Stories from the bus: Camila, Brenda and I were very productive on the bus, if you count being productive as taking out your readings and a) falling asleep, article in hand or b) looking out the window, daydreaming while holding an economics book.
A sad sad story in the life of Katie O: Brenda got hungry on the bus, and asked me to grab her lunch. I reached above, not paying attention to the grab I got, and handed her "her lunch" (Brenda's bag had a hole in it from the walk to Fonseca (ISA's meeting point) that morning). She thought that her water bottle as well as a sandwich had fallen out of her bag and was upset, but proceeded to eat the delicious, cheese and ham stuffed sandwich. Later, when we arrived to our lunch stop, I grabbed my lunch from above and set it on the seat, realizing that my host mom had for the first time given me water! I was really excited, until Brenda said that that was her lunch. She had eaten my favorite sandwich and none of the two boludas had even noticed!!! So, I ate the other sandwich that was in my lunch (this time a double decker with hamburger meat) and Brenda gave me her other bocadillo (which had turkey and cheese) in return for having eaten mine.
Lisboa, the Portuguese version of San Fran
lots of tile work on the walls in Lisbon
Cute store with fish in entryway
Day one in Lisbon: Today, we went to el Castelo de São Jorge. We only had an hour to explore, so we didn't get to see the whole thing, but it was still really impressive! We thought it was a little bit like Hogwarts would be and had some scenes that could be straight out of a horror movie!
Outside of O Castelo de São Jorge
That night, we (Salvador, Brenda, Camila, Sofia, Mercedes, and I) dined in a cute Italian restaurant. We tried the "vinho verde", typical to Portugal, which tasted (and looked) just like white wine to my amateur palate. As an entree, we had tortellini with pesto and for dessert, the most AMAZING chocolate cannelloni with rich strawberry ice cream. The workers were all VERY friendly and taught us some words in Italian and Portuguese. It was "molto buone".
A taxi adventure: After dinner, Camila and I explored the "Bairro Alto", a neighborhood with a lot of bars, fado and one discoteca, which apparently is for the older crowd. So, we didn't stay too long and headed back to the hotel. When we got into the cab, I told the taxi driver "ao hotel AC Marriot", and asked if he wanted the address. He said no to the address, he knew hotel "Marriot". When we got to "our hotel" Camila and I realized we were at the wrong Marriot, and showed the taxi driver our address and the name of the hotel. He did not know the hotel, so went inside to ask where the other one was. He didn't charge us for the rest of the trip, and dropped us off at our true hotel!
Day 2: Monasterio de los Jerónimos, Torre de Belém, "free time"
Convento de los Jerónimos: On Saturday, we had a tour guide that took us to the convent and the tower, and I can say that this was the first time that I was really intrigued by what she had to say (I might also have been a little biased because I was hooked on listening to the Portuguese influence on her Spanish...as an example her saying "simples" for a singular noun since the word is invariable despite plurality in Portuguese).
History: The king Manuel the I ordered the building of the monastery to celebrate the return of the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama from his expedition to India. In the church, you can see the importance of the influence of exploring. The first example is the rope from sailboats engraved into the walls, followed by engraved globes and an Indian engraved in the ceiling as a reminder to search for the new, as a symbol of the innate human curiosity for novel discoveries.
Above is Vasco de Goma's tomb, where you can see the sphere (on the right) along with the sailing ropes. Above his tomb on the ceiling is where you can find the Indian. I didn't get a picture of that though.
Torre de Belem: The construction of the tower also began under the rule of Manuel the I and was used as a control of the port!
During free time, Brenda, Sal, Camila and I went to Hard Rock Cafe, where we had some delicious strawberry daiquiris and bbq hamburgers after a 45 minute wait. We sent the bill to the table with the ISA directors, just like in the movie Dumb and Dumber. (except not really, we paid ourselves). 
Fado and bacalhau: Saturday night, Camila and I went to Casa de Linhares, old residence of a Spanish royal family (that's connected underground by tunnels to the Cathedral and the Castle) for an overpriced dinner and Fado show. We ordered cod, which was 25 dollars, and considered splitting it (fortunately we didn't, because it was the size of a pea). It was really delicious though. Fado is a genre of Portuguese music characterized by it's sad tone. I immediately caught on as one of the songs began with the lyrics "cheio de pena", which means "full of pain".
Cod dinner
Camila and the restaurant
Day 3: Óbidos and Batalha
On Sunday, we left at 9:30 a.m. and our first stop was the picturesque village, Óbidos. At first, everyone was grumpy to be kicked off the bus for an hour, but then we realized just why the stop was worthwhile.
Ginja: a delicious alcohol made with cherries, very yummy combined with chocolate
Pretty Fall colors
Views
Chocolate: Pleasure and vice
Batalha is known for it's monastery, O Monasterio da Santa Maria da Vitoria, which was erected after the Battle of Aljubarrota between the Portuguese and the Spanish, under the rule of Juan I. It celebrated the Portuguese victory, which brought upon the end of the Portuguese crisis between 1383 and 1385. It is also known for it's unfinished chapels, or "as capilas imperfeitas".
For lunch, we ate at a restaurant near the monastery (I had pizza with a novel combination of chicken, "bacon" (canadian bacon), corn and mushroom. Then, to the bus to get back to Salamanca at 10 p.m.
Getting back from Portugal marks the end of my travels and the "beginning" of my studies. These next few weeks with be marked by resting, reading, reading, studying, reviewing, more reading, meetings with groups, more studying, and more reading. As the Spanish say, it's time to "ponerme las pilas". Changuitos (crossed fingers) for the results of my exams!
Besitos,
Katie
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario