Lisboa!

The thing about going to a city when it rains all weekend is that it's much more difficult to get an idea of what the city is really like. You're not quite into exploring because, face it, you're going to be soaked at the end of it, like it or not. But we did get to see a decent amount of Lisboa while we were getting soaked. Downtown Lisboa is a combination of tall business-age buildings as well as older, more traditional and colorful buildings that remind me of the decor in Córdoba.

After dropping our things at the hotel in downtown Lisboa, we were bussed off to a giant plaza where the old royal palace used to stand. Unfortunately, as Portugal is basically the California of the Iberian Peninsula, there was a giant earthquake some years ago, which destroyed about 90% of the structures in the city. Rather than rebuild the city how it once was, the reigning monarch took this as an opportunity to re-do the layout of Lisboa into a more urban one. So the rubble was taken out of the plaza, and it's now a center of commerce which includes a wine-tasting room on one end and the Museo de Cerveza(Museum of Beer) on the other. Oh, Lisboa. But there's a large arch/gate where the palace used to stand, as a smaller tribute to the old palace. In front of this is a trolley stop–they have cable cars just like in San Francisco. The similarities just keep coming.

Unfortunately though, we opted to walk up the giant hill to our next destination, rather than find a way to cram roughly 60 students onto foreign public transportation. Maybe a better plan, but it definitely showed me that I really need to get back into working out…

Anyway, at the top of this giant hill was the Castillo de San Jorge. This was basically a giant compound of large buildings and things we could explore for a while, and get some photos of the amazing views. I believe this was once a defensive structure of some kind, given that it was at the highest point in the city and included very large stone walls.

After we were done climbing all over the castle, they set us loose for dinner. My friends and I managed to find this very typical Portuguese restaurant in a neighborhood called Barrio Alto, known for their restaurants. We lucked out, and had some of the best seafood we'd ever tried. I opted for salmon (always a safer option for me), but my friend got the regional delicacy–bacalao (codfish), which really wasnot bad at all. And my salmon was die-and-go-to-heaven good. We also tried vino verde (green wine), something else Portugal is known for. Finally, the restaurant had a singing show during the dinner, in a very traditional Portuguese style called fado. 

The next day we woke bright & early to go to Monasterio de los Jerónimos, a very famous monastery in the city, as well as the Torre de Belém.

The monastery was kind of cool because it had some fun details. For the most part, it was your standard catholic church–pillars, stone, altar, stained glass, cross-shaped layout… et cetera (The magic of the cathedral may be wearing off on me, which is actually really sad…).

But there were a handful of tombs in there. Some of them were for deceased kings and queens, but had stone elephants supporting the stone caskets, as opposed to the usual lions or just square bases. Apparently the elephant supports are one-of-a-kind in the world, but I didn't get a picture of them (sorry team!).

There was also a tomb of a famous writer as well as a famous explorer upon entry to the church. The explorer's tomb was decorated with the engraving of a ship, for obvious reasons.

Also, there were a few design details that were added to the church that I found interesting. A lot of the detailing on columns or arches consisted of a cable/rope design, borrowed from ships, as exploration was a big deal during the time the church was being constructed. Also, the "veins" on the support columns spread out when they hit the roof, partially because that helps distribute the weight of the stone in the roof, but also to make them look like palm trees. When you lack palm trees in your own country (those hadn't come over the ocean yet), make them out of stone!

Next, we wandered in the pouring rain to the edge of the river, to see the Torre de Belém. Belém essentially translates to "Bethlehem", and is the name of a suburb of Lisboa. This tower is part of an olden-days defensive system, and once had a partner across the river, so ships would have to move through this pinch-point on the river before they could reach the port of Lisboa.

Also, from the tower you can see another San Francisco imitation–the fake Golden Gate bridge. It was built by the same steel company that contributed to San Francisco, and is the same color. And like San Francisco, if the weather decides to literally rain on your parade, you will not get any good photos of it. So here's a photo I stole from my friend's Facebook, since it apparently didn't rain when she went a week ago. (Thanks Lauren!)

The rest of the day after these tours was free time. My friends and I went to a sushi place where I a) actually ate sushi and b) ACTUALLY LIKED IT. Which is new, in case you haven't been around my picky eating habits lately. I have a feeling part of it is that we were on the coast, and therefore I assume seafood will generally always be better than it is in Colorado (landlocked state problems). But we had a great meal where we just stuffed ourselves, because it was an all-you-can-eat deal. Why would any college student not take advantage?? The only thing was that this was the first time I've actually experienced a language barrier problem–we had an issue with our order, and our waiter didn't speak English or Spanish. I'm assuming here, but I think most of the waiters and waitresses were Asian natives who had immigrated to Portugal. Basically, picture an employee whose second language is English (in the USA), trying to speak Spanish or French to a customer. It was almost a big mess, but the table next to us saw our problem and offered their translation services since they spoke a little English–thank goodness!

