Places Worth Leaving Lisbon For

I’ve wanted to visit Sintra since the first time I saw a photo of the lovely Pena Palace. That is before I knew it was in Portugal and certainly before I had any plans to be even remotely near that country.

The National Palace of Pena is perched charmingly atop a rather large hill, which I didn’t know before arriving. Since I prefer to walk as much as possible while exploring new places it should be no surprise that I chose to take the hiking trail up to the palace. I did not expect it to take quite as long as it did or to be quite so sweaty upon arrival but after that hour of uphill walking I was more than pleased to finally get my reward.

To be clear, my reward was ice cream, but the sight of the palace was great too. I was told at the ticket desk that it would be a two hour wait to actually go inside the castle, which as usual I wasn’t prepared to do, so I bought a grounds-only admission that allowed me to check out the palace exterior and gardens. Since the exterior of the building is what attracted me anyway I was perfectly happy to pay less and still see exactly what I wanted.

While I was taking in the bright colours and tiled façade of the palace I noticed a group taking photos (with 3 cameras and 2 iPhones) next to me. They weren’t taking selfies or trying to get the perfect shot with everyone in focus and smiling, they weren’t even looking at the camera actually. What they were doing was trying to get the “perfect” Instagram shot. Having seen this a few other times over the course of my trip I’ve found a few identifiers. Firstly, as previous stated, not looking at the camera has become a cool thing to do. Second, people stand in one spot for way too long, barely moving except to adjust their pose or fling a piece of clothing dramatically, getting in everyone else’s way and never actually taking any photos when other people stand too near because it would ruin the aesthetic. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love taking photos and I do post a fair few on Instagram, but it is extremely awkward to watch people take these kinds of photos. I have also come to the conclusion that not only do many people travel just to take photos and say that they have been somewhere but it is also creating an unrealistic image of what so many places truly are. So next time you look on Instagram and see an image of someone completely alone at a major tourist site just remember this; it’s probably not a realistic image.

With limited time to get to my next destination I chose to take the bus down from the Palace to the train station where I could catch another bus, and save myself from sweating so much along the way..

Cabo da Roca is the Western edge of Portugal, continental Europe and technically the entire Eurasian land mass. It is a truly beautiful place to simply walk around but also a really cool “I’ve been there!” moment. You can read about the other geographical extremes that I visited here.

I could have spent hours just staring at the coastline but in reality I spent very little time here because of the bus timetable. It was well worth the visit regardless and was a great end to my time in Portugal.