heritage site and is one of the 7 wonders of Portugal! 

Amanda and I (along with a bird above our heads...) with a view over the western part of Portugal with a bit of the ocean!

The grounds of the Palace have some wonderful gardens...which are more like woods but it was gorgeous back in the woods. Even though I got us lost because Amanda wanted to see some stuff and I wanted to see other stuff =/ oops! 

Thought the cross looked oddly celtic for being in Portugal...

Mini freak out when I saw how big the spider was. =[

Palace of the Ducks

 Anyways! I'm hoping to catch up with the rest of my blog posts today or the rest of the week because I'll be going to Rome on Thursday and then I have 4 weeks left here.

Love you all!!