I Dont Speak Portuguese

Sorry for the delay in posting, It was a busy week and weekend with exams and a 4 day trip to Portugal.

Lisbon is an amazing city to visit, it's very modern and clean. It's quite a contrast from Sevilla, because in 1755, Lisbon had an earthquake that completely changed the layout and construction of the city. Only 10 million people live in Portugal, but more who speak Portuguese live in their former colonies. I really liked the city, it was very easy to get around and manuever on the Metro system and walk. It's quite a different walking experience than Sevilla.

I learned some Portuguese and learned the Spanish and the Portuguese hate each other. Case in point, while we crossed the border and stopped at a rest stop, a Portuguese woman and a Spanish woman arguing over something started hitting each other. I literally thought a war was gonna happen at the rest stop. Another example is when I was trying to find the Castle of St. George and I stopped to ask a kiosk vendor how to get to the castle, the conversation is as follows.

Me: Excuse me, do you speak English?
Vendor: *Blank Stare*
Me: Perdon, Hablas Espanol? Necesito direcciones al Castillo de San Jorge.
Vendor: PORTUGUES!
Me: Desculpe! Desculpe! Obrigado.

On to the fun part of my blog. Here's the adventure segment.

The first day was spent at 7:00 am on a bus and riding 6 hours to Lisboa. We only had two sites to visit that were mandatory, El Torre de Belen and the Jeronomite Monastery. The Torre de Belen was closing when we got there unfortunately. However, the Torre is famous for the defense of Lisbon when the Tower was in the middle of the river before the quake. The Jeronomite monastery is where a certain explorer named Vasco de Gama is buried. The rest of the time in Lisboa was free-time.

That night was spent looking around the downtown of Lisboa and then out to dinner eat at a Brazilian style steak house called Chimmurao. I ate there twice in the weekend.

Day 2 was spent at the Lisboa Zoo, which was in the heart of the city and was surrounded by apartments and great views of Lisboa on a tram that ran through the park. I always have a good time at a zoo. After that, I caught the Metro and went to the Castel de Sao Jorge. This was a castle with a 360 view of Lisboa and a view of the Atlantic, port, and the city. Simply incredible. The pictures don't do justice.

Day 3 was spent at the Oceanarium, which has the 2nd largest tank in the world as so I'm told. Very fun time there with my amigos and after that we had to hustle back and make it to the bus to visit the town of Sintra, a town 30 min away from Lisboa, but totally different. It was nestled in the hills. Sintra was the name of a poem by Lord Byron and apparently Hans Christian Andersen lived there for a time. I visited another Castle, which was awesome. The walk was intense to get it to it and while I was walking, clouds and rain rolled in, but it made the walk and the castle seem high above the earth. Again, pictures do not do justice.

After the castle stop, I had a glass of Port wine in a tavern. Port wine is a very sweet and potent wine. It's good, but not one of my favorites. The specialty wine I liked in Portugal was "vinho verde" or green wine. You can't buy it in the United States. I also tried Portuguese beer. Yeah, it was kind of nasty, the worst I've had thus far in Europe.

But that was the end of my adventure and back to Sevilla on Sunday on a very long bus ride.

I started my week again. I wonder where I'll go this time...