Portugal
hey everyone I have been promising to tell you about Portugal so here you go now that I have a little bit of time!
We left on a bus at 8 am to Lisboa, Portugal. In English this is Lisbon, Portugal. The drive took 5 hours! (It was pretty tough especially since it is hard for me to sleep on a bus without being able to lay down as I had a guy in the seat next to me) The first sight I saw in Lisboa was this huge statue of Jesus with his arms extended outward in a cross shape, it is pretty huge and stands on the hill right next to the bridge. Now I need to explain that Portugal is built like San Francisco with a lot of hills and of course a bridge similiar to the golden gate bridge. So you see the big Jesus statue then cross the bridge to get into the city. This bridge was built because of the terrible earthquakes and tsunamis that Portugal has undergone. It crosses the river Tejo or Tigres River.
Right under this bridge is the hotel that we stayed at and it was really really nice. I believe it was a 5 star hotel and had a lot of business people staying there. The next morning it showed how nice it really was with our breakfast being unbelievably good. Ashton and I actually got up early by an hour on Saturday just to have more time to eat breakfast. When we arrived at the hotel the bus had a hard time getting in because the street in front of the hotel was small. The directors and a few boys got out and actually picked up two cars and ¨parked¨ them closer the sidewalk but the bus still couldn´t get through which was fine because it was about ten steps further for us to walk to the front doors of the hotel so it was fine. Our rooms weren´t quite ready when we arove so we put all our bags in a closet and some people stayed at the hotel but of course I was ready to explore and so were my friends so off we went, Ashton stayed and was asleep in the room when I returned later.
In front of the hotel was a bigger 4 lane street and then next to it the trolley tracks and then some open area and then the river, so we had to walk two blocks to get to a walking bridge then walk back nexst to the tracks to get to a set of restaurants that overlooked the river. There was a dock here too so of course these restaurants had amazing seafood. We walked by all of these restaurants then made our way back to the hotel for siesta time.
After naps the directors took us on a tour of the city and the bus dropped us off about 5 minutes away at the center of the city, and we walked the uneven streets in Alfama to El castel de sáo Jorge. We walked by the catedral but didn´t go through because it was empty. The reason for this was that it was ruined in the earthquake and had been rebuilt then was hit by the title wave and they rebuilt it again but only the outside could be rebuilt.
We walked up to the castle and I was blown away by how amazing it was. This was a fortress built only for defense. It is located at the highest point in the city and overlooks the river. It has a big courtyard surrounded by a huge wall that can serve as great protection for the whole city during attacks. We had to cross a bridge to get into the castle and it is pretty obvious that this was for a moat that had long since dried up and now it is covered in grass and has peacocks who roam around it. As a group we had fun walking on the walls and looking through the holes specially made for archers. There was a variety of towers just for defense and even some small couryards nest to the big courtyard. All of these were open to the elements so it could never have been used as living quarters.
After this tour we were given the opportunity to stay in this part of town or return to the hotel, most people stayed. My friends Media, Brian, Jim, and Robert walked around town looking at shops and looking for a place to eat. We went through a couple stores and saw lots of shops but as night began to fall we felt like food. We ran into Ashton and she recommended this restaurant we were deciding on and so we went there. By the end of the dinner we had consumed 3 bottles of the house wine and I had eaten one of the best salmon I have ever had. The way Ashton and I describe it is it melts in the mouth like an m&m. We then continued our walk around this small part of the city.
We found a guard in a special guard box near one of the plazas and I had to have a picture with him. Which was a story in itself because of course they speak portuguese in Lisboa so they had difficulty with our spanish even though it is similar to portugues our spanish is not great enough for them to understand us. They kept asking us to speak english to them as everyone spoke english. So I walked up the guard with his sword and asked in spanish if we could take a picture with him. He nodded so I stood on one side and was telling Jim to stand on the other side when the guard without moving said ¨either side is ok¨which startled both of us.
Also during our travels we encountered a huge building that is just for looking out over the city and evidently we had foudn the free way to do this as others were standing in line for the elevator and having to pay 2.50 euros to go up. It was beautiful on top and we got a lot of pics. There were tables set up on top and a lot of couples were having drinks and listening to a musician play the violin.
