After my lesson, I got to Braga station in good time for the 13:06 ALFA to Lisbon. Except that the ALFA trains (or the people who drive them!) were on strike and thus they were not coming to Braga. So I had to get the slowest Urbanos train in the world to Campanhã, followed by a slow Intercity train to Lisbon. Instead of arriving at 16:30, I got there at 18:00.
I made my way to my hostel and quickly realised that I had forgotten to pack any toiletries. Nothing that couldn't be rectified by a trip to Pingo Doce, but an annoyance nonetheless. In Pingo Doce I got distracted by jelly (yes, jelly!) and came out forty minutes later with said jelly but without the toiletries. FFS! Cue (or should that be queue?!) another trip. Nearly an hour later – I had picked rush hour, after all – I finally had some toiletries. The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful.
The next morning, having gotten up nice and early, I walked to Rossio station and got the train to Sintra. That was the easy bit. It should be noted that a trip to Sintra will involve lots of walking, the train station being a 15-minute walk from town. As soon as I reached Sintra proper, I saw Palácio Nacional de Sintra, and was... disappointed. It didn't look the picture in my book (probably because the picture in my book was actually Palácio da Pena, but I didn't know that then) – it looked quite unpalacial, quite ordinary. Being Sunday, it was also free to enter which accounted for the crowds.
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| Palácio Nacional de Sintra |
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| Magnolia blossom |
Having suddenly realised the error of my ways, I cut my losses and went to wait for the #434 bus which would take me to Palácio da Pena. Unfortunately, hundreds of others had the same idea and it was a sardine-like journey to the palace. Once at the palace the crowds seemed to thin out a bit and I had room to breathe. And take photos.
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| Palácio da Pena |
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| The wedding-cake like façade |
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| The entrance |
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| Arched walkway |
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| Straight out of a fairytale |
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| Window to the world |
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| Stunning views |
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| Detail of the building |
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| View of Castelo dos Mouros from the palace |
A couple of hours later, having taken in the palace views, I walked down the hill to Castelo dos Mouros, the Moorish castle. By now, the place was mobbed and I was beginning to regret my decision to ever come. And then I almost got pushed off a narrow walkway by a hefty tourist who seemed to think she had right of way!
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| One of the many towers |
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| View from the castle |
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| The Great Wall of... er, Sintra |
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| Section of the wall |
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| Still standing after all these years |
After a while, the weight of my backpack, and the heat of the sun became too much and I decided to get the bus back to Sintra. No such luck. There was no bus. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, thirty minutes passed. No bus. The crowd was growing, both in size and agitation. I couldn't help but notice that he hefty tourist who'd almost knocked me off the walls earlier had positioned herself at the top of the queue, no doubt done by shoving others aside. I was beginning to sincerely regret this whole trip. Over an hour after I had reached the queue, a bus finally turned up. I was among the seven or eight passengers who got on it. The rest would have to wait for the next one. I think I would have cried if that were me...
By the time I got back to Sintra, I realised I would have no chance whatsoever of getting to Lisbon in time to catch the 16:00 ALFA to Porto, so guessing that there being a slightly later Intercity train, I walked the five minutes to Quintas de Regaleiro, a large old estate. Almost immediately I began to flag, and having half-heartedly located a few places of interest I dragged myself back to Sintra train station.
Back in Lisbon, after a brief pause in Rossio for a Starbucks, I walked for what seemed like miles to Santa Apolonia, only to find that there were no Intercity trains... and that the next ALFA was at 19:00. FML. With an hour-and-a-half to kill, I did what anyone with any sense would do – put my bag into storage, walked the ten minutes back to Baixa and treated myself to a gorgeous but overpriced piece of jewellery!
The train journey passed quickly enough, but on arriving in Porto, I realised that I would have over an hour's wait till the next train, which would get me home at gone midnight. Tired and fed up, I bought some celebrity gossip magazines, caught a train to São Bento, and walked to the Mercure Hotel to ask if they had any rooms. I was in luck and within five minutes I was sprawled on a lovely double bed, reading my trashy magazines...
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