Cascais, custard and cabos

Went to visit Thomas this weekend in Portugal. It was so good to see family, even if only for two days. He showed us so much. Of Lisboa and the surrounding areas. We went by bus both ways (about 30 hours/way). I don´t know how people tour on buses except for the fact that they have beds. Ok so that wouldn´t be bad. We went from Madrid to Lisboa on one bus. Our busdriver was so great. There were about 7 portugese men on the bus and my two friends and I. I sat in one seat by the second entrance about halfway back. I had my chair leaned back and was sleeping curled up in both of the seats (remember folks, I´m only 5´1" thanks to my fabulous genetic structure so I can do that-you can see what is happening in a crowd of people that are tall, I can curl up and sleep like a puppy anywhere...no cause to be jealous). The busdriver comes by on one of our stops and tells me in portugese (which I do NOT speak) that my seat leans back all the way into a bed. When he realizes I understood like two of those words, he proceeds to show me. PLOP! I fall backward abruptly onto the seat behind me. Everyone else wants to change seats with me they tell me in Portugese (this I understand). I tell them that´s ok and that if you snooze you lose...I snooze I get a bed. We finally arrived in Lisboa at 5:45am. Thomas met us and took us around the city with one of his advisors, Linda. She was wonderful. She showed us MAFRA, Cabo da Roca, Hell´s mouth (i think that was what it was called), a convent made by Franciscan monks that was like a cave in a mountain that they had made everything out of stone and cork, a mock Versailles built by portugese royalty, a view of a moorish castle and the ruins of another monestary on the top of the mountain and Sintra, a beautiful town whose houses were built in the 1600s. The next day we went to Belem and had Paisdais de Belem which is a pastry that they are famous for. THey like custard a lot. I also had Galao which is coffee with more milk than coffee...very good as I am a tea kind of girl. WE saw the president´s residence, the river and a monument to the discoverers/explorers. Then we went to Cascais to the beach. Beautiful cold atlantic ocean. We got a little burned but not bad...pinkish. Then we went to the Castle of St. George which has a beautiful view of the city. It was amazing. The whole thing was a blur yet relaxing. We saw so much and yet nothing at all. The time spent with them was so fun. I also met Thomas´s house mom Doña Ana...she spoke portugese to me and I spoke spanish to her...somehow we understood each other most of the time. She make fun of Thomas because he doesn´t speak as much portugese as she thinks that he does. Too cute though. Sorry had to describe all of this. The computer does not like my USB cord so although I have about 600+ pictures of everything, I am unable as of yet to publish them to the blog. I am working on it though. Ciao. DOS besos (one for each cheek).