By the end of this we were ready to search for a bar to listen to fado. Now Portugal is famous for its fado like Spain is famous for its flamenco dancing. So we tried to return to a bar that our directors had suggested but it ended up opening a lot later and we would have had to eat dinner there and hope there were seats available so we decided to return home. Now as we know there was 5 people with us and taxis only take 4 people at a time so I decided that walking back to the hotel would be fine. Of course we did this and never got lost because we kept the river in sight but it took us 1.5 hours to do this and we were pretty tired at the end. Bright parts about our walk were some girls yelled¨I love you to Jim¨and he yelled back tambien para mi which made both parties laugh and there was a firework show that we would have missed had we not been walking in that direction. Also we passed some clubs and saw signs that said 100 euros and later asked the directors and learned that these clubs had a requirement that each group of people had to spend at least 100euros on drinks a night. But I guess this is not watched carefully and it is only a way for bartenders to get rid of annoying people throughout the night.
So we made it back to the hotel and slept. Ashton joined me a lot later as she went out to the clubs on the warf and had a great time. She was so drunk that she didn´t remember when she had returned to the room and had taken a cab to get back to the hotel with another girl in our group, I´m sure that was a pretty cheap ride.
Saturday
We got up and went to breakfast as I have already mentioned this was pretty fun as breakfast at this hotel was amazing. Then went on a tour another part of the city. We had a female tour guide who described buildings that we passed like a rope factory that was really long! Then the President´s house that had a statue and fountain in front of it. What amazed me about this was that it didn´t have a wall around it, it was in a pretty central part of the city and was pink.
We stopped at a monestary that used to have monks in it before they were cast out of the building. It had a church that had two important coffins in it one was for a Portuguese poet that is as important to them as Shakespeare is to us. On the other side was the coffin for Vashgo de Gamma. This man found a route to india and was famous throughout Portugal for it because it opened up more trading opportunities for Portugal.
We then toured a building that is similiar to a castle and was only for defense as well. It was located away from shore in the river, across from it closer to the other shore was another one, and then farther away in the mouth of the river used to be another one all of these had to be accessed by a boat and soldiers had to spend days at these buildings and none of them offered alot of protection from the weather. The idea of these buidings was defense. It was harder to attack Portugal by land as it closest neighbor was Spain so it placed more of its defense in the river. Now if a boat passed into the harbor it had to pass the first building that was in the middle of the mouth of the river. That building was close enough to the other two that it could signal to the others if a boat should not be allowed. the distance between the shores was really only wide enough for one boat to enter at a time. The other two buildings had canons facing the river and both could fire on a boat passing by to the harbor. Evidently this worked pretty well.
The bus took us back to the alfama area of town so I went shopping with Brian and Robert ate lunch of a soup with fish filets, clams, and some other seafood then went back to the hotel to rest up for the night.
Brian, Robert and I went to eat dinner at an italian restaurant on the warf then met up with Ashton and the rest of the group to go dancing. Together we went to the irish pub and they drank and danced to the music from the live band and I danced. Then it got a little crowded so we moved to the club next door called the seven seas and we danced first on the first floor then moved up to upstairs that opened up to the dj downstairs. We danced a whole lot! They played a little bit of everything and all songs were fast so we got a lot of exercise. The down side was the amount of Portuguese guys that were in this club that followed us from the first floor to the second. These guys were pretty aggressive, after I danced with one a little bit I began to feel uncomfortable with him so I left him to dance with some other people and always seemed to end up behind me. I would turn around and he would be righ there trying to dance with me again. He even bought me a flower from one of the older men that kept walking into the club and trying to get guys to buy flowers from them.
My friends began to notice how this guy would not leave me alone so Brian and Robert kept grabbing me when he came near me which means they had to practically dance with me practically the whole night. At one point the guy tried to pick a fight with Robert but Robert handled it great. I felt bad that the two guys had to keep dancing with me so I danced with another guy in the program and he was great. First off he has a bigger build then the other two so he was more intimidating and I later found that he danced similiar to Isaiah and I had a lot of fun dancing with him.
We left the club 15 minutes before it closed and walked back to the hotel. I got to bed at 5 am, needless to say the bus ride the next day was really tough as I was sleep deprived and sick of riding on the bus. I was so excited to get home and sleep eat dinner then go back to sleep.
