Sintra Ancient Beauty

Park inside Quinta Regaliera

Quinta Regaliera

Our ESN saw the two major sites in Sintra, Portugal.

One was a nature walk to see different parts of an ancient

Castle. The other was a nature uphill hike to see an entire castle, with a museum of the royalty and their living styles. This is wonderful for people, who don't mind doing some extra walking in nature in order to see the sights.The castles were very well maintained and were very accessible. Just make sure to keep hydrated and wear extra comfy tennis or hiking shoes for these excursions. 

Palacio en Pena

Palacio en Pena

Lisboa Portugal

Garden in front of Los Jeronimos Monastery 

Casteo de Sao Jorges

Belem Tower 

This is truly the city of stairs! Generally  hostal have escalators or getting to it doesn't involve going uphill, up a flight of stairs, another, another past doors to get to office and more flights to your room and back. Everywhere you need to go to usually involves a really steep hill. But other than having a fantastic buns and thighs workout, anything you have work for is worth seeing! Bear in mind, smoking is allowed inside of just about everywhere. 

Trolley Transportation

Discovers Monument

Gibraltar y Los Monos

Rock of Gibraltar

National monument

Sights within Gibraltar

Monkey Mountain

 

Monkeys taking care of each other

Gibraltar is in Spain, but technically  part of the United Kingdom. Coming with ESN by bus, needing to bring our passports without flying seemed so unconventional. I found out some of my friends, students from Turkey, are able to come to Spain, are not allowed into the country. I can officially say that Window shopping in the United Kingdom was eye opener. For instance, the use  of pounds instead of euro after getting so used to euro was not ideal. The prices were very expensive ,in my opinion, even without factoring  the conversion rate. The Rock of Gibraltar is one of the huge attraction that draws a lot of tourist here also known as Monkey Mountain. Visiting the monkeys in its natural habitat accompanied with a view of the city is well worth the visit. Just bear in mind that these monkeys; however, adorable they might be, are very cunning thieves especially when they think they can get food or when they are given the opportunity!!