PORTUGAL

This past weekend we visited Lisbon, Portugal. It was beautiful. On the first night I went out with a bunch of people from my group. We went into an area called ‘Barrio Alto’ and just walked around and went to a few bars. There were so many people. It was so strange because you pretty much just drank your beer in the streets and walked from place to place. There were people walking around drinking out of liquor or wine bottles. You obviously are allowed to walk down the street with an open container here which is nice if you feel like just walking around. We met some kids from Lisbon as well. They spoke English which was refreshing since for the past week I’ve only been able to speak Spanish to people from the city.

The next day we went to a nearby area called ‘Sintra.’ Sintra is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Apparently Christopher Columbus sailed from Sintra. Here I went into the Sintra Palace and took so many pictures. I also went to a Moorish castle which was located on the top of the mountain in the city. From here you could view the entire town. I really loved the city because you could see a lot of the Islamic influence in their buildings and streets from where it used to be inhabited by the Moors. Some of the apartment buildings were completely covered in decorative tiles and it was gorgeous.

Later I went with a few people to a Moorish neighborhood in Lisbon called Alfama. We walked around for a while just to look at the neighborhood. We went to a Portuguese restaurant that was right on the water. I had fish and a beer. It’s really hard to practice self-control when beer costs the same amount of money as water.

One of my friends and I decided to see a ‘Fado’ band later that night. Fado is the traditional music of Portugal. We went to this little restaurant in ‘Barrio Alto’. The show was free except there was a catch: you had to spend at least 16 euro. So we bought a bottle of wine and went to work. It was a really cool show. There was a band of three individuals playing the guitar, violin, and cello. There were four different singers that took turns performing. I couldn’t really understand what they were saying on account of I don’t speak Portuguese but I guess the gist of the songs had to do with their love for Portugal. What an awesome experience.  We also had a really good conversation with our cab driver that night. He spoke nearly perfect English and was telling us about his life. He kept telling us about having a ‘second wife’ about ten years ago and that he was married at the age of 14. Life is so different there.  Portugal is a much poorer country than Spain and it was defitleney noticeable. However, every person from Portugal we met was very kind and hospitable. Apparently the Portugese have a reputation of being really kind and hospitable according to my host padres.

I got to see the beach as well. It was neat to be on the oposeite side of the Atlantic than I usually am. We walked around more monuments and cathedrals before departing back to Salamanca again. What a long bus ride. I would definitely like to go back to Portugal for longer than 2 days sometime in the future.