Anyways, I went to Lisbon, Portugal over the weekend with everyone from Tech! We left on a bus and drove for 6 hours. We crossed the border and didn't even have to stop...apparently anybody can travel by car/bus within the European Union without having to show a passport or go through customs. Free transport of goods and people. There was just a teeny sign showing us we had entered a new country...crazy!
Entering the city is quite a sight...you cross over a huge bridge and see this:
Imagine that, for once, it is not pouring rain. Then it would be pretty, right?
This is the aquaduct that was built in the 18th century, it is huuuuge.
First stop: Torre de Belen (Tower of Bethlehem). After this tower was built, Lisbon was never successfully attacked by a ship. This thing is basically indestructable and was filled with cannons and gun powder. From the top you can see for miles.
Luckily, it wasn't raining when we climbed tower. We then went to a Geronomite Monastery. I'm 99% sure it dates back to the 15th century...but I'm not completely sure.
Sorry all of my pictures are random sizes...the uploading process was a bit frustrating.
Luis de Camóes is buried in the monastery, he is the most famous writer/poet from Lisbon.
Creepy fact of the day: After people died, a wax mold was taken of their dead face, and then used to mold their coffin. ew!
The stained glass was beautiful! The prettiest I've seen so far.
This is the courtyard of the monastery. The monks used to walk around this porch area and pray.
Thursday night, we went to a Brazilian restaurant with the entire crew from Tech. The waiters would walk around with giant chunks of meat on skewers and would just saw a few pieces off onto your plate as they walked by! It was definitely an experience.
Some of the meat was good, most of it was gamey tasting, and some of it was raw:
Now, I am a "medium-well" girl, so this was a bit alarming for me. But hey, I survived :) It's not easy having a dad who cooks gourmet meat-centered meals all of the time, I can't help but be a little critical :)
The next morning, we woke up early and went to see the Cristo Rey. It is a replica of the Jesus statue in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. It is actually a bit smaller than the one in Rio, but it is still super tall! You can see the Cristo Rey from almost anywhere in town, I really liked being able to look around and spot it while we were wandering around. It was overcast for a while, but my friend Zora asssured me that "Even if you can't see Him, you know he is there". hehe :)
The view from the hill that Cristo Rey is on:
Cute amigas: Carrie and Kate!
After visiting Cristo Rey, we headed off the the largest oceanarium in Europe. The aquarium was really cool and I got to see tons of neat things...like sea horses and jellyfishies!
dunnuh nuhnuh nuhnuh nuhnuh....
I hated this guy...mainly because I am a Steve Irwin loyalist.
Ok...this is the most gigantic, awkward, ugly, amazing fish I have ever seen! So awkward!
See how big he is compared the the scuba diver?
Teeny tiny penguins.
Sea life is so pretty, it's kind of weird fishies are the only ones who get to appreciate it.
Jellyfish!!!!!!! These were SO neat.
See the seahorsey?? He had leaves growing out of him. He thought he was so sly, hiding in that plant, but I found him like the pro sea horsey spotter that I am.
Enna-nemma-nenna-neeeee!
Giant octopus in a teeny fish tank :( I wanted to set him free!
After an couple hours at the oceanarium, we were all sea-lifed out. I took the metro with some friends and hunted down a delish restaurant. After stuffing our bellies full, we went back to the hotel for a bit and got ready for the night. We decided we would grab a quick bite to eat at Pizza Hut (the only place nearby) across the street before heading out. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER we left. However, some people (the ones who had to wait the full 2 hours) got their food free, although half of us had to pay and everyone paid for drinks/salads. We were not happy campers.
Here we are after about 20 minutes...so blissfully unaware of the eternity we would spend here:
Bleh. After the Pizza Hut incident, we just went back to the hotel and hung out with a bunch of people in our room.
The next day, we slept in a bit and planned to meet the group in the hotel lobby at 1pm to go to a nearby town. We were looking forward to exploring the countryside and the castle there. However, it was raining at 1pm, so we went to eat instead. Portuguese people are tricksters! They put bread, cheese, meats, stuffed mushrooms, and lots of other yummy looking food on your table when you get there. But wait! If you touch any of it, they charge you out the wazoo! Fortunately, we didn't fall for their devious plan.
After the restaurant, we headed to the Fine Arts Museum of Portugal. It was neat, but was basically full of hundreds of almost identical paintings. They were all religious and all done in the same style, but the details were cool to look at.
This is a painting of the monastery we visited! See the Torre de Belen on the left?
Japanese screens that depict all Portuguese men wearing parachute pants:
After the museum, we wandered around downtown for a bit. Since our day trip to the countryside castle was cancelled, we were all a little confused as to what to do. We basically just aimlessly wandered around Lisbon for a while.
This is a giant elevator downtown...you can go up in it and take pics of the city!
After all of that wandering, we obviously needed a gelato break:
yummo!
Suds in the fountain in a plaza downtown! haha!
We finally headed back to the hotel. We stopped at the bull ring, which has a mall underneath it...random. We found a grocery store under there and bought some snacks for dinner since we had been eating like fatties all weekend! It was SUPER windy....like Lubbock on days when the sky is brown and people who are from out of town think the world is ending. AND it was raining, this was my happy face:
Thank goodness my cute umbrella was safe in Sevilla! We ended the night just hanging out at the hotel and going to bed early, we were sleeeeepy and it was gross outside.
Highlights of the Trip:
1) Joining a few homeless men in singing Nirvana songs on the metro
2) Proudly sporting 3D glasses that a man on the street gave us
3) Coughing almost the entire way to Lisbon, while having pink eye (nobody sat next to me...I have no idea why?)
4) Never knowing whether to speak in English or Spanish or to just motion and point to what we wanted
Lisbon was fun, but I am excited for a couple of weeks of lazing around rainy Sevilla. My wallet needs a break! This afternoon, my roomie and I bought gym memberships and she proceeded to almost kill me by making me do Cross Fit. If you do not know what this evil thing is, stay far, far away from it. It's been 5 hours and I still can't walk without my knees locking. Ah, the price I have to pay for eating Taco Villa 4 times a week last semester...
Speaking of... if anybody mails me a combination burrito from Taco Villa, my heart will be yours forever.
Adios,
julia
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