On the previous posts, I wrote some about my personal anti excursion tour policy. I prefer keeping my own pace to being dragged by guides and that's why I chose backpacking. However, this tour to Sintra was hosted by Traveller's House that is world's no1 hostel ranked at hostelworld.com and knows very well about the preferences of backpackers. Their basic style was that a merry driver just took us to the attractions and let us walk around the each area freely. On the bus, we listened to Portuguese history from the driver told and talked made chitchat with the fellow passengers. It was so relaxing that I became thinking of these kinds of "take-it-easy" trips are not that bad even though I like a sort of a hard core backpacking like toiling away on the unfamiliar roads yet laughing away the troubles.

The tour first arrived at Pena National Palace which is the foremost tourist attraction of Sintra. Unfortunately, it was prohibited to take photographs of its interiors, but shooting the brightly coloured exterior which is a mixture of multi construction manners was fun enough. I was wondering how come they decorated the walls with such a flashy style.

The next one was a famous castle too(sorry I forgot the name of it). It was like a little adventure to walk around the green garden with streams as there was a well down to the underground plus underground passages to the streams. Although the size of the building itself was smaller than the Pena Palace, I fully enjoyed walking on this castle and the area.

Cabo da Roca (Cape Roka) the westernmost cape of the Eurasia is the place I really wanted to come on this excursion. Having departed from the far east 6 months ago, I finally arrived at the western edge and observing to the even west, there should be the America continent over the ocean. Thinking of the journey afterwards, I was so exhilarated. Ideally, it would've been great if we could watch the sunset from here but it was the point I had give in due to the tour. Maybe for the next time in the future.

I stayed in Lisbon for 7 days in total and time went by so quickly as usual. From here, I was going to travel around Europe by train for 100 days. I'll write not about travelogues but general information about trains in Europe.

Lisbon is called the "City of the Seven Hills" and is famous for trams running through narrow slopes. Once you get used to it, the tram is quite useful for touring around the city as it's cheap and runs frequently. Nevertheless, it was not really safe in my case. When I was waiting for a tram inthe daytime, a local guy, showing a big map and speaking in poor English, asked directions from me who undoubtedly looked like a tourist. Being confused with this bizarre situation, I at first checked the map but soon realized that the hand of guy standing at the opposite side was moving suspiciously. Hell, he must have been trying to open my bag. A pickpocket team presumably they were. Waving my arms furiously I stared the guy and he seemed to give up butwe couldn't be careful enough in Europe since the possibility of being involved with such crimes like pickpocket, mugging and soon is much worse in Europe than the Middle East (and probably South America is the worst.)

In order to protect myself from pickpockets, I mostly used breast pockets. My wallet was compact enough to fit in the pocket and it was too hard to miss the wallet picked from there. Alternatively, holding the actual items tightly was quite effective. Although some people use special under clothes to hide their valuables, I didn't really care about exposing mine for a short time. Anyway, I was a conspicuous tourist so an obvious target for mugging. Rather than wearing unstylish garments, I preferred using convenient breast pockets.

Well, let's get back to the point. Lisbon was such a wonderful city that I can forget such a small accident. Especially for shooting street snaps, it was one of the best moments of this whole trip. Hydrants, street lights, laundries, any items on the streets were somehow very photogenic and I really enjoyed shooting them. Besides, unlike the Middle East, people passing by were used to cameras and didn't care about me photographing on the streets. I hadn't been able to take photos so freely for a long time.

What's more, I liked the meals in Lisbon as this city had tasty seafood from the local port. Therefore I always had a seafood plate except for the very first day when I went for pork, (It had been literally impossible to find pork for a few month when I was in the Middle East). I had never imagined I could eat such a great grilled fish with salt which gets Japanese's heart. Besides, the price of seafood was incredibly cheap, almost the same or lower than meat though seafood at restaurants was usually too pricy for budget backpackers. Actually, the prices in Portugal were quite reasonable compared to the other Western European countries, and thanks to the fact I was so happy to savour tasty meals(with cold beer, of course).

I found that I can easily fit in well in Europe. Even though the Middle East had been a super interesting travel destination, Europe was more like a place for relaxing. Perhaps my Latin blood might have helped to me to fit in. Anyway the trip around whole of Europe was promising to be entertaining.

When I got the next ticket, I was bit afraid of not being able to use the first class lounge as the terminal of the next flight was designated for only the short distance flights within the Schengen countries -the European countries which you can travel without passport check-, which means there were no first class flights departing from the terminal. However surprisingly, Lufthansa was operating a full scale first class lounge at the small terminal too. Because of this, the number of people using the lounge was just a few. Sometimes, I was the only one staying at the lounge although they had at least three or four people working.

After having a hot shower, I went to a cabana. Although the bed making was quite simple -a large bare leather bed with a down quilt- warm lightings and amenities besides the pillow made the cosy room luxurious. By the way, when had I slept such a pretty private room before this? I must emphasize this fact in case you've forgotten; I'm a modest backpacker sleeping in dorm rooms. It's been a very long time since I could sleep well without any distractions.

Meals were waiting for me after having a nap. Shrimp cocktails, Iberico hams, the gorgeous buffet table was overwhelmingly appetizing. The bar had every liquor from all over the world and it looked like they could make all sorts of cocktails according to your order. In fact, the drink menu had a massive 16 pages including 10 types of water. Though some beverages were seasonal only, without any doubt it was impossible to complete within just a half day.

Thanks to this fantastic lounge, I could spend 11 hours in a relaxed mood. Besides, the serving style by German staff was notable too. Unlike the other too casual Westerns or humble Asians, they were always friendly yet not too rude. Therefore, Lufthansa became my favourite flight carrier on this whole trip closely followed by JAL and Cathay Pacific. Oh, I ranked Star Alliance's company as my best, even though I was using Oneworld's first class round the world ticket.

As I mentioned before, this series of flights in the Middle East and Europe was not included in the round the world ticket. Nevertheless, I didn't pay a regular fare at all. The trick was "award flights". I'd earned a significant amount of ANA(Star Alliance carrier) mileage for three years when I was in Japan and got flights on the following route "London -> Frankfurt -> Cairo -> (surface sector) Istanbul -> Tel Aviv -> Frankfurt -> Lisbon -> London(cancelled)". Although they charged a little for taxes, fuel surcharges and such, it was just a marginal expense considering the fairy tale like experience of upper class seats.

Just using a proper credit card for a few years, anyone can earn 50-60k mileages for 3 years. If you say "I wish to be on a first class flight but for the costwise..", why don't you make a credit card and research about the mileage systems? You know, all it takes is a little ingenuity.