Have You Seen Sintra?

Good morning Portugal! Our cab driver dropped us off at a bus station in Elvas, Portugal. I mean - when there's a town in the world called Elvas, how can you pass it up? For good measure, Deb and I ate a jamon y queso so that we could leave our mark on the sleepy town.

So we hopped on the bus and rode for 4 hours to get to Lisbon. I would show you pictures from the bus ride, but I was sleeping so I didn't even see most of it myself. Sorry kids. We checked into the Lisbon Marriott, got our bearings and headed to Sintra, a little town just about 20 minutes north of Lisbon. So if you ever go to Portugal, this little town is a must see! So picturesque and very quaint! At the top of the very large hill in town, there is an ancient Moorish castle that makes you feel like Gargamel will start chasing after you any second..

And just underneath it is the National Palace - with these two very odd cone things on it, which - come to find out, is where the kitchen is. I just like to think of it as being extremely feminine.

One Grecian Urn....
trickle trickle trickle

Everything in Sintra looked like a fairy tale. Even higher up than the Moorish castle is the Pena Palace, which was the home to the royal family of Portugal before they were run out of town in the 1930s and killed (at least I think that is what happened.) And here is a picture for you.

I'm glad that wikipedia had a good picture from a distance because when you're walking up, this is the first glance you get...

Hello, Disneyland! This place was a lot like Hearst Castle - meaning that someone had way too much money and built pointless (but cool!) things like this:

Or this.

Ahoy, Matey!

I wish I could think of more witty things to say to you about Sintra, but nothing all too exciting happened that day. I think that Scott saying "I think Steph needs a Coca Light" explains a lot. So Scott and Deb went out that night on the town in Lisbon and Steph was asleep in bed at 9:30pm. Yay for sleeping. For those who know me well, I'm the worst faker EVER, so when I'm tired and grumpy, I have a really hard time hiding it. And this grumpy pants needed some sleep and some clean clothes. And to close this post, I'd like to thank the laundry service at the Lisbon Marriott for helping a sister out.