On Monday my dad and I went to Sintra and stayed at an Airbnb in the old town. We took a tuktuk up the mountain to the Moorish Castle and the Palace de Pena. Unfortunately, the Palace has changed and now requires an interior ticket even to just walk around the outside crenellations. It was packed like a sardine can, so we decided to just do the Moorish Castle after a little walk around Pena Park. If you want to know more about Sintra, or anything else Portugal-related, read my chapter “Amor de Fado: Love Lost in Lisbon.”
Here’s a little taste of that:
“Sintra! Oh, Sintra! That spirited mountain of the moon! Where Celtic fairy tales and the magic of old primordial flow as clean and clear as its sacred springs. Where the romance of Moors and the hotblood of Vikings intermingle with the penchants and passions of Bohemian Europe. Where if one climbs high enough, you can see the raging emptiness of the Atlantic beyond the warping woods and rocky terrain. Eternal rain and gorging springs create a vibrant verdant aura unlike anything else in dry Portugal. The volcanic springs that flow out of the mountain are so vivacious and restorative that they are said to have health benefits due to the abundance of minerals coursing through their clean waters. The Moorish fountains carved into the mountain are decadent and everlasting, like sacred shrines to the waters of life.”
This is my third time in Portugal, so I’ve only been taking pictures of things I’ve never seen before.
My dad is doing pretty well here, but he is struggling to adjust to the combination of being very hungover, smoking lots of cigarettes, and walking everywhere in Lisbon. We walked a little less than 10 miles collectively yesterday. He almost lost his phone when he forgot it at a cafe in Sintra. Luckily, he realized his mistake before we boarded the train for Lisbon. We had to walk back. He wasn’t happy.
Last night we hit Clube de Fado. The music was lovely. Three different singers brought very different flavors to the night, but we enjoyed them all. It was a very special experience, but it wasn’t as lit as when Max and I went for two very important reasons: it being my first time then and the fact that Max and I got so ungodly drunk as to rip a hole in the space-time-continuum.
Needless to say, my dad is a bit hungover this morning…
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