Portugal: Lisbon, Cascais,Sitra, Obidos, Batalla

So where did I leave off….Portugal was it? Overall Portugal was a super cool country and, despite its proximity to Spain and Salamanca in general, it was a very different place. I would say on the whole, Lisbon was the best city we visited on any of the Emory excursions.

After stopping off at our hotel, Maica gave us the obligatory three-hour tour of the downtown commercial district called the Baixa right off the water. After the tour, which ended mercifully with a beautiful view over the city from the Barrio Alto, we had some free time to ourselves. Michael, Mark and I had a great time walking around and eating some great Italian food but the combination of heavy rain and the most brazen and irritating drug peddlers (sketchy guys who come up to you with drugs on the street) forced us to hop on the metro and head to our hotel. With crappy weather and travel fatigue, we nixed going out in favor of an expedition to Wok to Walk. It was quite the journey and Michael lost 10 euro in what turned out to be an incorrect change debacle but ultimately we were satisfied and enjoyed relaxing in our super large hotel rooms.

Day Two in Lisbon turned out to be one of the best on record: Little touring, lots of free time, and one of the best nights out of the semester to top it off. After an early wake-up, we headed to an old castle on a hill called La Alfama in the heart of the downtown district by the Rio Tejo (River Targus in English.) Again it rained but we made the most of our time and its great views of the city. Having seen the castle and cathedral, we climbed back into the Barrio Alto for a traditional Portuguese lunch that was by far and away the best meal we ate as a group. The first course was a large salad and tuna dish I didn't eat much of but everyone else seemed to enjoy. The 2nd course was a phenomenal shellfish stew laden with mussels, oysters, prawns, shrimps and clams. In anticipation of not liking our main course, the cod, I ate tons of the stew. The cod, or bacalao¸ as they say in both Spanish and Portuguese, was actually decent and it was one of the few fish dining experiences I've really enjoyed. To top it all off, everyone got a dessert (I had the chocolate mousse) and coffee.

A view from La Alfama

Maica (center) with the group, having fun despite the rain

The weather cleared up so with more free time the group split up. While the majority of people headed to the famous aquarium, Me, Mark, Sydney, Michael, Amanda and Pierce explored the Barrio Alto for nearly four hours before heading back to the hotel to nap. As our wake-up wasn't too bad the next day, we knew we'd have to take advantage and hit the town hard that night. After purchasing some Portuguese green wine (it's similar to white with a greenish tint) we drank at the hotel with some music before catching the metro to the Barrio Alto. We had heard from people that this was the best area for going out and we were not disappointed. Barrio Alto is a hilly neighborhood filled with maybe 100 bars and clubs packed into a five block radius. What makes it so unique is that the police tolerate drinking in the streets so throngs of inebriated twenty-somethings walk from bar to bar, beer in hand, cavorting and yelling like it was New Years Eve. But the best part of all, and this is true of all of Portugal, is how cheap everything is. The night's highlight was Michael passing out in a club while we dragged him from bar to bar.

The Castle at Sitra
The next day was easily our most exhaustive day of touring. We hopped on our bus to the historic Belém district and saw the famous Mosteiro dos Jeronimos constructed in the typical Portuguese Manueline style of architecture. After Belém we drove 30 minutes to the beach resort town of Cascais where we ate their famous local delicacy, a spicy chicken dish called Piri-Piri. After lunch, we drove another 30 minutes to the jaw dropping town of Sintra set into a set of steep cliffs. The roads were so narrow and windy, out tour bus literally could not get to the top so we had to get off and take the public transport to the castle. Despite the increasingly cold weather and inevitable rain, the castle at the top of Sintra was the most beautiful place I we visited this semester with 360 degree views that included the entire town, the nearby river and the ocean.

The Mosteiro dos Jeronimos

A waterside monument in Belem

The beach town of Cascais

After returning to the hotel that evening around 7 pm, nobody was in the mood to go out again so we watched a movie and prepared for another early wake-up. The next morning we checked out and began to the return to Salamanca with two stops on the way. The first was the tiny town of Obidos which really had nothing to offer except for giving us the sense of what a medieval Portuguese village would've been like. We were there for maybe an hour, took pictures, and hopped back on the bus . Our next stop, around noon, was a bigger town called Batalla which, unsurprisingly had a famous monastery and a memorial tomb for dead Portuguese soldiers but not much else. It was certainly nice to see but the rain, followed by intense heat, made the cathedral tour a little less bearable than usual. Afterwards, Zach, Mark, Brandon, Laurie and I enjoyed a very nice lunch of ribs, rice and chicken that nearly made us miss the bus home. (Maica has a super-strict don't be late policy. She always threatened she would leave us somewhere if we were to miss a deadline with the bus. Though it didn't happen this semester (Mark and Pierce almost got left on the 3rd morning), apparently, last semester, someone had to take a train from Salamanca to Granada to meet the group after missing a 7 am bus pickup.)

From the Obidos ramparts

The Cathedral at Batalla
Despite the brevity of this post I want to reiterate that Portugal was a great trip. As a city, Lisbon is clean with great public transportation, low cost for entertainment and plenty of historic sites to satisfy your cultural needs. The Portuguese are very friendly (much more than the Spanish) and are known in Europe for being great with languages. As a result, everyone everywhere spoke English and as we learned, actually got offended if you tried to speak to them in Spanish. It's not that they couldn't speak it (in fact, most did) but they didn't like being confused with Spaniards and would therefore choose to respond in English when we would try speaking Spanish. Besides that, Lisbon is big but very manageable with a superb and easily navigable subway system. After the trip, many people were talking about learning some Portuguese since it has a similar feel to Spanish interspersed with some French sounds.

I'm racing to finish the remaining posts before my parents come to Spain on Sunday. Hopefully I'll in the next day or two I'll finish the group's final trip in Madrid so I can write about Barcelona (maybe) and Switzerland. Hasta luego mis lectores leales.

-Corey

Portuguese Word of the Day:
Obrigado- Thank you