We got into Lisbon after a backbreaking night’s “sleep” on the train, freshened up, and decided to head out for the day (we couldn’t check into the hostel and couldn’t hang out without paying a “day use fee”, so we didn’t really have a choice!) As it was the final day of our 3 month Eurail pass, we decided to train out to a couple of Lisbon’s neighboring towns that we had heard good things about. We quickly found out that Lisbon was not the place to try to scam the public transit system, as there were 2 men on the bus (aside from the driver) checking tickets, and a whopping 7 people walking thru the trains to make sure everyone’s tickets were legit. Our first stop was Estoril, a nice beach town about 20 minutes outside of Lisbon. We walked along the beachfront, enjoying the views and trying to stay out of the way of the throngs of jogging locals. It was a cute town but like many places we’ve been to, pretty quiet at this time of year. It had a great beachfront and seems like it’d be a happenin’ place during the summer months!

Fun on the rocks!

We hopped back on the train and stopped at Cascais, another 10 minutes further out. It was more lively than the last town, and we had a good time just wandering along the seawall, getting a great view of the harbor and the town. We walked through a couple markets, finding some great handcrafted Portuguese souvenirs and jewelry (Natalie found her favorite ring in the whole wide world!) We parked on a bench overlooking the harbor and had lunch, watching the group of people learning how to kayak in late November, wondering what the weather was like back home…

Lighthouse!

We trained back to Lisbon and checked into the hostel, did some free laundry and went to bed super early, making up for the previous night’s lack of sleep.

The next day’s torrential downpour kept us inside for a better part of it. Once it let up, we made our way to the bus station to buy tickets to Sevilla. We walked around Lisbon’s newest area along the water and had a great view of the Vasco de Gama Bridge spanning the river.

Ponte Vasco de Gama (you have to look reeeeaaally close!)

We stopped at a supermarket to grab some things to cook for dinner, and when complimenting ourselves on our culinary skills and the cheap find, Jamie summed up our delicious meal with “Yeah, it was only 3 euro, plus we get to chew for hours!” Our hostel had no heat, so we kept warm under the space heaters on the top floor until calling it a night.

We packed up the next day and headed out for our last day in Lisbon. We went to the western Belem neighborhood, seeing the city’s harbor and Jeronimo’s Monastery. We then headed over to the city’s free pop art museum, where we wandered around for hours, pondering the surely deeper meaning behind artworks such as Plaster and Paint on Cardboard.

Just pondering

After our fulillment of  “art”, we trammed it over to Lisbon’s oldest neighbrhood, wandering around, seeing the sights, and perusing some shops.

We metro’d back to the hostel, managing to ride on every color line the city had to offer, as we missed our stop. We grabbed our things and headed to the station for our overnight bus to Sevilla….

Headed to Sevilla!