Elusive Castle

Two weeks of my July were spent in Lisbon, Portugal. I'd never been on a plane before, let alone abroad, so I wanted to make the most of the trip. And by that I mean I wanted to see a castle. That was my main goal. I didn't care what kind of castle, or how big it was. I just really needed to see one, for whatever reason.

I never thought trying to see a castle would be so difficult. When my Lisbon companions and I first attempted to visit Sintra, a castle and garden an hour or so away from our hostel, we severely underestimated the exhaustion level we'd face in those first few days. We signed up for the tour, had our breakfast, went back to the room to regroup, and promptly fell asleep for three hours.

"It's okay," we thought. "It's early in the trip. We can go whenever." But we were wrong. Over the next few days, we each became engrossed in different things. The purpose of the trip was to attend a writing workshop, so most worked on their readings or writings in the time we had off. The end of our trip neared and we still had not seen the castle. I began to panic. No one else seemed to remember that the castle was the objective. The Holy Grail of touring Portugal. I pestered them until, finally, we decided on a day to visit.

The day arrives, and we are all ready to go. The castle is happening. We're going. But then, tragedy struck. The bus that would take us to Sintra had broken down, and would not be running until at least the next day. My suffering continued.

In a fantastic turn of events, on the last full day of our trip, two of my group members and I rallied together and went on the tour. I'd never been more excited to walk around in 90 degree heat. The castle was not only beautiful, but it was so culturally rich. I felt like I was walking into a film set. Plus, there was a castle cat and he let me take tons of pictures of him, so really the trip was the best day of my life.