Yesterday was a nice day. Woke up to head to Sintra with hostel friends, but they took forever. To leave the hostel and wander around, two of them were always lagging. It was fun but I'm happy I'm back on my own today.
Sintra is a town 40 minutes away via train. It was tentatively on my list but so many people said it's a must-see. The Palacio Nacional da Pena was cool. Lots of the original furniture, paintings, dishes, bedding etc are all still there displayed. It's on a hilltop so we took a bus up to the top and then walked down. I'm glad we did that because walking around all day and down the hill was enough of a workout. On the way down we went to the Castelo dos Mouros. You can walk around the ruins of the Moorish Castle that dates back to the 9th century. If you climb up to the top you can see amazing views of Sintra and the Pena Palace.
After those two visits we wandered back into town which is tourist central. I wanted to try the queijada, a little tart that's described as a kind of cheesecake that they are known for in Sintra. They also had brigadeiros at this little shop, so I got one of those as well. Both delicious.
Once we got back into Lisbon I headed to the local supermarket and picked up some food to cook because they have tupperwares for use here. I got some fresh tortellini but they didn't have pasta sauce, so I got what looked as close to it as I could find. A liquidy ketchup if you will. It wasn't good enough to store for a meal today, sadly. I'm trying to be cheap, but not enough to eat that again. Luckily a hostel friend made a huge delicious salad to share, so I had plenty of that.
Then four of us headed to A Tasca do Chico, a little bar that has Fado every Monday & Wednesday nights for free. It's recommended by the hostel, so when we got there sure enough there were lots of people from our hostel in there. It was very cool to hear Fado live. We listened to three different Fadistas, all male. I'm sure I can buy a cd online but I'm going to try and pick one up here. It was really hot and packed in the bar so I headed outside for some fresh air in hopes that I could hear the Fado from outside. I sat down on a little stoop and this older man started talking to me. I had a great time talking to him and his buddy. One is a taxi driver (Julio), one a semi-retired CNN journalist (John) that went to Berkeley. They told me lots of fun facts and bought me their favorite drink called Panache which is half beer half ginger-ale. A Shandy if you will.
John told me a joke that I will share here. What is the similarity between San Francisco and a box of Kelloggs? After you eat the nuts and the fruits, you still have the flakes.
They were so friendly that I figured they wouldn't mind if I asked them a bunch of questions. Like are Fadistas pretty rare - and the answer is yes, you have to be born to be a Fadista, you can't really learn it.
Since I arrived in Lisboa I've seen kids wearing dark black matching outfits and cloaks everyday all over the city. I asked one of the girls in passing if it was a graduation - and she replied "kind of" but didn't elaborate. So I asked John and Julio about it. Apparently it's a form of initiation that the freshmen in college have to go through. It originates from the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest universities still in operation in Europe. I searched a bit online and came across 'Praxe' on Wikipedia. Look it up if you are curious to read about the types of pranks the freshmen have to do. It's basically simple fraternity style pranks that all freshmen have to complete - creating a loss of social inhibition. For the most part the kids seemed to be having fun, but am sure some of it is mortifying. Kind of cool to witness them wandering around the city, laying on the ground etc.
Once a group of us was ready we headed back to the hostel. I wanted to go straight to bed but we came in right during free shot time. Every night at 11:30 they pour a shot for everyone who is downstairs at the time to take. I was hopeful that we had missed it because it was closer to midnight, but sure enough we walked right into it. The cute Brasilian guy (Franco) that works here was behind the bar so that made it ok.
This hostel has a nice breakfast included in the price, and then the option of the 8 euro dinner every night, a bar, four free mac computers for use, a disco ball that they turn on during free shot time and keep on for the rest of the night. It's a great hostel is what I'm trying to say. Apparently it's rated the first or the third best hostel in Europe (I've been told both by other guests). John and Julio are friends with the owner, so I told them to report back that it is a fabulous place. I'm glad it's basically my last hostel (besides one more night in Madrid). For some travelers this is their first hostel. They are going to be disappointed for the rest of their trip.
After the free shot I got a beer and settled down on the beanbags with six other folks to play a game of Uno. I love Uno and I'm generally not that competitive. But we had about four different countries represented and well they all play Uno with strange rules. There was another girl from California and we tried to correct their weird ways to no avail. A Canadian had the gall to say that Americans were stupid. I retorted sarcastically with - I'm pretty sure Uno is an American game so we're just trying to play by the legit rules. We succumbed to their stupid rules. It got a little heated with all of that, pretty amusing. Best part is I won. Take that stupid rules.
I went to bed and woke up with a really sore throat. It hurt most of yesterday. Going to pick up some cough drops today in hopes that it won't develop into a cold. I don't have time to be sick!
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