31. I Dressed Up As Lisbon's Wife for Halloween!

Because I love it so damn much, we're married now! Deal with it, laws that don't allow that!

I started the day with some music, pumped up the jams as I got ready for the day. It's pretty much the only way to get my brain working if I get up before 10am in life, so that's pretty much most of the time, sadly.

A friend of mine is in town from London, and we spent today in cabs, castles and on buses that I'm still worried we're not going to make it safely off of, and I've been back at the apartment for some time now!

Allow me to explain, via the wonderful world of photography.

We decided to go to Sintra today, as it was recommended to myself and my friend by over seven people. It's a small, quaint and overall lovely down north of Lisbon. We cabbed it there, because if we're honest... we didn't want to care about the train or buses. It's just faster, and better, and we got to see more of the cities than we would have on the train, what with their tracks and all.

We ended up at a palace, and a castle, the names of which I don't have in front of me, but here are some pictures.

Disney called, they want their semi-medieval villains castle back!

From there, we took a bus that I was very, very nervous about, because it was up a huuuuuuge, steep mountain. Now, I don't necessarily have a phobia of heights, per say, but I do necessarily have a phobia of scaling a mountain in a huge bus that feels like it's tipping over on curves that shouldn't have roads on them, and a driver who looks like he's had better days. That I'll admit to, sure!

Then we walked what seemed like a bajillion miles to the top, which in actuality was a ten minute walk up a hill. So many hills here in Lisbon. That's okay dear, I still love you.

Once we got to the top, LOOK AT THIS PLACE!

Love this shot!

I'd seen a tile (ceramic tiles are what's uuuuuup here in Lisbon) with a face very similar to the dude in the next picture yesterday, and I was going to buy it but wanted to do some research on what it was, and why it was so beautifully angry. 

As we got to this point at the palace, we maaaaay have listened in on a tour guide that we were not a part of the tour with, and as I suspected, the people who built the palace added this angry guy to ward off bad things, and warn people to only being happiness and positivity into the home. 

I now own the, hand-sculpted, 3D, 7" x 7" tile that represents this guy, and I will post it proudly upon a future door of my choosing.

Could this be more like the exact colour scheme that my brain uses every day in my head, regardless of the thoughts I'm having? 

Nope.

A wonderful set of tiles.

Dreams!

As we got higher up, I got less confident in the existence of safety and my own personal choices.

We were HIGH up, you guys!

And see that castle looking thing on the right, I've zoomed in on the next two photos. I couldn't handle another set of heights, so this is the closest we got. 

Well done, Nikon S9900!

The kitchen in the palace, of course!

More Nikon zoom experiments. Look in the back centre of this picture, at a little statue.

A bit closer.

What up, it's a statue on a rock!

B - e - a - u - t - i - f - u - l - !

(that was painful to type)

And then we cabbed back, walked about for a bit, did some groceries (ie. went to the store to pick up some stuff), grabbed some dinner (same place I had that delicious duck the other day... was just as delicious today), and then walked home. 

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and I'm excited to sleep in a bit. Who knows but the day will bring, but it's sure to be a fun adventure!

Until then, folks, have a great night!

30. For Real Though, This Place is Amazing!

I love it here. I just love it!

I'm going to be honest, I'm tired right now, so this is going to be a shortly-written post. I just took 20 minutes to upload the abundance of photos you're going to see, so I'll let them do most of the talking tonight. 

There's very little chance that I can top them anyway.

This is the view from a place just up the street from where I'm staying.

Then I headed to the Castle!

The view is unbelievable. You'll see far too many of them here.

Look far in the back, right in the middle, and then the next three pictures.

They may not be crisp, but this camera's got ZOOM!

Love this roof.

A little opening, and the following is the full view.

 Another little opening, followed by the full shot.

And then I saw a peacock! 

And then I took these three shots that I am obsessed with!

It's blinking in this one, you can see its eyelid closed!

Then I took the tram to the post office to figure out how to use it come Monday when I want to send some stuff back home. The trams are adorable from the outside, and crammed from the inside. 

It's a must-do though, because it's just so... authentic.

I got the boxes and information I needed from the post office, and then took the tram half way back to where I was staying. I decided I wanted to see the Lisbon pantheon, but came across this cool market that had this in the entryway.

So simple, so beautiful.

And then the pantheon. It's massive. I have no idea, as I didn't in every other country, how the hell these things are constructed!

You can walk all the way to the top, so of course I did!

And look! Wowzers, you guys! You could walk around the whole thing, and get a 360° view of the whole city.

This afternoon, I became obsessed with the sky. It was brilliant today.

I didn't go in here, but I just really liked the look of the outside in general.

Then as I walked to find some dinner, I saw this store, which was a shared art store, where they had a collection of work from different Portuguese artists. I bought two necklaces, one for me, and one for a friend back home.

They left the floor exactly like the outside. Like, no floors were put in the store, it's just the street. It's very cool.

I finally went and had a "sausage on fire" at a restaurant near by, and it's exactly what it sounds like. There's a place in Toronto that I'd tried the same thing (there is likely more than one!), and I plan on going back very soon after my return.

Alright folks, I'm toast, so off to sleep I go!

Nighty night!