you win some, you lose some

Yesterday was funny. Upon arriving in Lisbon, I reverted to my pre-Spain self, the self that wants to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, frantically seeing all that a city has to offer in the seemingly short amount of time that I have. I was told that Sintra, a 45 minute train ride away was a "must". And, you can see why people might say that.


So we willingly paid the €4 for the train ride there and back. Upon arriving in Sintra, we felt compelled to pay the €5 for the train ride to and from the castle, and upon arriving at the castle, we had no choice but to pay €12 to get in to see it. Wow. That was the fastest I'd spent €20 my whole trip, and had I known, I wouldn't have even bothered. Then they wanted €2 for a trolly up the mountain to the castle, but we begrudgingly huffed and puffed our own way up instead.
The Quita da Regaleira, a fancy house with really cool gardens and even some secret doors and spooky tunnels was "only" €4.





It was a neat day, but not worth all the money they milked from me, and I couldn't help but feel a little sheepish for being so easily suckered out of so much money.
Later, though, we went with Ben to an institute activity. I was just beginning to pride myself on how well I was understanding Portuguese, even with this weird continental accent, when the sweet senior missionary sister started her lesson. I caught about one word in three using all of my powers of concentration. But then the youth (including some Brazilians! <3) started to share their testimonies about the temple. I had to force myself to look concerned durring the sad parts of their stories, because the rest of the time I had a big silly grin on my face. It felt so good to have organized religion in my life, to hear others' testimonies, to talk about the temple, and to hear Brazilian Portuguese.
Today, Ben took us out to Belem, where I did amazing things like see the tomb of my favorite poet, the uber famous Camões and eat the uber famous pasteis de Belem. And, today being a holiday, they let us into everything for free! Then he took us to some other pleasant and beautiful places he has discovered around Lisbon. In comparing the past two days, I thought to myself, "you win some, you lose some" but I quickly realized that I win lots more than I lose. Thanks again, Ben!





I love it here in Lisbon. Of all my travels, I think I could live in Granada or Ljublana, or Lisbon.