We left on a bus at 8 am to Lisboa, Portugal. In English this is Lisbon, Portugal. The drive took 5 hours! (It was pretty tough especially since it is hard for me to sleep on a bus without being able to lay down as I had a guy in the seat next to me) The first sight I saw in Lisboa was this huge statue of Jesus with his arms extended outward in a cross shape, it is pretty huge and stands on the hill right next to the bridge. Now I need to explain that Portugal is built like San Francisco with a lot of hills and of course a bridge similiar to the golden gate bridge. So you see the big Jesus statue then cross the bridge to get into the city. This bridge was built because of the terrible earthquakes and tsunamis that Portugal has undergone. It crosses the river Tejo or Tigres River.
Right under this bridge is the hotel that we stayed at and it was really really nice. I believe it was a 5 star hotel and had a lot of business people staying there. The next morning it showed how nice it really was with our breakfast being unbelievably good. Ashton and I actually got up early by an hour on Saturday just to have more time to eat breakfast. When we arrived at the hotel the bus had a hard time getting in because the street in front of the hotel was small. The directors and a few boys got out and actually picked up two cars and ¨parked¨ them closer the sidewalk but the bus still couldn´t get through which was fine because it was about ten steps further for us to walk to the front doors of the hotel so it was fine. Our rooms weren´t quite ready when we arove so we put all our bags in a closet and some people stayed at the hotel but of course I was ready to explore and so were my friends so off we went, Ashton stayed and was asleep in the room when I returned later.
In front of the hotel was a bigger 4 lane street and then next to it the trolley tracks and then some open area and then the river, so we had to walk two blocks to get to a walking bridge then walk back nexst to the tracks to get to a set of restaurants that overlooked the river. There was a dock here too so of course these restaurants had amazing seafood. We walked by all of these restaurants then made our way back to the hotel for siesta time.
After naps the directors took us on a tour of the city and the bus dropped us off about 5 minutes away at the center of the city, and we walked the uneven streets in Alfama to El castel de sáo Jorge. We walked by the catedral but didn´t go through because it was empty. The reason for this was that it was ruined in the earthquake and had been rebuilt then was hit by the title wave and they rebuilt it again but only the outside could be rebuilt.
We walked up to the castle and I was blown away by how amazing it was. This was a fortress built only for defense. It is located at the highest point in the city and overlooks the river. It has a big courtyard surrounded by a huge wall that can serve as great protection for the whole city during attacks. We had to cross a bridge to get into the castle and it is pretty obvious that this was for a moat that had long since dried up and now it is covered in grass and has peacocks who roam around it. As a group we had fun walking on the walls and looking through the holes specially made for archers. There was a variety of towers just for defense and even some small couryards nest to the big courtyard. All of these were open to the elements so it could never have been used as living quarters.
After this tour we were given the opportunity to stay in this part of town or return to the hotel, most people stayed. My friends Media, Brian, Jim, and Robert walked around town looking at shops and looking for a place to eat. We went through a couple stores and saw lots of shops but as night began to fall we felt like food. We ran into Ashton and she recommended this restaurant we were deciding on and so we went there. By the end of the dinner we had consumed 3 bottles of the house wine and I had eaten one of the best salmon I have ever had. The way Ashton and I describe it is it melts in the mouth like an m&m. We then continued our walk around this small part of the city.
We found a guard in a special guard box near one of the plazas and I had to have a picture with him. Which was a story in itself because of course they speak portuguese in Lisboa so they had difficulty with our spanish even though it is similar to portugues our spanish is not great enough for them to understand us. They kept asking us to speak english to them as everyone spoke english. So I walked up the guard with his sword and asked in spanish if we could take a picture with him. He nodded so I stood on one side and was telling Jim to stand on the other side when the guard without moving said ¨either side is ok¨which startled both of us.
Also during our travels we encountered a huge building that is just for looking out over the city and evidently we had foudn the free way to do this as others were standing in line for the elevator and having to pay 2.50 euros to go up. It was beautiful on top and we got a lot of pics. There were tables set up on top and a lot of couples were having drinks and listening to a musician play the violin.
