Lisbon and Sintra, Portugal

In 2016, my family and I traveled to Portugal. The flight was seven and a half hours from Recife, Brazil to Lisbon, Portugal. The first thing we did after we arrived in Lisbon was go to our apartment and meet the owner who was renting it to us, he showed us the apartment and gave us the keys. Later we went to visit Lisbon and see its beauty, we saw the Praça do Comércio and we walked around. We also visited the Elevator of Santa Justa and later Barrio Alto, next we went to the Castelo de São Jorge and saw the castle.

I was amazed at the beauty of Plaza Rossio, also known as Plaza Dom Pedro IV. The colors of the buildings surrounding the area were also very pretty.

Rossio square has a designated pattern on the floor of the square, that same pattern is seen at Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro and Manaus, Brazil. The pattern has been said to mean many different things, but the most interesting is; the colors represent the meeting of the waters of Solimões river and the Rio Negro in Amazonas, Brazil. The photos below show the pattern in Lisbon, Copacabana and Manaus in order. It is interesting to see the link between Portugal and Brazil, since colonial times.

After that my family and I took a tuk tuk to Belem which was only about 15 minutes from Lisbon by tuk tuk, and had a pastei de nata at a bakery in Belem which are one of the most famous deserts in Portugal. We visited the Belem tower which played a key role in Europe’s Age of Discoveries.

We went to a few more tourist attractions including Padrão dos Descobrimentos and Monastery of Hiéronymites

Afterwards we hopped on a train and went to Sintra, Portugal. It was a short ride from Lisbon.

We spent the day and visited the area. From there we took a train back to Lisbon and went to sleep. I truly enjoyed our trip to Portugal, Lisbon and Sintra are beautiful. I learned a lot about the culture and wish to come back one day.

written by Sofia