Sintra: Fairytale Castles

 Just a short train ride from Lisbon is a small town called Sintra.  In Sintra is a castle straight out of a fairytale.  This castle, pearched upon the top of a mountain, is colorfully painted, with intricate carvings, and lavish furniture.  It is really not very large, but very beautiful.  Just down the road, perched on top of the adjacent mountain, is a fortress.  The fortress is not as impressive as the castle, but the views are amazing.

 

We cruised around these hills, hiking and taking buses up and down the road all day.  Back near the train station, we found a Chinese resturaunt that we loved.  It was actually pretty good food for extremely cheap!  We actually ate there twice that day.  If you ever go there and need to eat, I absolutely recommend it. 

Lisbon

We arrived in Lisbon during their annual city festival: the feast of Saint Anthony.  Because the festival is so popular for tourists, the city was packed and we were unable to find any Couch host.  We struggled to even find a reasonably priced hostel that wasn't full.  We spent our days walking around the city.  So many people were visiting and partying in the streets that our experience in Lisbon was unique.  Each day, we would check out of our hostel hoping that someone would accept our Couchsurfing request, but we were unsuccessful for a few nights.  Finally, a nice man accepted our request, but told us that he was not going to be at his house very much.  We were still happy to accept his offer, so each additional night we spent in Lisbon, we waited late into the evening for him to pick us up. 

The city of Lisbon is not the most beautiful.  I really enjoyed the winding streets that line the hills of the town, but the town has a very dirty feel to it.  When you are walking in the center of town, you are constantly berated by people selling drugs.  We were told that most of these people are offering fake drugs (in hopes of taking you somewhere), which is how there are so many running around without getting caught. 

An important thing to know about Portugal in general, is when you go out to eat in a restaurant, do not eat any bread or other appetizer they put on the table unless you want to pay an exorbitant amount for it.  In many places - like the U.S. - if bread, butter, or anything else is put on the table before ordering, it is complimentary.  In Portugal, they will put out many little plates of appetizers, and if you eat any of them you will pay many Euros.  We even experienced times where more than half a dozen little plates were put out in front of us.  We personally believe that this is a strategy to squeeze money out of hungry resturaunt patrons, waiting for their actual meal.  This is particularly sleazy when considering that many tourists may not know about this little trick.

Lisbon offered us the ability to take buses to many places, but once we got to those places, it was hard to move on.  There is plenty to see in the vicinity of Lisbon, but if you want to do a little bus-tour loop, you will find it difficult.  Many of the small towns don't have connecting buses to other towns, so you will often have to go all the way back to Lisbon to continue.  When we did a loop around this area, we ended up hitchhiking back to a train station before nightfall.  The reality of this is that we were very lucky.  Hitchhiking in Portugal is really awful, but we will get to that later.

Cacares, Merida, & Badajoz

In central western Spain there are three cities that are very interesting to visit: Cacares, Merida, and Badajoz.  Cacares has an awesome citadel.  It seems plain, lacking any color or embellishment in its stone walls, but it has a very medieval feel.  While in Cacares, you can visit the Aljibe, a very old Hispanic-Arabic cistern.  It is very beautiful to walk down into the cistern and see the light reflecting off the water.  Otherwise, you can walk around and see Cacares' many towers (the citadel has 30) and churches. 

Next on our way to Portugal was Merida.  Merida is known for its Roman ruins.  The ruins in Merida are spread throughout the town, and you can spend a lot of time visiting all of the sites.  There is a very interesting aqueduct. It is not as impressive as the one in Segovia, but it is very different and maybe even more asthetically pleasing.  There is also a very beautifully intact Roman theater (except for one theater I saw in Greece in 2012, this is one of the best preserved).  The ruins continue all over the city.

Finally, our last stop before leaving Spain is Badajoz.  This city is right on the border.  In Badajoz we stayed with this young hippie who lived with his father and grandfather.  These three men were histerical.  They would all have this huge lunch and pass out on the couches in the living room.  They were really lovely men and were very wonderful hosts.  Badajoz is a nice city, but not as interesting as Cacares or Merida.  Nonetheless, it is a nice city to walk around.

National Park Monfrague

 We traveled west from Toledo to a small town called Navalmoral de la Mata.  We spent our first wedding anniversary with a wonderful married couple in their small apartment.  Our first night, they treated us to a wonderful dinner, and we chatted late into the night.

The next day, the couple had the day off, so they invited us to visit Monfrague National Park with them.  This park is long and skinny, following the River Tagus.  It is a dry scrubby habitat, with lots of large shrubs and old gnarled oaks.  One of the main attractions in the park is the abundance of birds of prey.  We took a short hike along the central ridge that runs along the length of the park.  At the top of the mountain, we found a huge celebration occuring at the small church located at its peak.  It was just our luck that this particular day happened to be a celebratory day for the church.  People were dancing, laughing, and enjoying a feast amongst the trees.  It was a very happy surprise.