We also took a taxi to Starbucks. Because we don't have overpriced, over commercialized coffee shops in Salamanca. And it was right by a plaza of town where we could do some souvenir shopping and explore the city a little bit, even in the rain.

Mmmmm Starbucks

Lisboa in the rain

Sunday, we woke up bright and early again to get back on the bus. We made two stops at some little towns on our way home, the first of which was in a town called Óbidos. The main attraction of Óbidos is that it has a giant wall–which of course we climbed. If there is a tower to be climbed and my friends Adrianna & Mila are in the group, we will absolutely be climbing it!

Óbidos

Town cemetery from above

We also got to experience something called gingja, which is an itty bitty amount of cherry liquor inside a chocolate cup. It was like a chocolate-covered cherry, but about six times better and not so overly sugary! 

Batalha has Convento de Santa María da Vitória, a church built as a tribute to Santa María after the Portuguese won an important battle against the Spanish army. Once again–stone, columns, etc. Architecture was pretty standard.

However, there were a few extras. One was a white-marble room for more graves of Portuguese monarchs (these were from around the time of Ferdinand & Isabel in Spain I believe, while the elephant-supported tombs in Lisboa are from a dynasty a few hundred years earlier).

The other was a monastery garden which houses the Portuguese Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This tomb is not as grandiose as the USA Tomb, but it is a little more interesting when it comes to design. The headstone is more detailed with carvings of saints, and is capped by a lamp which is kept lit with olive oil. The changing of the guard, however, is much simpler than the USA's version.

Oh, and we found a fountain with fishes in it. These fishes are troopers, because that water was cold too!

And that, my friends is my trip to Lisboa! We passed the rest of the bus time with some movies that were put on the movie screens, and some riddles from an app I downloaded after we got very bored on the way to Lisboa.

So here's a riddle, in case you're bored.

With thieves I consortWith the vilest, in short.I'm quite at ease in depravityYet all divines use meAnd savants can't lose me,For I am the center of gravity

Maybe I'll just start adding riddles to my blog posts.

Pigs & Aqueducts (AKA Segovia)

So our adventure to Segovia began at the lovely hour of 8 AM, a time when the streets of Salamanca are basically completely empty.

Luckily, it was at least light outside when we got to the bus pickup point. The bus ride to Segovia was two hours long, just enough to get a little nap in before our long, long day of walking started. The first thing we did when we got there was go to a potter's studio, because this is apparently a pretty big thing in Segovia. 

So he showed us how he does pottery on the wheel, and made a piggy bank as an example. Pigs in Segovia are kind of like frogs in Salamanca–they're in every single tourist shop, in a thousand different forms. In Segovia, they're known for cochinillo, roast pig. Unfortunately, due to being cheap and having a free sammich from María, I didn't get a chance to try it on this trip. Anyway, after a few of us in our tour group attempted to make some pots with limited success (except for that one kid who was in AP art in high school and already knew what he was doing…) we left the studio for the Alcázar, a palace on the end of town.

Large, made of stone, lots of towers… you get the gist. It's a pretty place, but it's one of the less important palaces in the big scheme of Spain, as far as I can tell. However, it is where Queen Isabella was staying when she got the news that her brother had died, and was then crowned the queen of Spain at a church across town, at the age of 23.

Here's a blurry photo of the mural in the Alcázar of Isabella (in the white) being crowned. It's a creepy mural though, because, for reasons I do not understand well enough to explain (the phrase "Blind Man's Day" was used), no one in the photo has eyes. If anyone's ever watched the show Supernatural, the people in the mural all look like the demons from that show. It's freaky.

No eyes, super creepy. Especially on kids.

We got to climb the towers of the castle as well, which was 152 tall steps, which actually made me slightly sore today. 

But the views from the top were fantastic.

That's basically the entire city of Segovia, and the mountains beyond it. Ta-da! Worth the climb.

Britt, myself, and Camila at the top of the towers, with the city's main cathedral in the background.

The other main attraction in Segovia is the Roman aqueduct that's been standing in the city for over 2000 years. And it's literally just made of rocks. There's no cement or anything else in between, and the whole thing is at a perfect decline of 1% or something like that. Basically, the Romans knew their physics.

