Photo greif... is finally over

After our breif stay in Lisbon we have made our way down to Lagos, which is right on the coast and is beautiful.
We would show you some pictures to go along with our tales, but unfortunately finding an internet spot that lets you connect your camera and can actually download pictures is turning out to be a challenge. Hopefully soon you will see Portugalºs shining face again, but for now you will have to take our word for it and use your imagination.

Lisbon-
Our first impressions of Lisbon werenºt so hot. It is a huge city, lots of beggars which we hadnºt seen in the northern towns. Also, there were a lot of street vendors and hasslers that make moving around a challenge. Ty was offered drugs 5 different times in less than an hour on our way to the tourist information centre.

Ty almost got nºapoied na porta!

However, our experience got better and better the longer we stayed. We found a fantastic little supermarket for all your grocery needs, which made eating a LOT cheaper. We were able to navigate the old part of the city called the Alfama, which was truly unique and we toured the Castle at the top of one of the cities 8 hills. And the hills can be steep, some streets are entirely made of stairways and they have trams and elevator systems to help you up the steep climbs.


Tyrn wanted to try to sneak into this castle, but Kelsey was too scared, however the next day we did slip into the Pena Palace in Sintra. Sintra is a smaller town just outside of Lisbon on the coast. It is declared a UNESCO world heritage site and it is no wonder! It has 3 or 4 palaces/castles and gorgeous trees and parks. You take a train from Lisbon to Sintra and it really opens your eyes to a poor world. There are crumbling buildings of all sorts, shanty towns and garbage houses. It is crazy how in a short train ride you go from historic Lisbon to ghetto Portugal to UNESCO Sintra.
We are now in Lagos, which we will tell you about later, but we are renting a little apartment for 25 Euro a night. This is the cheapest yet and includes a full kitchen, 3 bedrooms (which we have all to ourselves for perhaps only tonight) and a bathroom. We were amazed to find in our travels that hotels and now apartment rentals are substantially cheaper here than the hostels. Hostels which would have this married couple stay in separate dorms would charge 20-22 Euros EACH! Most of our hotels have been between 30-35 and some have included breakfast and a fridge. We canºt say that this is the case all over Europe, but so far in Portugal hotels have been the way to go!

Lagos, our new paradise:

Finally, we can cook for ourselves! Mmmm!



K & T