Waking up in Lisbon with a lot of energy made for an amazing day. So much today was awesome, incredible and beautiful. The day flat out rocked!
The Yes! Hostel where we are staying was rated "Best in the World" from Hostelworld.com a few times. By the time we had breakfast our first morning we could see why. They have the hostel experience dialed in to perfection.
This is the common room where games are played, TV is watched, relaxing is done and dinner is served. For 10€ you get a 3 course dinner with as much wine and beer as you can handle. The amazing part is that the food is really good. A lady cooks it all in the hostel kitchen every night. The staff is one of the most friendly crew I have seen. This place is cranked up for World Cup. 
After our free breakfast we took a morning hostel offered walking tour of the old castle section of Lisbon covering almost 4 miles. We had several panoramic views of the city from the castle area. Yeahhhh!
View from the street looking towards the river.
Second viewpoint looking back at the castle.
Awesome rooftop flowers walking back along the river. Lots of construction and remodeling of the older buildings.
During the walking tour our guide highly recommended the afternoon tour to the town of Sintra. We were planning on going there on our own, but the value was great, so we grabbed the last 2 of 7 spots. We found a sandwich shop for lunch before heading out on the tour. They had a wonderful fresh squeezed orang-mango juice. 
Our second tour of the day was with Luis. He was more that great taking us to Sintra and around the cape. He is full of knowledge and quite funny.
Below is a very congested area in Sintra, but it has very nice shops. Luis showed us the store the sells the local jams, cheese, liquor and port wine. We all sampled the goodies and bought some treats to take with us.
Portugal is the #1 producer of cork in the world. So, why not make shoes and purses as well as corks for wine bottles?
Mmmm..... Jams and jellies of the strangest flavors. 
Get a chocolate cup, fill it up with Ginja, drink half, then chomp the rest down. It tasted like a chocolate covered cherry. 
They had port wine, and more port wine. The man of the shop gave is a dissertation on the types and had us sample the differences.
Next, Luis dropped us off for our self guided tour of Quinta da Regaleria palace and grounds. The grounds were crazy, with grottos and stairways at every turn!
Our group from the hostel: Betty + Zi-on (San Francisco), Heather (Australia), me, Juha (Finland)
Georgie (Australia) hiding out in the cave on the way to the well.
Gman getting his groove on! 
27 meter deep well that has stairs. How cool is that!?!
I don't normally drink out of sinks, but most places it is fine to fill up bottles. In this particular situation, I was washing my hands and felt the nice cold water run over them. I wanted to get a refreshing drink, so I put my head down and used my hands to chug a little water. When I left the restroom, I told some of our friends how great the water tasted and they should try some. Then, they directed me to this sign. Not good. I probably have a parasite in me for the rest of my life. Oops.
Heather taking a shot inside the creepy chapel. 
This is on the ceiling on the way out.
After checking out the palace, our hostel led tour took us to the cape of Portugal. It was windy beyond belief. This view is looking to the north.
This is the western most point of Continental Europe. It looks like a lot of ships could have crashed along these shores!
Cool Portuguese stone pavers on the drive back to Lisbon.
Hotel Palacio where Ian Fleming was inspired to write Casino Royale. The casino is right next door and is the biggest one in Europe. The place is beautiful and fancy.
By the time we got back it was 8:50 pm. Perfect timing for 9:00pm dinner. The trip took a lot of energy out of us, but we managed to stay up for dinner and the World Cup match. Brazil versus Germany was a crushing win for Germany 7-1. The Portugese were supporting Brazil like brothers. The flag and jerseys for Brazil were everywhere. It was hard to watch the game as Germany scored again and again. The hostel party went nuts!
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Brilliant post! Your day-wise experiences of Portugal are certainly a treat to read. My husband has already applied for a Portugal Visa Appointment and we hope to get the visa pretty soon once we clear all the formalities. Meanwhile, we will try to prepare an itinerary by referencing your blog and a few other interesting travel guides. Hoping to make our Portugal trip fun-filled and memorable.
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