Kossman Funnymoon

We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday night. Our AirBnB is a ground floor apartment in Old Town (Madragoa), about a mile from the city center. We were pretty exhausted but managed to walk over to Bairro Aalto for some food. The food here is legit. We had the absolute best octopus we've ever eaten and the cheeses are out of this world. 

The people in Lisbon are definitely more brusk and European. They aren't quite as friendly as the Poles we'd become accustomed to. Lisbon is HUGE! 

The city is super hilly as well with lots of winding streets, stairs, and alleyways. The sidewalks are so narrow, you frequently have to walk in the street and then jump out of the way when cars come. 

Did you know that Lisbon is older than London, Paris, and Rome! It's been occupied by the Celts, Greeks, Romans, Moors, Crusaders, and finally the Portuguese. A little bit of history has been left by each as evidenced by the pagan ritual sites, buried necropolis', and moorish castles. The distinct cultures have left their mark as well, in fact Lisbon's nickname is the 'City of Tolerance.' 

On Sunday we spent the day doing pretty Western, uneventful things. Namely shopping and seeing Star Wars. The clothes here are really cheap and they have a lot of brands that Jillian likes. Star Wars was awesome! Has everyone seen it already? We loved it...even though it basically follows the exact same plot as A New Hope. 

When we were looking for a place to eat dinner, another American couple (from LA) noticed us and asked if they could tag along. We ended up having a nice meal with them. They are in Portugal for two weeks and heading to the Azores tomorrow. Jillian remembers her dad saying that airport was very scary to land in. 

Yesterday we took the train to Sintra. Sintra is a small town about an hour outside the city along the coast. It's basically one of the most lovely places on earth. 

The forests and hills around Sintra have five or six distinct castles. Including:

A Moorish castle built in the 8th century: 

The castle has so many winding passageways and stairs and outlooks. It was a big hike to make it all the way up there. 

After that we went to the Palacio da Pena, which is the traditional home of the Portuguese King. It's also pretty spectacular. 

It's very colorful and has a lot of Islamic influences because Portugal was inhabited at various times by Moors. However it was so crowded - just swarms of people. This dampened our enjoyment a little bit. 

There are a few other palaces at Sintra, but we decided to save them, mostly because we were hungry and tired from hiking up two huge hills. 

Jillian has come down with a pretty nasty cold so we spent the evening relaxing and had wine and cheese for dinner. Today we will probably hit a museum and then see Fado in the evening. 

Today has been a lovely, casual day. We woke up late after going to bed early (Jillian fell asleep at 7:30pm!), and walked to get coffee. 

Then we made our way up to the castle and royal cathedral which sits on a big hill overlooking the city. 

It is absolutely gorgeous out today. About 55 degrees and sunny, but very windy. 

The cathedral tour was super interesting. This is the third audio tour we've taken but the first without an in-person guide. We couldn't take pictures inside but Jillian snuck a couple. 

The cathedral has all different types of art and architecture, ranging from the 13th century through the early 1900's. It's a bit of a mish-mash. Basically every king or Cardinal decided to add to the cathedral in the style of his time so there are Renaissance, Gothic, Victorian, Russian, and all sorts of other additions. The big gold dome on the exterior is from the Renaissance Chapel. 

In the basement of the cathedral is the old, old Cathedral (which was apparently built on top of an old, old, OLD church). 

This part of town was not - as we had thought - the Jewish ghetto. That's across the river. Did you know Roman Polanski survived the Kraków ghetto? 

Tonight we are going to see the Chamber orchestra and then our last dinner in Kraków before we head to Zakopane tomorrow. It's too warm for skiing but we are looking forward to 3 days of hiking and breathing fresh mountain air.