Thursday, July 21, 2011-- the 9 hour bus ride
After our field trip Thursday, all 56 of us were off to Portugal! The bus ride was about nine hours and very long although I slept most of the time... We arrived at our hotel, called AS, right around dinner and quickly unpacked and ate. Jamie Lee, Nola, Molly and I were not feeling so hot and were exhuasted so we decided to just call it a night and go on to bed after dinner. But Abbye and Kelsey were on top of their game and decided to explore the city! They found this really cool piano bar in Barrio Alto and had a great time!
Friday, July 22, 2011 -- the day of gypsies and burps
Well Friday was by far one of my most memorable days since I have been in Spain and Portugal... we had ALOT going on. Friday morning we woke up early to have a great tour of Portugal! We rode the bus for part of it and walked for the most of it. We walked from the bottom of the city to the top and saw alot of great stuff! Roberto kept us going and promised us a surprise and the end of the tour.
He surprised us with Portugals oldest restaurant, Pastels de Belem, where we had expresso and this delicious pastry desert! YUMMMM!
After our tour, Roberto pointed us to the best places to eat and shop and we were on our way... this is when it gets exciting.
Jamie Lee, Nola, Molly, Kelsey, Abbye, and I decided to find somewhere close where he pointed us and ate at a very 'touristy' restaurant. As we were waiting on our food we were doing some serious people watching, and people were continuously walking up to our table trying to sell us things like Ray Bans, tiaras, etc... All of the sudden these two strange women walk up to our table trying to sell Jamie Lee bandaids... we couldn't understand a bit of the Portuguese she was saying and kept telling her "no, no, no!" She walked off and we never thought anything of it until all of the sudden a boy (probably about 16 or 17) runs up to our table and saying "PHONE, PHONE, PHONE!"... and of course we thought he was trying to ask to use our phone or sell us one. He didn't know much English but you could tell after a minute he was trying to tell us that those women had our phone! Nola immediately asked Jamie Lee if she had her phone and Jamie Lee said no that it had been right on the table the entire time... right when realized those were 'damn' gypsies who were trying to sell us nothing and stole Jamie Lee's phone! So Kelsey and Jamie Lee start running off with this boy trying to chase the gypsies down and all I can think of is that this is going to be like a scene off of Taken. So I start running after them full speed in the most touristy place in Lisboa... the boy keeps pointing us down these allys and streets when we finally see the gypsies! They were just carrying on their way like nothing happened, even after they saw us running after them. Kelsey ran strait up to them and started screaming "GIVE ME HER PHONE BACK" "GIVE ME HER PHONE"... the gypsies were trying to distract us and ended up lifting their skirts for the entire world to see that they had NOTHING on under there. It was all just a distraction to try and hand the phone off to the other girl when Kelsey caught on and snatched the phone right out of her hand. All three of us immediately walked away and realized that we had caused quite the scene... men and women were coming out of their shops and restaurants screaming at the gypsies with us. IT WAS INSANE. We all got back to lunch and could not even believe what had just happened.... Kelsey does a much better job of telling this story and I tried to convince her to let me video her telling it so I could post it on here but she was not having it...
After lunch, we walked around a did a little bit of shopping before we were headed back to our hotel to get ready and have dinner at a Fado show! Fado is equivalent to Spain's flamenco dancing but is nothing like it. It was a very intimate dinner and our waiters were the singers. They were amazing. They were all singing in Portuguese so we couldn't understand much of what they were saying but you could almost feel what they were saying by their emotions they had with their singing.
Roberto had told us that if we wanted to go out we should definitely go to a place called Barrio Alto... its a bunch of narrow streets where thousands are tiny bars are tucked into right after the other. So we did what he said and personally... I hated it. There were people everywhere... people trying to sell you stuff left and right. The bars were not bars you went into and sit to have a drink. You just order your drink and take it outside... We all had our nice cameras and not enough hands to hold a drink and have a hand on our bag to make sure we weren't pick-pocketed again. We weren't really feeling it so after about an hour of that we were back to the hotel! We took a taxi back and the taxi rides in Portugal are so much fun -- they fly down the tiniest streets and whip around every corner you can find.
Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- Cascais
Saturday was by far my favorite day of the Portugal excursion! Roberto was taking us to a beach called Cascais about an hour away from Lisboa and it was beautiful. On the way to the beach we stopped at Cabo de Roca, which is the most western point of Europe. It was absolutely beautiful, but freezing! We all had bathing-suits and coverups on and it was no more than 55 degrees and extremely windy. We only stopped there to get a few great pictures but it really was beautiful.
We carried on our way to Cascais and got there right before lunch! After we had all eaten lunch we were on our way to the beach when we saw a shop for Segways. And we all had to do it! It was only 7 euros for 15 minutes and we each just split it up between 7 and 8 minutes a piece! It was hilarious to see all of us scootin around on segways...
We finally made it to the beach and had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon. We people watched all afternoon and Kelsey, Molly, Jamie Lee, and I got to even jump off this awesome cliff, which was a first for me! It was pretty difficult trying to climb up a side of a cliff in a bathing suit and no shoes on but we finally made it up there! The water was absolutely freezing -- after I jumped in, I could barely tell if I was even swimming anymore. It was hilarious to watch all of us try and swim back to shore like that.
We all met Roberto back at the bus at 5:30 and were on our way back to Lisboa! We had asked some of the locals at the front desk where the best place for us to all go out was and they told us to definitely go to Urban Beach. A big group of us had planned on going there but it only ended up being about fifteen of us. It was so pretty, this huge building opening right up onto the beach where there were sofas and beds that everyone was hanging out on. The later in the night, the more crowded this place got. When we left around 2 am, there was probably already almost a thousand people in the club and almost 300 waiting outside! We left pretty early when it comes to Spanish and Portuguese time but you could tell this was a pretty popular place for people.
Sunday, July 24, 2011 -- another long bus ride
Sunday was another long bus ride back to the colegio. There wasn't too much exciting about it. Lots of driving... lots of stops.
Friday, July 22, 2011 -- the day of gypsies and burps
Well Friday was by far one of my most memorable days since I have been in Spain and Portugal... we had ALOT going on. Friday morning we woke up early to have a great tour of Portugal! We rode the bus for part of it and walked for the most of it. We walked from the bottom of the city to the top and saw alot of great stuff! Roberto kept us going and promised us a surprise and the end of the tour.
beautiful view of Portugal
Nola and I on our morning tour
peacocks were everywhere! we were able to get so close and get some awesome pictures
now don't those look delicious!
After our tour, Roberto pointed us to the best places to eat and shop and we were on our way... this is when it gets exciting.
Jamie Lee, Nola, Molly, Kelsey, Abbye, and I decided to find somewhere close where he pointed us and ate at a very 'touristy' restaurant. As we were waiting on our food we were doing some serious people watching, and people were continuously walking up to our table trying to sell us things like Ray Bans, tiaras, etc... All of the sudden these two strange women walk up to our table trying to sell Jamie Lee bandaids... we couldn't understand a bit of the Portuguese she was saying and kept telling her "no, no, no!" She walked off and we never thought anything of it until all of the sudden a boy (probably about 16 or 17) runs up to our table and saying "PHONE, PHONE, PHONE!"... and of course we thought he was trying to ask to use our phone or sell us one. He didn't know much English but you could tell after a minute he was trying to tell us that those women had our phone! Nola immediately asked Jamie Lee if she had her phone and Jamie Lee said no that it had been right on the table the entire time... right when realized those were 'damn' gypsies who were trying to sell us nothing and stole Jamie Lee's phone! So Kelsey and Jamie Lee start running off with this boy trying to chase the gypsies down and all I can think of is that this is going to be like a scene off of Taken. So I start running after them full speed in the most touristy place in Lisboa... the boy keeps pointing us down these allys and streets when we finally see the gypsies! They were just carrying on their way like nothing happened, even after they saw us running after them. Kelsey ran strait up to them and started screaming "GIVE ME HER PHONE BACK" "GIVE ME HER PHONE"... the gypsies were trying to distract us and ended up lifting their skirts for the entire world to see that they had NOTHING on under there. It was all just a distraction to try and hand the phone off to the other girl when Kelsey caught on and snatched the phone right out of her hand. All three of us immediately walked away and realized that we had caused quite the scene... men and women were coming out of their shops and restaurants screaming at the gypsies with us. IT WAS INSANE. We all got back to lunch and could not even believe what had just happened.... Kelsey does a much better job of telling this story and I tried to convince her to let me video her telling it so I could post it on here but she was not having it...
