Unexpected Security Breach

After a whirlwind weekend in Rome and what seemed like no time at all in Madrid, I was back at the airport on Thursday afternoon ready to head to Lisbon, Portugal for the weekend. 

I had some time to spare at the airport so I decided to browse a large souvenir/grocery shop near my terminal. I love looking at the things different countries try to sell their tourists and Madrid Barrajas did not disappoint.

You have your usual towers of chocolates and sweets:

European warnings of the hazards of smoking:

And then the tourist-y stuff:

Spanish tortilla in a box - just add 4 eggs!

Don't do it. It's not worth it.

Just as I was capturing a photo of this ridiculous package a female employee of the shop looks at me sternly and says [in rapid Spanish], "You know you can't take photos in here." I raised my eyebrows and apologized, saying I didn't know I wasn't allowed to take photos. She then asked me if I could read, because there were signs all over the airport saying no photos allowed. If "la guardia civil" saw me, they would take my camera away. She was visibly upset and I was quite amused, but I stifled my laughter because I didn't want to risk being hauled away to Spanish prison.

I had an early-ish flight with a fellow Stanford student and as soon as we checked into our hostel (which was seriously paradise in comparison to my hostel in Rome - I mean, I enjoyed my stay, but this hostel was on a whole other level), we wasted no time exploring the neighborhood. We enjoyed some sweets and wine while soaking in the glorious sun then headed out for a walk to Alfama, which is old Lisbon.

After the remainder of our group arrived, we headed out to Barrio Alto for dinner. It's a swanky neighborhood with shopping and lots of restaurants and bars. We made it to this tiny seafood restaurant called O Cantinho Do Bem Estar that was recommended to us by a friend and enjoyed delicious food (meal + wine + dessert) and awesome service for just around 10 euros a piece. Not bad Lisbon, not bad.

We went back to our hostel with vague plans to explore the Portuguese nightlife, but actually decided to make friends at our hostel and enjoy the bar in-house. We actually met another American student who is studying in Madrid and was visiting Lisbon (crazy coincidence) and a group of students from Holland who were just about to start a program in Lisbon. We made more friends!

We woke up bright and early the next day to visit a nearby town called Sintra. We had heard from many people that we MUST visit this place. It was a charming little town but we could only spend half a day there so we split up to do all the sight-seeing. I visited a Moorish castle and the Pena Palace, while others visited the Quinta da Regaleira. Each was beautiful and interesting, and we wished we had more time to see everything together.

We visited Belem next, which is a little town to the west of Lisbon that has a few cool landmarks and what people boasted to be the best custard pastries in the area. Naturally, we needed to confirm this ourselves.

The Tower of Belem

The best custard pastries in Lisbon 

Vasco de Gama's tomb!

We had a nice long (~2 hr) walk back to our hostel and took a nap before heading out to dinner. So far the trip to Lisbon had been worth it's weight in gold.