I only had a few hours to burn in the morning before my early afternoon flight and I wanted to visit the Castelo de Sao Jorge, or in other words the huge Castle on top of the city. Portuguese Castles are different than all of the other Castles I have visited because they were used purely for defense only. So they are really set up for war for lots of walls and strategically placed canons and that's about it. No Kings or Queens used to live there so it is just a big fortress where you can walk all over and on all of the walls. My friend kept telling me I had to take one of the old, traditional trolley cars up the hill to the Castle and after looking up the hill I agreed with him. I found a trolley car sign that said Castelo on it and a bunch of camera bearing tourists were standing at the same stop so I thought I had to be on the correct one. I even asked the driver if it was going to Castelo and he kind of nodded so I thought I would go with it because it would be better than hoofing it up that hill. For some reason, I assumed the last stop would be at the Castle, maybe because that's what it looked like on the sign, and the Castle is at the top of the hill so it only made sense to me to be the last stop. I opened the window of the trolley car and was enjoying the ride and taking pictures of parts of the city I hadn't seen yet.
At one point there were a bunch of cops leading the way for a group of black cars and one of them had Korean flags on it so I thought that was neat. After riding around on the trolley for awhile I finally started to realize that I was going in the wrong direction so I got my phone out to see where I was going and sure enough was way past the Castle, and still traveling in the wrong direction. Luckily, the trolley made a circle back toward the castle but its route ended somewhere on the other side of where I started and I realized I wasted a good 20 minutes. So I started trekking up this hill, following incredibly old and seemingly misplaced signs pointing to the castle. Keep in mind, the weather was finally hot as expected that day and I was dripping with sweat because I was speed walking to get to the castle to ensure I would be able to see it before heading to the hotel. At one point I had to climb over 100 steps that led to a passage way with another 60 steps and let me tell you - that was so much fun. Luckily it was in the middle of the day because I am not convinced I was walking around in my bright green Polo with a pair of Nikes on in the best neighborhood. After ten minutes more of walking, I finally made it back to the point of my trolley ride when I saw the Police leading the Koreans down a road. Sure enough that was where I was supposed to get off to follow this small path up to the Castle and that's where the Koreans were going. I hoof it up the hill, wait in line to get my ticket and as I was waiting in line, sure enough the police and the Koreans all leave!
I had just enough time to spend 45 minutes in the huge castle and I took as many pictures of the incredible view I could and climbed the castle walls and steps as fast as I could.
I was hoping there were taxis outside of the castle when I left because I was not about to hoof it back to my hotel and risk missing my flight. Luckily there was and the cost from the castle to my hotel, to grab my luggage, and to the airport was only 12 Euros I think. Partially because the cabs are definitely cheaper in Lisbon but also because the airport is pretty much in the city. A great 4 days in Lisbon which more than exceeded my expectations and I am looking forward to going back to Sintra one day!
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