A few more highlights of the city were the Casa de los Picos, which is now an art school, and the city is well known for…

…the epic amounts of piggy banks in the stores, which I really wanted to buy, but unfortunately my suitcase is going to be stuffed enough as is…

…and ponche segoviano, the city's other famous food product. I'm not completely sure what was in this, but I'd guess there's about a pound and a half of sugar in it, it was very sweet. We shared this little square between three girls and didn't feel like we missed out on anything at all.

And that, my friends, was my day in Segovia! I'm enjoying a very lazy Sunday today, so I will probably not have more fun content until later this week.

A Very Long Adventure

So today began with a breakfast buffet... that my roomie and I did not really get to enjoy because we'd misunderstood the times. We were supposed to be downstairs and ready go go by 9:30, not downstairs for breakfast at 9:30. So I chugged my peach juice, stuffed the rest of it in a napkin, and we dashed out to the bus!

Mmmmm breakfast foods

The bus took us to el Museo del Prado, a lovely little art museum. And by little I mean giant, but that's not the point. We took a tour, focusing on El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. So I got to see a lot of religious pictures, courtesy of El Greco. And Las Meninas, from Velazquez, and a portrait of the family of Carlos IV, including his wife who got pregnant 24 times, courtesy of Goya. Don't worry though, she only had 14 of them. Only.

I couldn't really take pictures in the museum, so I only have one of a street performer who dressed up like Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter from Alice. He pretty much just sat there, pretending to drink tea, but he was very, very made up. It was pretty cool.

Museo Prado, Sidewalks, Reina Sofia, birds, Reina Sofia

After Museo del Prado, we duckling-trotted on over to el Museo de la Reina Sofia (see photos of sidewalk adventures...), then they turned us loose for 15 minutes to find snacks. I found a lemon Fanta (did you know that was a flavor??) and sat on a bench in the plaza by the museum with a few other kids. One of them had gotten potato chips, and was giving the crumbs to the birdies, which began inciting mini bird riots. Good entertainment, they're just so cute.

More art en la Reina Sofia! Modern this time though. Picasso and Dalí. We saw La Guernica, which I definitely could not take a picture of, and a lot of interesting surrealism paintings from Dalí. Not the clocks though, they did not have the clocks.  

The Reina Sofía was the end of the planned activities, so six of us went wandering the streets, and stumbled upon this pizzeria called Diablovetta (I think), which turned out to be really yummy. Also 5/6 girls in the group went to either high school or college in Colorado. And the DU people are really outnumbering the group, because ISA is one of our partner programs. It's kind of silly. There were only 2 of us at the lunch but I think there's roughly 8 of us, plus 2 CU people and one CC girl. Craziness. 

After lunch, myself, my roomie and another girl decided to go wander (sorta). We were on a mission to find some shopping locations, so we started off for Punta del Sol. We'd given our map to a girl who was taking the subway home alone, so we were not exactly equipped for this adventure. It was a lot of fun to explore the city though. We ran into the Plaza Mayor on our way there, so you guys get to see me for the first time in these photos! It's beautiful. The crazy thing about it is that you're bustling around this crowded, tall city, and all of a sudden you find this pocket of open space, and it's so pretty.

Palacio y Catedral

After the Plaza Mayor, we finally found the Punta del Sol, so I bought my token souvenir thimble (I was shocked they actually had them) and we stopped in a McDonald's to use the restroom. McDonald's is nice here. Two floors, nice decorations, etc. Why don't we get nice McDonald's??

Anyway, then we wandered to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). Which is basically the largest horizontal building I've ever seen ever. What do they do with all that space?? We wandered along that for a while, then turned a corner and ran into another plaza between the Palacio Real and the Catedral de Madrid. Gorgeous, both of them. That's where I took the two photos on the bottom of this collage. The white one is the Palacio, the blue/grey one is the Catedral.

Fotos de la catedral

We decided to go explore the Catedral, since chances were good it wasn't too expensive. At first we saw a sign that said you could go to the top of the cupola, but it turns out that it was closed as of 14:30, and it was now almost 17:00. So we just went into the main cathedral room instead. Here's photos. It was very colorful for a church, I didn't expect such bright colors, especially the ones in the stained-glass windows and the ceiling!

We also toured the crypt of the church, which was slightly creepy but mostly cool. There were even some graves that had been laid within the last year, we didn't realize that people could still be buried there! 

We then decided to take the Metro home, since we were eons away from our hotel. We made it through that process mostly fine (buying tickets was an adventure) but then we got out of the station... and had no idea where our hotel was. So we walked for another 30 minutes, but obviously found it since I'm posting this!

Overall, a very busy but very fun day, I'm having a great time!