Flea Market, Oceanarium, Alfama and Sintra

These past two days have been jam packed. I guess trying to see and do as much as possible.

Yesterday Britt, Meredith, Jenelle and I started off the morning by visiting the flea market that operates on Tuesdays. It was huge and on a very steep hill. Venders were selling antiques and hand made goods as well a new items. I felt like a picker looking for the good finds. My friends and I all bought antique skeleton keys. We wandered for about an hour and then headed to the oceanarium.

The oceanarium was built for the 1998 worlds fair. It is the second largest in the world and is in a beautiful park right on the water. There is a cable car and cool fountains and statues too. The oceanarium is massive and has one large tank in the center that can be screen on two stories of the building. The large tank is surrounded by smaller exhibits. The penguin exhibit was awesome. I was so close to a penguin I could have picked it up and put it in my backpack. There wasn't even glad separating us. The otter exhibit was really run and the otters were so playful! I loved watching them! They also had seahorses and jellyfish. The special exhibit was all about sea turtles. Some of the turtles were really big. The whole oceanarium was awesome! I could have spent the entire day there watching the animals.

Alfama is the moorish district of Lisbon. We were told to be prepared to get lost but we navigated it pretty well. We walked the walls of the castle of San Jorge. Found the cathedral and the house of pointed stones. Alfama was a beautiful district. I enjoyed a waffle with raspberry gelato and Nutella on top. Oh was it yummy! We also sat by the water and had a little time to reflect. I think I have really learned that traveling is a journey and how the main goal is not always getting to the destination but wandering and finding the small unexpected things.

Today Meredith and I headed to Sintra a suburb of Lisbon (sorta). Sintra has an amazing environment. Very hilly, and green with forests and other plants. There is a very large castle there on the top of a mountain, of course that's where I wanted to go. So we started the trek from the train station and about an hour and a half later we made it to the top. The castle has amazing views! We could see the Atlantic ocean and Lisbon from the top! The breeze on the tower of the castle was heavenly.

Portugal has amazing pastries! The donuts are scrumptious. Nothing like an American donut. They have custard pastries and a cinnamon pastry called Queijadas finas. So yummy!