We climbed the nearby tower before heading towards the river.  At the river there are some large cliffs where the vultures and eagles prefer to perch.  There were many bird watchers with their spotting scopes and binoculars.  The sky was littered with enormous birds.

Toledo

We left Madrid again to go on a longer journey around the southern half of the Iberian penninsula.  We hoped to be able to hitchhike and Couchsurf as much as possible.  Our first stop on our journey was Toledo.






Toledo is very rich with history.  It is a beautiful little citadel, with stairways and narrow passageways.  Formerly the capital of Spain, there is a lot to see in a very small space.  It is interesting to see evidence of the former coexistence of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in this city.  All three religions were practiced at one time or another.  Today of course, as in much of southern Europe, it is predominantly Catholic.

We had a great time in Toledo with our young hosts.  They took us out to this strange little bar.  A long narrow corridor with little tables filled with hipsters.  They were our first hosts in Spain, and they turned out to be a lot of fun.

Recipe: Tortilla de Patatas

Our favorite travel food is the Spanish tortilla de patatas.  It is the perfect food to share with people.  It is not difficult to make, and is very portable.  It also happens to be delicious.

If you are from North America, you might think we are talking about the flat bread that accompanies Mexican food.  Tortilla de patatas (also known as tortilla Española) is not a bread, it is an omelette.  In Spain, tortilla literally means 'omelette'.  Thus, tortilla de patatas is a potato omelette.  Here is how we make it:

Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes
• 1/2 large onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1 litre olive oil
• salt
• baking powder
• 5-6 large eggs

*You will need a stick-free saute pan about 22 cm (9") in diameter and a plate large enough to cover the pan.

Let's get started.  Peel the potatoes and cut into slices approximately 3x3x1cm (1"x1"x1/2") in size.  We do this by holding the potato in one hand and ripping the slices off with a small pairing knife, but you can slice on a cutting board if you prefer.  Fill your stick-free pan with olive oil.  Where you live and the price of olive oil will dictate how much you can use.  We will easily use 3/4 of a litre.  You want to use a lot of olive oil, so the potatoes soak it up.  It gives the tortilla a lot of flavor. If you can not afford to use so much oil, use as much as you feel comfortable with.  But, remember that if you use the recommended amount of oil, you will remove the potatoes after they are cooked and save the rest of the oil for use later.  The oil will not be wasted!

Put the pan on medium heat and start slowly cooking the potatoes.  The slower the better.  You want the potatoes to be tender, but not browned.  While the potatoes start cooking, coarsely chop the onion and green bell pepper.  These are not mandatory, but give some color and additional flavor.  Put them in the pan with the potatoes.  As the vegetables slowly cook in the oil, the onion will slightly caramelize, giving a wonderful flavor.

Once the potatoes are soft and the onions are golden, you can remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon or spatula and put them in a large mixing bowl.  Make sure to drain a much of the oil from the potatoes as possible.  Afterwards, you can strain the oil and place it in a jar for use on the next tortilla!

Next add a teaspoon of baking powder, salt, and the eggs to the potatoes.  Add salt to your taste. The number of eggs depends on the size of your potatoes, and how runny you want the tortilla mix.  I usually add the eggs one at a time and fold them in gently.  The final product should look like the photo below.

Now that you have your tortilla mix, you need to reheat your skillet (with the oil already removed).  There should be only a small amount of oil in the pan to keep it stick free.  This is the part of the process where having a stick free pan is obligatory.  Put the pan on medium high heat.  Heat the pan, but not to the point where the oil is smoking.  Once hot, pour the tortilla mix into the pan, distributing evenly across the bottom.

The tortilla will only cook on this first side for a short period; it will only cook long enough to get a firm outer membrane.  You may need to turn the heat down a little if it seems like the pan is too hot.

Once a cooked shell has formed on the bottom of the tortilla, you will need to flip it.  Take a large plate, and place it over the top of the pan.  Hold one hand on top of the plate to secure it over the pan.  Holding the handle firmly with the other hand, flip the pan and plate over so that the tortilla flops out of the pan and down onto the plate.  It is best to do this over the sink so that any spill will not make a mess on the stove or floor.

Now that the half-cooked tortilla is on the plate, you will need to slide it off the plate back into the hot pan so that the other side can get cooked.  You should repeat this flipping process multiple times to keep the outside from burning while making sure that the inside gets cooked.  You can keep the heat at medium low during this process.

Once you feel the inside of the tortilla is sufficiently cooked, you can flip it out onto a clean plate.  The finished product will look a bit like a large wheel of cheese.

You can eat the tortilla with bread and salad, with gazpacho, or just by itself.  Enjoy!

El Escorial

The monastery of El Escorial is just a short train ride from Madrid.  This monastery was built by Philip II of Spain as part of his massive campaign against the rising Protestant movement.  This monastery was traditionally the home of the king, and after he built it, Philip II passed the rest of his life there.  The monastery itself is very beautiful.  Enormous murals of battles and biblical scenes grace the walls.  Engraved hardwood panels adorn the walls where the remains of Spain's kings and queens rest.  And the garden, always my favorite part, is just beautiful.