A conversational travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting a day trip from Lisbon to Sintra, Portugal (video dated August 27, 2016). They travel ~1 hour from Lisbon, visit attractions in Sintra—notably Quinta da Regaleira with its spiral stairwell/initiatic well (about 27 meters deep)—explore gardens, grottoes, and a summer home, eat a late lunch (steak, eggs, rice, fries), have gelato, and return to Lisbon. The vlog records practical details (entrance fee ~€6, visit length ~2 hours, current time ~3:15) and subjective reactions (positive impressions of Sintra and the meal).
Chapters
Kara decided she needed some M&Ms. To start off the morning.
After waking up at 8 o' clock this morning, we are ready to start the day. Kara got her M&M's so now we can go to Sintra. It is a small town about an hour outside of Lisbon via public transportation. Supposed to be cool. Have some castles and stuff.
Kayla, what is there to see in Sintra? Good morning. Good morning. What is there to see in Sintra?
Castles, natural parks.
Natural parks. You've been there. You're supposed to be the expert. You've been there.
But I went with a tour guide. I just went wherever he took me.
All right, Kayla's our tour guide today, so maybe we're in trouble.
Nate's still reloading our card. I hear our train pulling up. This is our train. The boys still aren't up here, so Kayla's going to find them.
Quickly.
Just in time.
We made it. Everybody look cool.
I can't believe that.
We're going somewhere.
We do a really poor job of narrating these vlogs when we're with other people. We just arrived in Sintra. There are a ton of different buildings here that you can pay to go into, like castles and monuments and different stuff like that. We picked one, which is this house that was built by this really rich dude that's supposed to be, like, kind of weird and spooky. Was the number one thing on TripAdvisor. It's like a 30 minute walk outside the city. So that's where we're heading now.
The man obviously knew we were talking about getting popcorn. He just came up now.
We better walk away. He's gonna try and give us another run. Run.
It's gonna be a rare day. There's a long line to pay to get into something and we might do it.
We'. Discussing.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
All right. We did it. We waited in the line. We paid the entrance fee. This could determine if we ever wait in the line to pay an entrance fee to do something to see again. So hopefully it goes well. It's number one on TripAdvisor, so it should be pretty good.
What are we going to see?
Quinta de Regliera.
A large place.
We are.
I have no idea.
Whoa. What is that? That's the. The well. What is this? Underground tunnels and a well.
I think you can get to the well. A subterranean tower that sinks some 27 meters into the earth, made accessible by a monumental spiral stairway. We are going up a lot of stairs into the wilderness. And no Idea where they're taking us.
I think we should go this way.
What tells you that? Are you saying that.
I have a.
Sixth sense of direction? That's.
I think it goes this way. Cuz I feel like we came up that trail and went this way.
We did. So that would take us back the way we came from. I know.
We're trying to go to the well.
Try it.
I'm good with it. We'll just walk till we run into something that we can identify on the map.
What is it? This is the Virgin Grotto. What does that mean?
You sure?
I thought a grotto was like a castle. And I thought a virgin was.
Here.
We are at the very top of a massive web. I don't even know how they made this. It's crazy. And there's stairs that go all the way down.
You go down.
Let's do it.
Made it to the bottom.
How many people do you think we can fit down here in the well?
Now we're going to explore the underground.
I love that there are literally no lights. Like if you did bring a flashlight. I'm not what you do.
Here's what it looks like without my wi fi.
Okay.
That's really.
This reminds me of the cave in the Philippines. And so we run water up to our chest.
Sam.
We just finished exploring the gardens and now we're going into their summer home.
All right. Was it worth €6? Certainly. Yes. Caves. Kara. Big house.
Yeah, it was good.
Will we do another one?
It was good for that one time.
It was good though. Good for that one time. The caves were super cool. The house was amazing. I can't believe somebody actually lived there. Yeah. We all. We lasted about two hours because it's currently 3:15 and we haven't had lunch. I think we saw 50%.
We started a trend of eating lunch around 3pm when we're all starving. So we're stopping one of the first places we've seen because it's cheap and it looks delicious.
That's what I want. Oh my gosh.
It smells like chicken noodles.
What you get?
That's got to be at least four eggs. Kara. Mine was slightly more filling than yours.
Apparently this is a local thing. Eggs, steak, rice, french fries. But the men got the manly meals.
The best meal in Portugal. This is the best meal so far. Steak, eggs, rice, fries. I had a Coke.
Good. Kara, how's that healthy salad? TripAdvisor had meh reviews, but we give it a thumbs up.
Two thumbs up. Thoughts on Sintra. It's a cute little town. With pretty castles. Worth the day trip and get steak and eggs.
If you're like really into the castle thing, you could stay a long time.
Y' all have any time sim spots.
It's about it. That was pretty good. What do you think?
We're heading back for gelato.
That's the most important thing. That's what we're excited about.
Yeah, we've pretty much been looking forward to that all day.
Thankfully, our travel styles work out perfectly. Kayla and Barrett enjoy walking around eating. I'm not walking though.
We're going back to Lisbon. That was the point of that whole thing.
Apparently other people saw the vlog yesterday.
Everyone cares.
You just can't appreciate the sheer scale unless you hold it up next to your head.
I switched up my flavors today. I got chocolate oreo with the chocolate hazelnut.
So good. It's a good thing we're leaving here tomorrow. We might die otherwise.
So good.
It's also a good thing that our place is a 25 minute walk uphill from here so we can work off some of our ice cream.
Plan is to head back, rest for a couple hours and then head back out tonight to explore the Barrio Alto neighborhood. That was the plan last night as well. And then everybody fell asleep at like.
8Pm no, it was a food coma.
Kayla says ice cream coma from the ice cream cones. Which may be true.
Good news. We didn't fall into an ice cream coma.
We're going to Bairro Alto. But we decided not to.
No, we didn't.
The bloopers just had to mess up the third filming of this scene.
Today's vlog ends here.
That was an early start to the bloopers.
Is a grotto a hole? I think a grotto is a hole. I think this is the virgin hole.
I didn't realize how bad that was until it came out. This as a grotto is a small, picturesque cave, especially an artificial one in a park or garden. That cave is really close to a hole.
A fake cave is what you really act like you're doing it.
It.
Did you just notice you spilt your ice cream or did you get pooped on?
