Last Days

The last days of the trip creeped up on us rather quickly. Before we knew it it was May 31st and we were leaving for the United States the next day. However, before departing we visited one last place - the Our Lady of Fatima sanctuary.

Fatima is a symbol of the Virgin Mary and one of the world's most important religious sites. There were people all over the world visiting the sanctuary the day we went (you could tell from all the different languages being spoken around you). It was also exciting and rather busy because the Pope had actually visited not too long before our visit earlier in the month. The only rather dissapointed part of that trip was when we went to use the bathrooms .. I've just come to realize that we have almost nothing to complain about with our public bathrooms in the U.S.

Since it was our last night there, many of us decided to celebrate with one last trip to Bairro Alto. On our last morning, we all got up wearing our Portuguese soccer shirts with our slogan of the trip "I gotta feeling". This trip was truly amazing and all of us will remember it for the rest of our lives.

Guimarães // Braga

This day we started off with a bus ride to the famous city of Guimarães. This was the first capital of Portugal, where Afonso Henriques, Portugal's first king, was born. The bus drove us to the top of a very large hill and dropped us off at what looked like a very scenic, religious area. There were fountains and flowers and just beautiful landscape. There was also a hotel located at the top which I found very interesting, wondering what different types of people stayed at that hotel for vacation.

Once we looked around at the top we started to walk down the side of the hill which had a large staircase with fountains in the middle. Our tour guide told us that each fountain represented the 5 senses, and also the 3 virtues. It was an amazing view walking down the stairs and I enjoyed it very much.

After that we went to the City of Braga, which is the capital of the Minho province. When we arrived there we were surprised to find a Roman Festival going on (the town kept very close to its Roman roots). There were people dressed as in Roman time, shops, belly dancing, and really just a festival on the street. It was very exciting and was a sight to see.

Porto/Calem Wine Company

Tuesday was our first day moving from the hotel in Lisbon to our accomodations in Porto for 6 nights. After we left Lisbon it was a 2 and a half hour drive to a small town known as Coimbra. Coimbra was once the capital of an emerging Portuguese kingdom and has rock walls circling around it. We went shopping there and some people climbed up the rock wall but I didn't since we were warned that it may be slippery and I'm already afraid of heights on top of it.

After leaving Coimbra we arrived in Porto and went to Calem, a wine making company here in Porto. We took a tour of the building and were told all about the huge casks of wine that they still stored there to this day. It was amazing how long they stored some of the wines, all the way up to 90 years and over. After the tour we all sat down at a table and did some wine tasting. We were given one glass of white wine and one glass of red wine. However, I really strongly dislike wine and ended up giving mine away. The prices there weren't bad at all and many people purchased the wines to bring back as gifts.

Outside we saw the boats that used to carry the wine to other places and got an amazing view of the city of Porto and the water.

Carfi

One of our last days in Lisbon we visited a plastic and polymer company called "Carfi". While there we learned that they have two headquarters, one in Portugal and one in Poland. They receive orders from companies to make products ranging from garden tools to electronics (since they deal with both there). It was amazing that the operation was so big since we learned that it was a family owned company. While there we were shown around the factory and got to see them in the process of producing their current orders. The factory was filled with the scent of plastic and we came out of there with the scent on our skin. I don't know how the workers can deal with it all day.

They were very nice at the business and offered us a light lunch of soup and bread. I've noticed that at many of these businesses they are very accomodating and welcoming to us and wonder how much that would differ if they were an American company.

Cascais

Lisbon has amazing weather, it was 90-100 degrees almost every day. We all pushed for beach time because between visiting businesses and sightseeing we didn't have much time to spend out in the sun just relaxing. After one sightseeing day, we stopped early in the middle of two places and had time to go to the beach in Cascais. I bought a towel of the Portuguese flag because I didn't bring a beach towel with me and we found a small beach surrounded by rocks to hang out at. People were jumping off of the rocks and there was a lot of beautiful private residences that I wish I could buy as a beach house (in my dreams). A few of us left the beach and stopped at a restaraunt known for its grilled chicken and had an amazing lunch of chicken and fries (they eat fries so much here I don't know if I'll be able to eat them at home anymore). I wish we had more time to enjoy the beach but atleast we got to stop there for a little.

Sintra Palace

On the 22nd our day started out with sightseeing while driving through an area with buildings built during the 18th century with mosaic paved streets. There was a lot of "street vendors" there if thats what you want to call them: people who walk around with scarves and sunglasses and any types of items pushing them on people as they walk by. There is actually quite a lot of that all around Lisbon and in Porto.

We then visited the town of Sintra, a town in the forest covered Mountain of Sintra. While there, we went to the Royal Palace, which was the royal residence of many Portuguese kings which was built over a former Moorish moske. It was very beautiful there and had intricate walls and ceilings in almost every room. The names of the rooms were named after the ceilings, such as the Swan Room because there were 23 swans painted on the ceiling representing the princess' age when she got married.

After that a few of us went to the pharmacy there because pharmacies in Portugal are very different than at home. Prescriptions are not necessary and many people go there and describe their symptoms to the pharmacists rather than going to a doctor. A lot of people have allergies here so they got allergy medicine and I got sleeping medicine because I've only been sleeping 3 hours a night (Half because I don't sleep and half because we're out).

Vasco Da Gama

Another day while in Lisbon we visited an area known as "Vasco Da Gamas". Da Gamas was an explorer that discovered the area and everything was named after him from the modern shopping mall to the older buildings. We walked along the water and took pictures outside the Oceanario, or the Aquarium. We didn't have enough time to visit the aquarium, but there was also a cable car crossing the water right next to it that we decided to go on. I hate heights but I was talked into going on it by everyone else. Once up there I wouldn't let go of my seat and wasn't going to take pictures but I finally got over it and took some awesome pictures of the view from up there (that other people most likely appreciated more than me).

That night we were told to visit a place in Lisbon well known for nightlight called "Docas" which means the docks. As you can tell from the name it was right on the water where all the boats were docked for the night. It was a boardwalk type of thing with bars and night clubs all down one side of it. The first club we walked into had dancers dancing in the doorway and we decided it was a nice view and stayed there for a while. We visited other clubs as well and had a good night (not so great morning).