I've walked this floor: Barcelona, Spain

Got myself a new flexi-rail pass the other day, but it came at the cost of some time. Not to say there is anything particularly wrong with spending a wonderful week in Lisbon, but there are a few locations in Spain I will have to pass on due to new time restrictions. Interestingly enough, my rail pass was sent to me from the U.S.A. and the reason I went with the mail option was a simple decision.
Option a) Spend 500EUR and wait four days
Option b) Spend 700EUR and buy it at the station (what a rip off).
As awesome as my hostel was, it had one single flaw--the slowest wi-fi I’ve yet to encounter (and I've seen wi-fi Sasktel! *shudder*). It would have been nice to be able to upload pictures with all my spare time, but the failure rate was “jump off a bridge” frustrating.

I made a “day trip” over to the upper east end of Lisbon, to one of the more modern looking sections of the city. The area has been “recently” reclaimed from the sea, so there are no old historic sights to see whatsoever. From the waterfront, the area reminded me of Miami. Lots of tall, glass covered buildings, green space, and beaches (no good for swimming though). I paid a visit to the Oceanarium there, where I spent a few hours looking at funny little creatures such as the penguin, otter, sharks, and one Huuuuuuuuuuuuge (pantheon huge) fish. The Oceanarium is a large aquarium with a building constructed around it. You enter, follow the arrows, walk around in a spirally manner, then exit. Around the Oceanarium were some sights as well, such as the world fair tower (I think that's what it was), garden beach, water garden, and Segway rental stations (I was so close to renting one, but I couldn’t get over how lame I would look riding it around town, wow).

My real day trip took me to Sintra, which was about 45 minutes from Lisbon. The city on its own was similar in “fairy tale” value to Fussen. The main attractions however, were the five major castle/mansion/monasteries. With only one day to explore, I only managed to make it to two of these sights. The first was Quinta da Regaleira, which was located within the city limits. Imagine that you are some insanely rich, Portugese lord, Your spare time includes monocle testing, and spending all your money on renovating your house, and its massive garden. Now imagine that the property changes ownership a few times (all wealthy owners), and each family contributes to the mansion and garden for just under 200 years. The main house, while quite beautiful, is not the main sight (not even close). Adjacent to the mansion is a massive, massive botanical garden, made up of plant life from all around the world. Not only that, but within the walls are chapels, fountains, grottos, waterfalls, wells, aquariums, towers, and tons of medieval style fortification (which serve no defensive purpose whatsoever, but look really cool). The grounds were massive, and led for some very interesting exploration. My favorite parts were the awesome, completely randomly placed towers (which I could climb, and see everything from), and the series of dark tunnels that I got “lost” in.

A short bus ride from the center of Sintra took me to the Palace Nacional da Pena. The palace is located on top of a nearby mountain overlooking Sintra, and had an amazing view. Much like the Quinta da Regaleira, the Pena Palace had an adjacent botanical garden to explore. This garden was far more vast, but had a more “natural forest” feel to it, than the stone wall filled Quinta garden. Pena was home to Queen Dona Maria II of Portugal (she helped build it) in the mid 1800s, and the female influence certainly shows. Every structure had a bright colour assigned to it, and most of the defensive walls and towers were strictly for show (or maybe Maria was just a poor strategist). Some of which were covered in a painfully detailed, decorative, painted tile façade. The interior was semi-interesting, what with its insane furniture, and funny paintings. I was not allowed to take pictures in this place, and they meant it! Every single room had personnel in it, and me without any chloroform or smoke grenades = no pictures.

Due to the amount of time spent in Lisbon, I ran out of things to do on about the 5th day. The remainder of my time was mostly spent watching European sport on T.V. reading, and talking to my fellow hostelers. I even paid the cathedral another visit, because the weather on first day that I went there was terrible. I also went to the major flea market in town, which was literally just a bunch of garbage on the sidewalks. I guess I should be happy though; it was like going to another free contemporary museum! Woooooo! Pile of cell phones, pile of used light bulbs, pile of rusty (and broken) candlestick holders! The list goes on!

As for the next 14 days:
I’m not sure how access to the internet is going to work, but all it takes is five minutes in some internet bar, and my adoring reader base will have something to do for a few minutes. I suspect I’ll be able to manage a post or two, but I promise nothing. Forget about pictures completely. I’ve been trying my best to upload, but I’m limited to stable wi-fi as well as time. I hope everyone back home enjoys a snow filled adventure for me. As for me, I’ll try to have a non-snow-filled adventure for all of you.

Kyle-he's-burning-up-the-deck-with-his-skids-because-he-just-can't-pull-back-on-the-throttle-out