“I can officially die happy.”

Day 34. Whitney left super early this morning and I was definitely still out of it when she said goodbye. I still had one more day here in Portugal and there was a lot that I still wanted to do. Janelle and two friends she is traveling with, Alanna and Dana also from Canada, and I all wanted to go out of Lisbon to see Sintra and some of the coastline today. I knew a little about Sintra and was very excited to see it but I had no idea what exactly was in store for me. We got to Sintra around mid-morning and already there were quite a bit of tourists. Sintra is a town about 35 minutes outside Lisbon and it has castles and palaces in the mountains so it is a very popular destination in Portugal. The girls and I started walking towards the city center upon arrival and stopped to get a delicious traditional pastry in Sintra called a travessiero. Mmhmm, yummy. It’s a sugary coated pastry with almonds and a thick egg cream filling. 
We were told by our hostel that we should explore one of the smaller palaces first. I was more excited to see and explore a castle but I was still stoked to see the palace. OH MY GOODNESS SOMEONE PINCH ME BECAUSE I MUST BE DREAMING. I have had this dream before. This cannot possibly be real life. Ouch (I actually had Janelle pinch me), ok so I am not dreaming. WHAT!??!?! The smaller palace we went to go see is called Quinta da Regaleira, but we skipped the main house entirely to first explore the grounds and gardens. Close your eyes and picture this (you cant really close your eyes and read at the same time, but close them and picture it after I describe it, do it). You walk into the main gate and all you can see is jungle like trees everywhere and winding paths and flowers. It’s gorgeous, but that’s not what I am freaking out about. You walk up the path and what was hidden by trees suddenly comes into view. It’s called Regaleira tower but it is straight out of a fairy tale. Seriously, I would not have been surprised in the slightest had Rapunzel let down her hair from the towers. I instantly went into 3 year old mode and had to really concentrate to not sprint up to the tower and run around and laugh and dance and scream. Well that concentration didn't last very long. I was amazed. I was in heaven. But it didn’t stop there, oh no, there is not just one tower, but I am getting ahead of myself. We ran to the top of this tower and had a great view of the city below and another massive castle called the Moorish castle on another mountain, awesome! Below this tower I found a gated off secret tunnel that I desperately wanted to find out where it led. I tried climbing it and definitely would have fit, but I would have had to go upside down and didn’t want to get injured or ruin my new shirt before I had seen everything so I vowed to come back. We continued up another trail just picking at random, and BOOM! Hello Rayman arena/ Zelda/ insert favorite video game here. Seriously, it was right out of a video game, I am sure I have seen it a thousand times before pixelated in front of me. There was a waterfall with this rickety looking stone bridge and stepping stones that you could jump to and cross the river leading to another tunnel!! WHAT!? I had to show the girls so I ran back to them but they were already climbing up another trail, so I followed them up and we came to another small castle!! Ahh!! This had a main fortress, and then in front of it two smaller towers connected by what looked like a fountain. However, the fountain was off and slipping in behind it I found another tunnel!! This tunnel was roped off, but when has that ever stopped me? I started walking in but it was pitch black! So I turned around and we used Alanna’s cell phone light as a flashlight. We followed the tunnel and it dumped us into the middle of a well about halfway up!! Are you kidding me?! There was a spiral staircase that led both up and down the well and I was beside myself wanting to know what was at the bottom, so down I went! Another tunnel!!! I waited for the girls to catch up and with the light of the cellphone we made our way into the dark tunnel at the bottom of the well. This brought us behind the waterfall I had seen earlier, yippee! I jumped across the stepping stones and climbed up to the bridge and walked across. At this point we were all in complete amazement. This couldn't actually exist, places like this are supposed to be fantasy, not reality. We started off again picking another trail to follow. The gardens/grounds are so surreal and completely untouched. There is moss growing everywhere, and the trees are so tall. It is insane how unreal but completely real in is! We came to another well and found stairs leading down. These stairs were older and more steep and the well had holes all along the walls where massive boulders could have fit. We raced down the well in hopes of another tunnel and we weren’t disappointed. Again, blackness. We walked a ways and the tunnel split, but this time down one of the paths there was a gate blocking our way that looked like a prison door. The bars were rusted and one of the bars in the middle was missing. It was just big enough for someone Jason sized to slip through. Perfect! I slid in with no hesitation and the girls passed me the light. I left them in the darkness and was off to see where the tunnel