After lunch, we walked around a did a little bit of shopping before we were headed back to our hotel to get ready and have dinner at a Fado show! Fado is equivalent to Spain's flamenco dancing but is nothing like it. It was a very intimate dinner and our waiters were the singers. They were amazing. They were all singing in Portuguese so we couldn't understand much of what they were saying but you could almost feel what they were saying by their emotions they had with their singing.
Me, Jamie Lee, and Kelsey at the Fado show
Roberto had told us that if we wanted to go out we should definitely go to a place called Barrio Alto... its a bunch of narrow streets where thousands are tiny bars are tucked into right after the other. So we did what he said and personally... I hated it. There were people everywhere... people trying to sell you stuff left and right. The bars were not bars you went into and sit to have a drink. You just order your drink and take it outside... We all had our nice cameras and not enough hands to hold a drink and have a hand on our bag to make sure we weren't pick-pocketed again. We weren't really feeling it so after about an hour of that we were back to the hotel! We took a taxi back and the taxi rides in Portugal are so much fun -- they fly down the tiniest streets and whip around every corner you can find.
Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- Cascais
Saturday was by far my favorite day of the Portugal excursion! Roberto was taking us to a beach called Cascais about an hour away from Lisboa and it was beautiful. On the way to the beach we stopped at Cabo de Roca, which is the most western point of Europe. It was absolutely beautiful, but freezing! We all had bathing-suits and coverups on and it was no more than 55 degrees and extremely windy. We only stopped there to get a few great pictures but it really was beautiful.
Cabo de Roca
We carried on our way to Cascais and got there right before lunch! After we had all eaten lunch we were on our way to the beach when we saw a shop for Segways. And we all had to do it! It was only 7 euros for 15 minutes and we each just split it up between 7 and 8 minutes a piece! It was hilarious to see all of us scootin around on segways...
Kelsey scootin around on her segway
Nola, Abbye, and I
We finally made it to the beach and had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon. We people watched all afternoon and Kelsey, Molly, Jamie Lee, and I got to even jump off this awesome cliff, which was a first for me! It was pretty difficult trying to climb up a side of a cliff in a bathing suit and no shoes on but we finally made it up there! The water was absolutely freezing -- after I jumped in, I could barely tell if I was even swimming anymore. It was hilarious to watch all of us try and swim back to shore like that.
We all met Roberto back at the bus at 5:30 and were on our way back to Lisboa! We had asked some of the locals at the front desk where the best place for us to all go out was and they told us to definitely go to Urban Beach. A big group of us had planned on going there but it only ended up being about fifteen of us. It was so pretty, this huge building opening right up onto the beach where there were sofas and beds that everyone was hanging out on. The later in the night, the more crowded this place got. When we left around 2 am, there was probably already almost a thousand people in the club and almost 300 waiting outside! We left pretty early when it comes to Spanish and Portuguese time but you could tell this was a pretty popular place for people.
Abbye and I at Urban Beach
Sunday, July 24, 2011 -- another long bus ride
Sunday was another long bus ride back to the colegio. There wasn't too much exciting about it. Lots of driving... lots of stops.
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