Southern Europe

An early morning bus trip to Sintra wasn't quite enough to dodge the crowds that appeared to flock to the National Palace of Pena, but i didn't plan the day as best i could have. Firstly, I should have headed straight to the Palace and made my way down the hill, slowly seeing things as I go. Instead, I wandered around Sintra before finding myself at the bottom of the hill, looking up a small but beautiful hike to the castle that overlooks the town. After a couple of hours wandering through the beautiful forest, I realised that the Palace would likely need to be booked in advance, but without a sim card, there was nothing I could do to organise myself. I, therefore, had to wait and hope for the best. Eventually, I arrived at the castle, and I was lucky enough they had wifi for visitors, but the next available time for the Palace was at 3 o'clock. A solid 2 and a bit hours from the current time. This was annoying as it wasn't going to take me 2 hours to see the castle, but it meant I could take my time. Matt and Nina were also supposed to arrive in Lisbon around 4, so I was going to be late catching up with them. It's a shame, but we had all night to hang out. It turns out the castle was very interesting but not quite large enough to drain anymore time than maybe an hour. They had an audio guide and some cool information pieces, and most importantly, some wifi so I could actually listen without a sim card. The thing I like most about these castles is the unrestricted access you get. You can walk all along the perimeter of the narrow walls, never far from the edge that leads to a 3 or 4 meter drop. Something that would not happen in Australia. But it adds to the immersion of the site. It was cool to see the colourful palace up the mountain a bit further, too. A slightly drizzly day, the castle and the Palace stood out amongst the forest with a mist covering parts of the city. Really felt like it was medieval times. After killing as much time as possible here, it was time to get to the palace, although i was early, it mentioned that you can access the gardens any time. I figured I could kill some time here, too. But, it ended up being tiny. I took the long path to the palace around the forest a bit more, but I was still about 30 minutes early.

To my surprise people were already queued, so I joined. As a result, I was still quite close to the front, but I was due to do a lot more waiting, unfortunately. When 3 o'clock hit, the queue moved quickly, but this was misleading. It was simply just us walking up the pathway to join the queue from the last time period. Once here, we waited for ages. Then we finally got to the door to enter the Palace, I downloaded an app to give me an audioguide, but this required wifi or data throughout the whole Palace, which I didn't have. Even once my ticket was scanned, security wouldn't let me through because all the rooms were too full - so more waiting. This should have prepared me for my biggest pet peeve, and the most annoying part of the day. The hallways are incredibly narrow, maybe 2 people wide, so even once inside it was basically just one large queue to get all the way around and some people take fucking ages to take pictures or read all the information on the boards. I was pretty fucking over it by this point, but I couldn't pass people. The tour guides are the worst because people have to crowd close to hear the guide but then no one can pass and everyone is basically forced to participate in the tour, even though it may be in Chinese or some shit. I eventually used any opportunity to pass people. I'm not sure if people would be pissed as it basically was one big queue, but whenever I could, I would walk around the outside and just jump ahead. I was out of patience. Not to mention the shit inside the building did not excite me in the slightest. It was just medieval furniture. I guess it gave an insight into their wealth and how they lived, but a quick walk through gave the exact same experience. Perhaps if I did this in the morning, I would have had more patience and more space to enjoy it, but I was gunning for the exit shortly after entering. This is only the second time I have been in a situation like this, the first being the Vatican museum. The best part of the castle was the outside anyway. I didn't care what was inside, so I rushed to get outside and see what that was like. This was much more interesting, and although small, I found this to be much cooler. But then I was forced to deal with my second largest pet peeve, couples getting photos and taking up the whole path. So you either sit and wait while they take photos or just blatantly walk righting front. Luckily, most are quick, but if they're taking too long, I'm walking through. I don't care if I ruin your photo. Self obsessed cunts anyway. To be fair there were some narrow alleyways that didnt provide much opportunity for people to pass, but get your quick photo and move on, dont takes ages. But eventually I did find my own space to observe and enjoy the castle, the colours and shape are extraordinary, I was just not in a great mood.

In retrospect, some better planning and a functional sim card would have made today more functional and much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, a lot of things culminated in me being frustrated. But I do think the palace didn't live up to expectations if I try to look past the other factors. It isn't massive, and it's colourful, but you really spend more time waiting than actually exploring. I think they try to make the main attraction the inside, with the decor and furniture, but that just doesn't really excite me. I don't want to know how the MEGA rich loved a couple hundred years ago. I was expecting a bigger focus on the outside and the purpose of the building. Perhaps if my audioguide worked, it would give this insight, but all the physical information pieces were for the different rooms, and I wasn't too fussed. To me, the best part of the day was the walk up the hill, through the beautiful forest. It was incredible and perfect weather, with cool plants and places to just wander.

Eventually, though, I was done for the day and made my way back to the hostel. Upon my arrival, I ran into Matt. He was staying at my hostel, and Nina was just across the road. So we all caught up and went to watch the Benfica game at the pub. Benfica is a Lisbon team, and it was their first champions league game of the season, so it was due to be big. We expected the streets to be littered with fans, but we went to pub after pub to find them and found nothing. It was mostly people watching the Manchester United vs. Bayern Munich game. This was surprising and kind of sad, I was keen for an atmosphere. To be fair, we weren't in the Benfica suburb, and most of the rest of Lisbon are likely Sporting Lisbon fans - the main team for the city. But I didn't think it would be so hard. Not to mention, the game went poorly for them. A red card in the first 15 minutes and a pretty comfortable loss meant it wouldn't have been the best game to go to, or even watch live with fans. But oh well, after this we bought a bottle of vodka and some chaser and headed to the park for some good ol fashioned public park drinking. Felt like a teenager again. Then, we were quite drunk and wandered the streets until we found a cool bar. We danced and drank here for a while before eventually being kicked out. It was a Wednesday, but we were shocked they closed at 2 am. After this, there wasn't much to do, really. We chatted with some Brits out front for a while before going for a walk. Nothing prevailing, we retired for the night and went to bed. This was my last night in Lisbon and with Matt and Nina. They were really cool and I'm glad I met them as I had some friends for the past week or so. But tomorrow, I will be saying goodbye for good.Read more