By the end of this we were ready to search for a bar to listen to fado. Now Portugal is famous for its fado like Spain is famous for its flamenco dancing. So we tried to return to a bar that our directors had suggested but it ended up opening a lot later and we would have had to eat dinner there and hope there were seats available so we decided to return home. Now as we know there was 5 people with us and taxis only take 4 people at a time so I decided that walking back to the hotel would be fine. Of course we did this and never got lost because we kept the river in sight but it took us 1.5 hours to do this and we were pretty tired at the end. Bright parts about our walk were some girls yelled¨I love you to Jim¨and he yelled back tambien para mi which made both parties laugh and there was a firework show that we would have missed had we not been walking in that direction. Also we passed some clubs and saw signs that said 100 euros and later asked the directors and learned that these clubs had a requirement that each group of people had to spend at least 100euros on drinks a night. But I guess this is not watched carefully and it is only a way for bartenders to get rid of annoying people throughout the night.
So we made it back to the hotel and slept. Ashton joined me a lot later as she went out to the clubs on the warf and had a great time. She was so drunk that she didn´t remember when she had returned to the room and had taken a cab to get back to the hotel with another girl in our group, I´m sure that was a pretty cheap ride.
Saturday
We got up and went to breakfast as I have already mentioned this was pretty fun as breakfast at this hotel was amazing. Then went on a tour another part of the city. We had a female tour guide who described buildings that we passed like a rope factory that was really long! Then the President´s house that had a statue and fountain in front of it. What amazed me about this was that it didn´t have a wall around it, it was in a pretty central part of the city and was pink.
We stopped at a monestary that used to have monks in it before they were cast out of the building. It had a church that had two important coffins in it one was for a Portuguese poet that is as important to them as Shakespeare is to us. On the other side was the coffin for Vashgo de Gamma. This man found a route to india and was famous throughout Portugal for it because it opened up more trading opportunities for Portugal.
We then toured a building that is similiar to a castle and was only for defense as well. It was located away from shore in the river, across from it closer to the other shore was another one, and then farther away in the mouth of the river used to be another one all of these had to be accessed by a boat and soldiers had to spend days at these buildings and none of them offered alot of protection from the weather. The idea of these buidings was defense. It was harder to attack Portugal by land as it closest neighbor was Spain so it placed more of its defense in the river. Now if a boat passed into the harbor it had to pass the first building that was in the middle of the mouth of the river. That building was close enough to the other two that it could signal to the others if a boat should not be allowed. the distance between the shores was really only wide enough for one boat to enter at a time. The other two buildings had canons facing the river and both could fire on a boat passing by to the harbor. Evidently this worked pretty well.
The bus took us back to the alfama area of town so I went shopping with Brian and Robert ate lunch of a soup with fish filets, clams, and some other seafood then went back to the hotel to rest up for the night.
Brian, Robert and I went to eat dinner at an italian restaurant on the warf then met up with Ashton and the rest of the group to go dancing. Together we went to the irish pub and they drank and danced to the music from the live band and I danced. Then it got a little crowded so we moved to the club next door called the seven seas and we danced first on the first floor then moved up to upstairs that opened up to the dj downstairs. We danced a whole lot! They played a little bit of everything and all songs were fast so we got a lot of exercise. The down side was the amount of Portuguese guys that were in this club that followed us from the first floor to the second. These guys were pretty aggressive, after I danced with one a little bit I began to feel uncomfortable with him so I left him to dance with some other people and always seemed to end up behind me. I would turn around and he would be righ there trying to dance with me again. He even bought me a flower from one of the older men that kept walking into the club and trying to get guys to buy flowers from them.
My friends began to notice how this guy would not leave me alone so Brian and Robert kept grabbing me when he came near me which means they had to practically dance with me practically the whole night. At one point the guy tried to pick a fight with Robert but Robert handled it great. I felt bad that the two guys had to keep dancing with me so I danced with another guy in the program and he was great. First off he has a bigger build then the other two so he was more intimidating and I later found that he danced similiar to Isaiah and I had a lot of fun dancing with him.
We left the club 15 minutes before it closed and walked back to the hotel. I got to bed at 5 am, needless to say the bus ride the next day was really tough as I was sleep deprived and sick of riding on the bus. I was so excited to get home and sleep eat dinner then go back to sleep.
posted by Lauren Westling @ 6:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home