Portugal Feb 10-12

Last week Sunday when I came home from London I was very surprised when I went into my bathroom. Every counter was full of products. There were hair products, skin products, and makeup everywhere. This was my hint that I had new roommates. They were two girls from France. One was 16 and the other was 17. They were very outgoing; my host mom thought they were “locas”. I only saw them during dinner because they were out with their travel group or I was at school but they seemed pretty nice. One of the girls knew 4 languages (French, English, Spanish, and Italian). As soon as they came, they left; because on Friday they had to go back to France. Now the house is quiet again.

Thursday afternoon a few of us went to a Peluqueria to get our hair cut. The place we found was right by my house and it was super cheap. The language barrier made things a little bit difficult. I had a lot of trouble explaining how I wanted it so the stylist found a book and had me point out the style I wanted. I was really nervous, but the stylist ended up doing a really great job.

On Friday was our Portugal trip. For the trip we would be picked up in Taxi’s at 6:30am and brought to the bus station by 7am. One of the girls in our group thought it would be an awesome idea to pull an all-nighter on Thursday night. I thought she was crazy; but since I hadn’t been out in awhile I decided to go. I did not plan on staying out the whole night. Only a small group of us were crazy enough to go out before the trip. I ended up having a super fun time. I ran into a lot of people I knew from my classes. I also met a bunch of people from all over the world. And I got to dance with a Spaniard. Dancing with a Spanish guy is amazing because they actually know how to dance. They twirl you around and everything. It was a crazy, eventful night to say the least. I didn’t end up returning home until 5:15am. It was just enough time to change my clothes and finish packing. 

Castillo de San Jorge

Trolley by Plaza de Comercio

At 7am on Friday the bus left for Lisbon, Portugal. This trip was with Cursos Internacionales, so we went with people from our school. The bus ride lasted 5 or 6 hours and I slept for most of it. It was really nice. We dropped our stuff off in the hotel and then walked the streets of Portugal. We went to “La Plaza de Comercio”. This is where the big ships enter with their cargo. The weather was really nice. The sun was out and it was a lot warmer than in Salamanca. Also there were trolleys everywhere. After this we went to the “Barrio de Alfama”. We saw a really nice church here. We also saw the ruins of a roman theatre that they had recently uncovered. After this we went to the “Castillo de San Jorge”. This was the grounds of a castle that overlooked the whole city. It was beautiful. You could see the water and the whole city. They also had peacocks roaming the grounds. And there were a lot of cats roaming around Portugal.

Sailboats on the River

The next day we went to the “Barrio de Belem”. Here we saw the “Monasterio de Los Jeronimos”. This monastery was very nice. It had a big open area in the center where you could sit in the sun. After this we went to a bakery and bought some of Portugal’s special desserts. I forget the name, but they are a flakey muffin cup with pudding in it. They were pretty good. After this we went to the River Tejo. I loved it here. On the river there were tons of sailboats. Here we saw the Monumento a los Navegantes.  We also saw the Torre de Belem, which is a tower right where the River Tejo and the Atlantic Ocean connects. It was used to protect the city from enemies. Then we got on the bus and went to the Boca do Inferno. This is a series of caves on the ocean that are really cool. After this we got on the bus and went to Cascais. I loved it here! It is a city on the water with a bunch of shops. Once again there were all sorts of boats on the water. They had a little beach and I got to dip my feet into the ocean. The water was very cold. We also ate lunch here. Portugal is known for having amazing codfish; all my professors told me that I needed to try it. They brought me a big thick chunk of grilled codfish in a dish that had olive oil, onions, potatoes, and I think a little bit of garlic. It tasted so good! 

Grilled Codfish

On Sunday we checked out of our hotel and left to Obidos. This town was really cool. You entered through the city walls where there were tight streets filled with shops. In the middle there is a castle and there are steps to go up onto the castle walls. The walls were scary because you were pretty much just walking on a ledge. One side of you there would be a wall but the other side there wasn’t so you could fall off if you weren’t careful. After we walked the walls for a little bit we tried the famous drink of Obidos. It is a cherry flavored liquor that they put in small chocolate cups so afterwards you can eat the cup. After this we visited Batalha and saw the Monastery. It had a little hedge maze. The monastery also doubled as a place where the military had weapons and things. We got to see some Portuguese guards that were watching over the grave of the Unknown Soldier. Then we got on the bus and drove 5-6 hours back to Salamanca.

Obidos

Feelings about this trip: Since we went with the school we had someone from the school as our guide. I feel like I didn’t learn very much about the sites we saw from this guide and prefer having Paco as our guide. Secondly, I’m not sure if I loved Portugal or if I hated it. The weather and water was awesome but some of the people we ran into were iffy. A drunken man yelled at us on the metro. Also I saw people sleeping on the street and digging through garbage cans. I also heard about some people from the trip that went out and got drinks poured on them. Lastly, I found the Portuguese language to be very interesting. When listening to people talk in Portuguese I couldn’t understand a thing. Their accent is really unique. When reading things like signs and menus I could understand a lot because their words were similar to Spanish words.

Cascais

Next weekend I am staying in Salamanca to experience Carnavales.

-Steph