Férias da Páscoa: Part 2

First I want to apologize for not updating in a really long time, I'm going to start updating at least twice a week for the rest of my exchange.

So after I got back from Hungary I was really tired, I spent a whole day sleeping. The next day I went to Porto for the day, and the day after I slept in late and packed for my Lisbon trip. I left Viana at 8:00am on a bus for Porto, where I then had to get off and get on the metro, where I was robbed by a homeless man who grabbed me and made me give him everything in my pockets.(Only had 2 euros thank god), then he told me that if I ever have a problem and want anyone beat up that I should call him. Yeah it was pretty freaky. So I took the metro about 7 stops to the train station where I bought my ticket for Lisbon and got on a 3 hour train to Lisbon. I stayed with an AFS volunteer in Lisbon. That night I went to the Damian Marley concert(Bob Marley's son) with another american AFSer. I don't really like hip hop or raggae but I had fun.  Friday the AFS volunteer I was staying with took me on a big tour of Lisbon by foot. We went to a museum about Azulejo tiles which decorate so many Lisbon buildings. They were introduced to Portugal by the Moors in the 15th century.

After we went all around the city and saw tons of things including Castelo de São Jorge(Saint George's Castle), Praça do Cómercio(square), the Baixa(downtown), Rossio(Square).

Azulejo

Azulejo

Azulejo

Azulejo

Graça, Lsoa

Castelo de São Jorge

A Baixa, Lisboa

A Baixa, Lisboa

Praça do Comércio

Castelo de São Jorge

This looks like Harry Potter haha

Praça do Comércio

Graça, Lisboa

Graça, Lisboa

Graça, Lisboa

Friday night was another American AFSer Reyna's birthday party. We went to the Bairro Alto at night, which is a neighborhood in Lisbon that is full of restaurants, clubs, bands, and lounges. After about midnight the streets get filled with people and it's really cool, so much music and people. I had a lot of fun.

Bairro Alto

Saturday day I went to Cascais and Boca de Inferno(Mouth of Hell). Cascais/Estoril are uber-rich beach towns about 20 miles west of Lisbon. It's really nice and full of restaurants, bars, people, and beach. It's also home to Casino Estoril. It's the largest casino in Europe, and has a reputation for being a gathering spot for spies during WWII. This led Casino Royal to inspire the book Casino Royale(James Bond).

Beach near Cabo da Roca

Boca de Inferno

Boca de Inferno

Cascais

Cascais

Cascais

Cascais

I got to know two Brazilians pretty well that are friends of Reyna's here in Portugal, so for the next few days of my Lisbon trip(Saturday night through Monday) I took the train everyday from Estoril(where I was staying) into Lisbon to meet them.

Sintra

I went back to Viana on Monday night, I went to Porto for a day and slept for a day and then I went with my host family, Emilia, Guilherme, Simão, and Rita(from Serra da Estrela trip) to Sintra. Sintra is a small town northwest of Lisbon. It has a microclimate where it's full of big trees and tons of green vegetation, it also rains a lot more there and gets colder. Sintra is famous for being the home of Palácio da Pena castle, while I didn't get to see it I'm going back in June so I'll get the chance then. We spent Easter Sunday there. While my host family didn't really do anything special for Easter, we did drive all around Sintra including to Azenha do Mar and Cabo da Roca(Westernmost point in continental Europe). Also we did attempt to dye eggs. My mom sent me the paas packet in the mail so I had the dyes. The only problem was that I didn't think to specify that the eggs had to be white eggs. So we actually dyed brown eggs. I thought it wouldn't work at all but it did, it just took a lot more time to dye and the eggs finished really dark and not pastel like. But we had fun anyway.

Sintra

Sintra

Sintra

Sintra

Sintra

Sintra

Azenhas do Mar

Azenhas do Mar

Azenhas do Mar

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Lisbon Aquarium

Lisbon Aquarium

Barracuda 

Lisbon Aquarium

Lisbon

Lisbon

Me

Inês and I

Pedro, Guilherme, and Rita

Pedro, Guilherme, and Rita

Inês, Me, and Pedro

finished easter eggs

Rita

Host mom Ângela with the funfetti box cake I made that my aunt sent me

Monday was April 25th or the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, where military coup overthrew the dictatorship of Portugal in 1974.

All together I was only in Viana for 3 days during my 3 week long Easter break, I was really really tired after travelling so much, but school started again and my same old routine picked up. And it hasn't rained for a while!)