would lead. Feeling a little nervous of bats or snakes or spiders I slowly made my way forward, there was dripping water and puddles and long hanging rocks above my head. It branched to the left and right, so I chose the right path. I noticed the ceiling was getting lower and lower until I was hunched over making slow progress. I walked a bit more until in front of me there was a rock shelf and two small holes on top of each other. In the bottom hole I could see water that looked to expand out in what must have been an underground lake of some kind. I could have climbed on the shelf and then into the top hole, but then would have had to crawl on my hands and knees to go any further and it was muddy from the dripping water. So I turned back to head down the left path. This lead to a big cavernous cave; dead end. I felt like I was Gollum in the depths of those tunnels so I of course whipped out my Gollum voice and turned off the light as I headed back towards the girls. They were talking nervously amongst themselves and laughed when they heard my Gollum impression, haha, I love it. We went back to the main tunnel and continued following it to the end and came out of a grotto (miniature cave entrance) all the way across the grounds. We explored the rest of the grounds and eventually made it back to the main house and chapel. I went inside the chapel and found some stairs leading down. Intrigued, I went down and found yet another tunnel. This was the darkest tunnel so far and something about it being beneath the chapel made it all the more eerie. It was also the narrowest tunnel so it was slow going as the last person in line had no light to travel by and would step in puddles. There was a trail of water on the floor and it lead to a dead end, however, there were dead roses scattered at the end of the tunnel. Talk about creepy. We came back up and then went inside the main house. It was cool inside and the house had a huge winding tower that went incredibly high (so many steep steps), the view was impressive so it was worth it. The house also had a really cool library with mirrors along the bottom of the book shelves to make it look like the floor wasnt there and that the book cases were massive. It worked. We found a nice place in the gardens by some statues and ate a quick bite to eat. I was still in shock from everything we had just done. I just couldn't believe that this was real life. 
We walked back to the city center and caught a bus to the Park and National Palace of Pena. This is the main palace here in Sintra and it is perched on the top of a mountain with a winding road leading to its base (I thought the bus driver was going to kill us. He drove like a madman and I had to stand on the bus because it was so crowded). We hiked up the mountain a little ways to the castle which was pretty cool and after a failed attempt to scale the castle walls (we didn’t want to pay to go in the castle since it was mostly a museum and really old furniture) we continued exploring the park. We hiked all the way to the top of the mountain to the Cruz Alta (High Cross). This gave us an AMAZING 360 view of what seemed to be all of Portugal with the stunning Pena Palace perched right on the peak next to us. Wow!! We took the road less traveled as we made our way down the mountain back towards the palace and were so excited when we found anything similar to a cave or tunnel. The park itself was beautiful and also surreal and untouched. I felt like I was in Ever After or some kind of long ago and faraway land. Then I remembered I WAS in fact in a faraway land, hah! This is my life right now and I love it. After Sintra we were heading to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point on mainland Europe (the closest I will be to home on my travels, I sent lots of love!). We grabbed some dinner at Pizza Hut as we waited for the bus to come, haha, no judgement. On the bus I was so tired from walking around all day and being so excited that I passed out on the 45 minute trip to the coast(I am secretly a 3 year-old trapped in an adult’s body). The coast was incredible and equally incredibly windy! I swear I could have flown if I just had had wings. We jumped the fence and walked through a green meadow filled with white and yellow flowers and found an amazing spot with an even more impressive view. After seeing the cliffs and cape we got some Ice cream! Dana dropped hers on the ground, but she scooped it up and I cleaned it off (30 second rule!!). We wanted to take the bus to Cascais and relax on the beaches, but we spent so long at the castles and palaces that we missed the last bus and were far too exhausted to go anywhere but back to the hostel. When we finally made it back to the hostel we were just in time for a free Portugal wine tasting, win!! I couldn’t think of a better way to end the day, this hostel is absolutely fantastic! I can officially die happy. Today has been one big dream come to reality right out of the mind of Jason Walker’s dream book. And it’s actually kind of ironic because the mint green shirt Whitney bought me for my Christmas present yesterday says, “Where fantasies are real and reality is fantastic.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Greatest way to end a trip to Portugal ever. I am waking up super early for my flight tomorrow, goodnight world.