El Torre de Belem, dedicated to African legacy in Portugal
En la playa (at the beach) with Chelsea and Jenn
A replica of the statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and a bridge that also looks a lot like the Golden Gate in miniature!Buenas noches!
Before you think from the title of this post that I hated Portugal, I want to assure you that I had a really nice weekend! But the country was very different in some ways, many of them bad. Also, our trip was not very well organized, unfortunately, and probably not really worth what we paid for it. However, who knows if I'll ever go to Portugal again, so I'm glad I went!
We left after classes on Friday, and our madres packed us dinners. I had this huge chocolate pastry thing in mine! The bus ride went relatively quickly (it was about 5 hours) since we were talking, listening to music, doing homework, or sleeping. We checked into the hotel, which took forever. I was with my roommate back at home, Cami, and a girl named Kirsten is very amable (sweet/ friendly)... By the end of the weekend I was SO glad I was with the two of them!
We took the metro out just for a few hours, since it closed at 1 am, to get a general sense of the nightlife in Portugal. Again, the bellhop told us that things don't get going until 4 or 5 am...and some even open at 6 am and go until 2 pm! Lisbon partying was incredibly different from Salamanca. It was what I imagine New Orleans to look like during Mardi Gras- people crowded through the streets, walking around with huge cups of sangria and mojito, some of them dressed in weird skintight body suits or covered in glitter. Very strange. We got hit on by some 27 year old Irish guy and his father... But it was interesting to see I suppose.
On Saturday, we started off at the beach. The water was a tiny bit chilly but it was so much fun! There were a million tiny little hermit crabs, congrejos (real crabs), and fish in the water. The boys and a few of us brave girls jumped off the dock, which was decently high! The weather was beautiful. Next, we went to see La Quita, a beautiful estate that once housed the Portuguese royal family. The mosaic floors and ornately carved wooden ceilings in the main house were incredible! We also went in the chapel, and found a sketchy underground tunnel that of course we decided to go into. All of us freaked out and ran for our lives when we heard a weird noise! There was SO much more to see here- there were many acres of gorgeous gardens, and many more buildings, but we were very pressed for time (again, not very well planned). We ate a pretty authentic Portuguese meal for lunch called bacalao that has rice and salt cod, but the restaurant messed up several people's orders and was also more expensive than we expected, so again people were frustrated with our tour guide. Next she took us to a Castelo (Castle) that had an expensive entrance fee and was going to close in less than an hour, so we just hiked up to it and took a few pictures from the outside. We had a blast riding our huge tour bus up the mountain's hairpin turns! Our driver's skills were admirable.
That night, the rest of the group decided they were going to leave to go out when the metro closed (1 am) and return when it opened again (6 am) even though we needed to be ready to go by 9:30 am. Thankfully, my 2 roommates thought this was just as dumb of an idea as I did, so we went out and got dinner, then rented a free DVD from the front desk and stayed in for the night. Though dinner was good, I did learn an important lesson- never assume anything is free! They charged us 11 euros for the bread, cheese and olives they put out on our table without us asking for it. Communication was also terrible, because-get this- even though most of them speak pretty fluent Spanish, they HATE Spanish and refuse to speak it. Their English was lousy in general, so we did a lot of sign language!
Anyways, we had a nice night in and were sound asleep when another girl from our group knocked on our door at 4:30 am sobbing because she got separated from the group and walked around sola (alone) for a while before finally figuring out how to get a cab. She didn't even know what hotel we were in, and couldn't speak to the cab driver anyways! The worst part is, when the rest of the group came back, they hadn't even noticed she was gone. I was really disappointed in them, because honestly she could've been kidnapped or raped or killed or who knows what. I wish I had been there to take care of her.
Today, we saw a monastery called Dos Jeronimos that was absolutely beautiful. We had been so busy that I never found time to go to La Misa (Mass), and it was starting there just as we arrived so I thought about skipping the tour to go to La Misa in Portuguese, but I was wearing shorts so they wouldn't let me in. I feel terrible for missing it, but I'm going to go to daily Misa tomorrow at the Catedral Nuevo to hopefully make up for it a little. I also had a beautiful hour or two with God today on the bus ride home listening to praise and worship music and observing the gorgeous mountains and little villages of Portugal! I'm missing CCM back at JMU and how easy it makes my faith...but this trip is a challenge for me to grow closer to God all by myself, I think. We also saw a cool tower right on the water dedicated to the African legacy in Portugal, and ate lunch at a cute restaurant (we caved and got burgers) before loading up the bus and heading back to Salamanca.
In short, I enjoyed the trip but I wish that a) we had more time to see a few of the sights; b) we were given more info on the things we saw; and c) some of the people in my group would reprioritize their lives a little bit. Now I am exhausted since I've basically been up since 4:30 due to the hysterical girl incident!
Besitos,
Caitrin
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