Life has been busy and that even extended to reading week. Reading week, a week most students get off mid-term to catch up in classes or write essays, is not often used for school work in my experience unless you still have classes like my poor flatmate Hetty. Almost everyone is either taking this opportunity to make more money, travel home or somewhere exotic. I chose the latter.
It's not that my lecturers didn't assignment reading or I didn't need to catch up, but how many times am I going to be in Europe and get to travel around for an extended period of time?
One of my good friends from back in Santa Cruz, Krista, had been "studying," more like scuba diving and getting tan, in Corsica for a month while I was in London. After her trip she had two weeks to travel around Europe before going back to the US. I met her half way through her trip in Lisbon, Portugal and then flew with her to London before she left.
I was in Portugal almost five days and a tourist in London for another two, so to say that I have taken a lot of photos during this trip is a grave understatement. I will post some good ones here and put the rest on Facebook and the Photo Archive page on the blog.
I flew in on the first of November after a very long Halloween, but I did my best to get right into absorbing the city. Once I got rid of my luggage, grabbed my camera' and got a basic map I was on my way. Krista didn't arrive in Lisbon until late Sunday so I had time to myself to explore and get myself situated in the city before we hung out.
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| This was almost right outside my hostel |
The conclusion that I immediately arrived at was Lisbon is beautiful from the colorful buildings, to the designs on the pavement, to the food, to the weather, to the proximity to the water. I was in awe and I had spent only a few hours in the country. The hostel I was staying at was centrally located in the city, so in the span of two days I made two large circles around the center of town covering lots of ground. While the first few days were spent doing little except walking around, I did see a lot and found great vantage points to see the city.
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Castle of Saint Jorge is the structure on the top right and I am almost right above my hostel at this point.
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The first big thing in Lisbon I saw was the Castle of Saint Jorge, and since I was told by a Polish girl I met that it was a maze to find so I gave myself plenty of time to get lost, which I used entirely. This castle was the first thing I noticed when arriving, so I felt it was a must. It's a ruin from the Moorish occupation of Portugal and had been a palace and Islamic center dozens of centuries ago, and it was at the top of a hill and meant that by circling the castle I could see all of the city. The castle itself had birds of prey that visitors could hold along with peacocks that roamed around and all the employees were dressed in period clothes.
On the way down I stumbled into Sé de Lisboa or Santa María Maior, a cathedral that resembled a little Notre Dame, and marvelled at the architecture and art in there before returning to more sightseeing. I returned here with Krista the next day partly because I had no idea where I had been, but it was just as great the second time around.
Krista was staying with some friends that lived in Lisbon, and kindly I was invited to go with Krista and Maria, the mother, to Fatima to see where the Virgin Mary had appeared and see the different churches that were in the area. We attended a mass that was partly exposed to the rain, but that only meant more people were coming in to escape the weather. Although it was a long mass and I could not understand what anyone was saying, it was really awe inspiring to be in that space. I got a rosary that smells like roses, pun likely intended, blessed by the priest there and then we headed back to Lisbon.
The following day, although Krista came down with a nasty stomach bug, we set off for Belem where the weather was beautiful and there were sights galore. We went to the Jerónimos Monastery and only saw as much as we could for free, which was maybe 2% of the entire monastery because it is so large.
Next we walked past the Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument to all the great explorers of Portugal and onto the Tower of Belem. The tower was in the water and had a bridge that visitors had to walk on and there should have been splash zone warnings or something because each time a wave came people would get sprayed. We climbed to the top and all the way down to the dungeons below water level and came to the conclusion that the Portuguese must have been short and all around small to fit into all the doorways.
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| The view of Belem Tower from the top |
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| View from a balcony in the Tower of Belem |
We stumbled in the
Berardo Collection Museum of modern art and were only able to explore one floor before our stomachs were making inappropriate noises. I do wish I could have walked around there more since it was so large and had some really great pieces on the floor we saw. After walking working up an appetite walking,
we went to Pasteis de Belem where we got some Pasteles de Nata which they are known for. They were delicious and something that even my French film teacher recommended getting when I told her I was going to Lisbon.
The last night we were in Lisbon the boys of the family we were staying with volunteered to take us out to see some traditional Portuguese music called Fado. The band we saw played a normal six string guitar, a stand up base, a Portuguese guitar that had a crazy amount of strings, along with someone singing. It created a really enjoyable and interesting combination of sounds. I learned from the boys that they most often sing about Lisbon, Portugal and even Fado, but listening to music and not comprehending the lyrics made the voice even more like an instrument than normal.
The rest of the week consisted of lots of touristy photos in London and trying to be an entertaining host while sick, but being half tourist and half local(ish) was really fun with Krista. I was able to even do some things that I had been meaning to do since arriving here.
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| Krista and I at the "real" Platform 9 3/4 |
Note to anyone out there: If you want to come to London, I would love to show you around and do all the touristy things with you. I love being able to still get away with it since I am American.
The conclusion that I immediately arrived at was Lisbon is beautiful from the colorful buildings, to the designs on the pavement, to the food, to the weather, to the proximity to the water. I was in awe and I had spent only a few hours in the country. The hostel I was staying at was centrally located in the city, so in the span of two days I made two large circles around the center of town covering lots of ground. While the first few days were spent doing little except walking around, I did see a lot and found great vantage points to see the city.
On the way down I stumbled into Sé de Lisboa or Santa María Maior, a cathedral that resembled a little Notre Dame, and marvelled at the architecture and art in there before returning to more sightseeing. I returned here with Krista the next day partly because I had no idea where I had been, but it was just as great the second time around.
Next we walked past the Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument to all the great explorers of Portugal and onto the Tower of Belem. The tower was in the water and had a bridge that visitors had to walk on and there should have been splash zone warnings or something because each time a wave came people would get sprayed. We climbed to the top and all the way down to the dungeons below water level and came to the conclusion that the Portuguese must have been short and all around small to fit into all the doorways.
Note to anyone out there: If you want to come to London, I would love to show you around and do all the touristy things with you. I love being able to still get away with it since I am American.