Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Lisboa, Portugal [part 1]

Ahh! So much to fill you all on! This is because of procrastination.

It's going to be a little less prosaic than my other posts (mainly because I want to cover the Portugal trip quickly and tell you guys about my Spring Break.)


DAY 1 (FRIDAY): 


You know how I said I might be getting sick? Well, lo and behold, I got sick. I even took a Nyquil the night before and slept at 10PM to have enough sleep for the next day. But when I woke up, I knew I had gotten sick.

I went to the 24 Hour pharmacy near my house before catching the first train to the airport and got myself some medicine. I don't know where I went wrong in communicating with the pharmacist, but the medicine was a powder that I needed to dissolve in water and drink up. YUCK.

Anyways, I thought I was feeling better, but once in Lisbon, I knew I was in trouble. I was achy, I felt dizzy, I felt cold and tired.  I was just feeling miserable.  But I did not want to be a party pooper to the rest of the group, so I tried to suck it up, and march on. Bleh.

Rather than telling you guys in great detail of my days in Lisbon, I'll just stick with pictures and captions for the most part.

First day in Lisboa, Portugal. 

Randomly stumbled on this ancient Roman Theater 
on our way to St. George's Castle. 

Outside of St. George's Castle

A lookout stop on the Tram 28.  The tram has been 
in place since the late 1800s! The ride really feels a bit 
like a roller coaster. 

Beautiful! The bridge looks like the Golden Gate Bridge.

The gate by the water. 

DAY 2 (SATURDAY):

Two main activities of the day: the flea market, and day trip to Sintra. :) 

The flea market was aweeesssomme. I got two water color paintings for under 7 euros. Weee.  

I personally was a little bleh on the idea of going to Sintra, and I was even more bleh on the idea of going to the Moorish Castle instead of the Palace, but I am very glad that my friends were insistent on going to the Moorish Castle. It was the best place I've visited so far---and that's saying a lot. 

Oddly enough all the taxis in Lisboa were made by
Mercedes Benz! How weird! 

The sign in the Tram.  Real life application story to 
come later. 

The famous elevator. The architect was the same man
who made designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I think...

The Moorish Castle. By far the coolest place I have 
visited so far this semester. The weather was beautiful,
the wind was blowing, and all we managed to say 
throughout the entire visit was, "wooowww, wooowwww!"

This castle was built in the 11th Century, and it is 
feels like the Great Wall of China in the way it is 
made of stones covered in moss, the way it curves,
climbs, and the view that you get! 

It was AWESOME. 

Afterwards, we got pastries, went back to Lisbon, and had a really fantastic meal at the hostel.  So the hostel that we were staying has this option to eat a traditional Portuguese dinner cooked by the old hostel owner for a whooping 9 euros.  (The meal includes starter, entree, dessert, and drinks!) And for the second night we were in Portugal, we decided to try "Mama's Dinner" as they call it, and all I can say is, I'm sad that we didn't do it for the first night! 

Day 3 to come later! 

Sorry that this post lacks the normal details and fun stories... I just needed to get this post done, ya know? 

No comments:

Post a Comment