Portugal ch. 3: Today Was A Fairytale

Hey everyone!

I know you've been hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for the next addition to my Portugal posts, but wait no longer! To refresh your memory, I ended the last post on our first afternoon in Lisbon after having left Porto. Here we go,

After we spent some time bumming around the plaza and walking into a few different stores near the shopping area (including a store called "Pull and Bear" which was like a cool version of Hollister where there were a few VERY attractive Brits standing around chatting), we headed back to the hostel to change and head to Hard Rock to celebrate Jennie's 21st birthday, which was that day.

On the way to Hard Rock we passed by one of the coolest lunar scenes I have ever seen. Behold:

(Tilt your head so the left side is the top of the page)

I didn't have my camera but I drew it in my journal that night.. and then stole this picture from Jennie once we got back home:

It was one of those moments when everyone around you has stopped and is staring at something, so you look in the direction of their gaze and your jaw drops.

There was a very long wait at Hard Rock but it was well worth the wait. I ordered a strawberry daiquiri (is that really how you spell that?) that tasted exactly like a strawberry smoothie and I have a sneaky suspicion the bartender left out the alcohol..which I guess is fine with me, it was yummy. To my surprise Jennie didn't order a drink because she'd had half a drink the night before. We had agreed on getting a fun drink while we waited for our table to celebrate her birthday but after I decided on mine she changed her mine and ordered a soda. I was a little frustrated but I wasn't going to push the issue and make it awkward. It was delicious food as always, but my twisted mac-and-cheese (which is Morgan's go-to at Hard Rock) was 11 Euro or around 15 dollars! Oh, and while we were waiting in the crowded bar area to be seated, a guy walked past us and said "hi" with a british accent, and as he passed Jennie heard his friend say "dude they're like 14!"

No comment.

The next morning was Sunday. We got up and ate breakfast at the hostel. While we ate we chatted with a couple girls from Eau Claire college in Wisconsin!! How random. After talking to them and sharing tips, we decided to head out to Sintra, the castle village about 45 minutes out from the city. We hopped on a train, I with London Fog Starbucks drink in hand ("hazelnut instead of vanilla, please") right before it pulled out of the station. We chatted about boys and political ideologies until we got to Sintra. We knew when to get off because all of the tourists on the train were getting off. When traveling and confused, always follow the tourists.

Before we go any further I should mention that Ali from last season's Bachelorette went to Lisbon with 5 of the guys and visited 3 different castles. One of the castles was multicolored and I'd seen it atop it's ginormous hill from afar while our train pulled into Sintra. I was more than excited.

We followed the tourists up a long, windy road as a horse-drawn carriage rode past us (Ali took a horse-drawn carriage all the way up to the multi-colored castle!) and we found ourselves in the middle of a fairytale village. I mean, it was lush and green with a slight chill to the air and the place was littered with palaces nestled in the rolling hills. It was beautiful. We reached the city center which was tiny and visited a tourists office to plan our day. First, we visited the King's summer home (don't ask me which king) because it was only free until 2pm.

I found two amazing things in the King's summer home.

First, Narnia's wardrobe!

Second, A GALLEON ROOM!! WOOHOO! There were no galleons in that room and my dreams of wizarding riches vanished with a sting.

Then we decided we should grab some food before walking over to the next palace. Strolling along the narrow streets to find food we passed by a café that Jennie had read about for being famous for two of Portugal's pastries. They are called "travasseros" and "quejados." One was an almond pillow and the other a sugary cinnamon cheese thing from which I tasted no cheese, only heaven. To get them we had to take a number and wait in line. We took our pastries to a café and ordered food and chatted.

Our chat turned into a conversation about what it is to be gay. You see, Jennie is a conservative Christian who goes to church every Sunday at an english-speaking church in Paris, and while I am a spiritual person I also do not agree with many dictums from organized christianity or christian churches. We had a very respectful and grown up talk, but a lot of things surprised me from our conversation. I knew she was a strict christian, she will only marry a christian and she has a tattoo to remind herself of God's love, but I don't know..somehow I thought she would think the same way that I did about this topic. I guess that was naïve of me. I quickly learned that she believes that being gay is a sin, "just like murder, it's in the bible." She also said she knows for a fact that it is something you can change about yourself because she had a friend who was a girl and dated a girl for a year, but then changed her mind and "saw the error of her ways" if you'll allow me to paraphrase, and she switched back to men. Then she went on to explain that she doesn't think politics should get into the moral issue and that the reason we should ban gay marriage shouldn't be because of religion, but only because it is causing so much tension.

The frustration was building up inside of my chest and I could feel myself frantically trying to calm myself down and find a way to respond politely while still expressing my opinion. I hate debates. I took a breath and told her that the story about her friend is ONE story, and that it's purely unscientific to take one case-study and apply it to everyone. I went on to explain to her the theory of the dimensional view of sexuality, where everyone has a place on the scale. Some people are at either end and are purely homosexual or purely heterosexual, where as there are some people that can fall anywhere in between the two extremes, and that her friend would fall somewhere in between the middle and heterosexual. She hadn't heard this theory before and I was surprised by that. I didn't make it up, I learned it. We decided our disagreement was purely based upon whether we thought our sexuality was something we could change, or something we were born with. Over the course of our conversation we had moved from the cafeteria and were walking to another summer home palace of sorts.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

I found Aslan!!! I can't share with you what he told me.

Next we caught a bus up the huge hill/small mountain to find the Moorish Castle and the Palacio Naçional de Pena (the multi-colored castle). I thought the winding walls looked a lot like the great wall in Mulan. Climbing all of these steps was very tiring and tricky to do while wearing a skirt in the high winds, but well worth it for the view.

We were told that the multi-colored palace was only a 15 minute walk up the hill from the Moorish castle, so we walked. This was the most exercise I'd had since climbing the too-small-to-be-called-a-hill hill at the Salar de Uyuni at 10,000 feet up. It was tough but I was glad for the exercise. (That exhausted picture of me above is before the hike up to the palace.)

Walking around the palace was amazing. The rooms were full of stuff to look at and admire. Jennie charged ahead in front of me so fast she didn't stop once to look at anything. I raced through the rooms in order to catch up to her when what I'd really wanted to do was take my time and marvel at things. When I caught up to her she said "there you are!" as if I'd taken my sweet time. Traveling with only one person can be tough sometimes. You can never argue because you know you're stuck with them and the awkwardness that is sure to come after an argument. I smiled silently and followed behind her. I decided to take my time looking at the hogwart's-esque kitchen with fake dead animals strung upside-down in the back pantry.

Thus ends chapter 3!!

-H.