Three of us had already booked our tickets for this back in NZ, but Brigid had decided to join us after this was done. We went to check in for our train and get her an extra ticket, but the train was fully booked. This was a bit of a shock, because she could not get on a train to Lisbon until a few days later. So Brigid went back to the hostel for the night to find some other way of getting to Lisbon unfortunately, and we boarded our train.
It was a long train, 13 hours. And the seats were not all that comfortable to sleep in. But we tried to sleep best we could, and then the next day we arrived in Lisbon. It was SUPER hot in Lisbon, 38ยบ!! We had all our luggage with us, and we had to try and find our hostel. Not easy in those temperatures! But we found it without too much hassle, and then unloaded our gear. Brigid also got in touch, to say she was on a bus for Lisbon, which would arrive the next morning. Luckily! The hostel we were staying in was quite flash too, a nice change to the questionable ones we had stayed in in the past. That afternoon, we went and checked out the old town of Lisbon -Alfama. It is full of cute old alleys and the typical white houses with orange tiled roofs. And then in the evening, we tried to go and see the big Jesus statue at one end of the 25 de Abril Bridge. We saw it again during the day the next day. The statue is massive and gives you an eary feeling, its kind of creepy, I think because of its size - it stands taller than any buildings surrounding it in Lisbon, plus its particular stance, with its arms held out wide.
The next morning we meet Brigid and then caught a train to a town just out of Lisbon called Evora. The main reason we came here was to see the Ossuary Chapel, which was is a chapel made out of human bones. To be honest though it was a bit of a dissapointment, because it was just one room within the church which was like that. Evora is a beautiful little town though, but it was hard for us to appreaciate, as it was just sooooooo hot. We found a tree and grassy area to sit under for a few hours, while we had a drink and cooled down.
The next day we went to a town just out of Lisbon called Sintra. We visited a place called the Quinta da Regaleira. It is a big property with a big old house and beautiful gardens surrounding it plus little grottos. Every corner was picturesque. We spend the whole afternoon here, we loved it. Then we caught the train back home to Lisbon.
One the train ride back, we had earlier looked up that there was meant to be a Nandos restaurant there. So we went out and tried to find it. We got off at the particular station, and judging by the people there, we had got off in a not so safe area of town. Anyway we walked around trying to find this restaurant, but it turns out it was not the Nandos restaurant we had expected, it was something completely different! So we had also passed McDonalds when we were walking, so we grabbed some takeaways, and then went back to catch our train, before it got dark. Turns out although Nandos is a Portugese global restaurant chain, it is not offered in Portugal, it is something that is only offered overseas (the locals already have plenty of restaurants offering that type of food). Bummer! And then on our way home when we get off at the Lisbon train station, you scan your ticket and the gate will open for a second, to let one person through. Anyway a girl managed to get caught by her neck in the gate. It wouldn´t open, and people were surrounding her trying to force it open. There were no staff members around to release the gate, and there are no buttons (because people would instead push those and then not pay I guess). So that was a bit shocking. She got out in the end though. We have been caught by our backpacks before, but always managed to pull free, nothing like that though!!
That evening we spend just wandering around Lisbon city, since we had spent most of our time doing day trips outside of Lisbon CBD.
The next day we caught a bus to Lagos in Portugal.
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