Day 4: Sintra/Cascais
By Ethan, Drew, Matthew
In the morning, we took a bus ride to Sintra, a beautiful, small, hilly town of 15-20,000 people about 45 minutes away from Lisbon. First, we visited the Palacio Nacional de Sintra, which was originally constructed with traditional Islamic architecture in the 10th century. The palace was then renovated with classic Manueline style decorations during the Age of Discoveries. After touring the palace, our group separated and explored the main town center for lunch.
Next, we hopped back on the bus and headed towards the fishing village of Cascais. We stopped and headed into a 16th century naval fort. After walking through the fort, we walked along the coastline towards a covered, local market. Afterwards, we got a few hours of free time to hang around. Our small group ate lunch, played pool at a restaurant and relaxed for a few hours. Finally, we bought a volleyball and headed down to the beach and played with the local teenagers.
In the late afternoon, we continued to play beach volleyball with the local kids. We did tournament style 3 vs 3 and eventually mixed up the groups and did 6 vs. 6. After volleyball, the kids introduced us to Cascais and the local life. Many of them had to leave as the sun went down. But a few kids stuck around to take our volleyball group to McDonalds.
Later, our whole group came together for Meeting for Worship at the Ribeira beach pier. As we settled into silence, our guide Guillermo shared words of gratitude for our chaperones as well as the opportunity to share Portugal with MFS students and teachers. We then walked 10 minutes into town for a delicious dinner of salad, a grilled meats stew (and a veggie curry for a few people), along with a Portuguese dessert. We then boarded the bus to head back to the hotel to pack and get some sleep before our early morning departure for the train to Porto.