Lisboa, Portugal

Portugal is beautiful!

                       (Virginia, me, Bethany, Claire, Emily, and Anna at a vista high up in Lisboa)

This weekend a group of my friends went along on an IES trip to Lisbon and to Sintra, Portugal. We flew from Madrid on Friday afternoon and landed about an hour later in the capitol city. My first impression of Portugal was that it was extremely bright and sunny. I stepped out of the airport and was blinded for a second by the strong sun and incredibly blue sky. The climate there is definitely warmer there - palm trees grow outside the airport.  Side note: I have a theory that it is never really "cold" on the Iberian peninsula (well maybe in January, but I'm not here then haha) and that theory was cemented in Lisbon. The weather reports  had said around 22 degrees C which, as chemists know, is room temperatures.  BUT today bank thermometers around the city said 27 degrees C. That's amazing for the end of October! I'm going to freeze when I go back home. 

Back on track... we took a bus from the airport to our hotel and along the way got a peak at the city. The buildings all seem a tad older than here in Madrid and are painted in lighter, fresher colors. Small, glossy, painted tiles called azulejos cover the facades of many buildings in Portugal (also the interiors). The tiles have been used in Portugal since the middle ages when the moors ruled and today they are reminders of the islamic history of Portugal. I took a lot of pictures of these tiles because I think they are pretty; it's cool when a city has public art like that. 

That night we got a chance to experience the nightlife in Lisboa. The neighborhood with a million bars and restaurants is called Barrio Alto. Situated up on a hill,  you have to hike up narrow and windy cobble stone streets to get there. There weren't many cars though, so the walk was easy enough. We went out to dinner and I got to try the grilled bacalao or cod fish that is so good and fresh in Portugal. We also discovered that they like to serve both white rice and french fries with the main dish. I did get one big carrot though. Yay for vegetables. 

After dinner we tried to find a reggae club because Bob Marley is still awesome, but instead we just hung around some bars. Eventually rather large crowds formed in the little streets in Barrio Alto. The bars give you your drinks in to-go plastic cups - quite convenient for mingling outside in the street. 

The next day we traveled outside of Lisboa to Sintra - a small town about a half hour away. There we visited a cool castle up on a mountain, another castle (too many castles), and a beautiful vista called el cabo del roca or the cape of rock. This little tip of Portugal is the most western piece of land on continental europe. Looking over the cliff onto the Atlantic was really impressive- the water was soo aqua. It's strange not seeing beaches though. The land juts straight out into the water - no way you could safely swim or even go down by the shore. Makes me appreciate our side of the ocean. 

to be continued...