Yesterday we had our first class. It was fine. Then we went to this museum that took us through the history of Lisbon. Right after that, we took the metro to the mall here. It is huge!!! It has three floors and a lot of American stores. We got some food at the food court (the people judged me for getting certain toppings on my pasta, geez), then we went to this super cheap store called Primark. I got a beach towel. I know, so exciting.
Today was pretty crazy. It was a holiday also. I spent all morning laying around the dorms, but then we left to go on a bike tour. Now, let me tell you, I have not ridden a bike in a long time. It was kinda embarrassing. I got better at the end, but man. Anyways, we rode around some historic parts of the city and stopped ocassionally to learn about different venues. It was pretty crowded, and we had to cross a lot of streets. Kinda scary. But finally we got close to the River Tejo and were able to just bike along the edge. This river goes out into the ocean, so we could see the ocean from far away. It was very relaxing. We saw a bridge that was made by the same guy that made the Golden Gate bridge. So I guess that was cool. It took a few hours to get to the end of our trip, but it was because we took so many stops. Still, I believe that it was about 5 miles. Yay, go us. The tour guide at the end said we had a really nice group. She said we had a “good energy”. I guess we were different than most tourists. So that was nice to hear. Then Dr Nielson was like, okay bye guys. And we were in Belém, we is kinda far from where we live. So, we split up in smaller groups and went to find food (biking takes it out of a person). We went to a fish place that our tour guide pointed out to us. Me and my roommate Sarah split an entree. It was pretty good, granted we did get one of the cheaper items on the menu. Also, side note. Here they come out and place some different appetizers on the table, but if you eat them you´re charged. So be careful. Anyways, then we left and got gelato. We saw a few other people from our group there. Then we decided to go home (it was pretty cold and breezy at that time). We took like 15 minutes trying to figure out which bus to get onto to get to the metro. We crossed the street several times. Finally, we caught a bus that would pass by the metro. We were so indecisive about where to get off, but we did at this huge Praça de Comércio, which is right off the river and used to be a palace or something. It turned out that they were celebrated the holiday and projected like a little video thing on the buildings around us. It was pretty cool. So we stared at that for like 5 mintues (by this time it was almost 9). Then we went down to the metro, and there was a delay, which made us wait awhile. Since we had to wait so long, we ended up running into a couple other people from our group. As we got out of the metro to go to a different one, my roommate Sarah didn’t get off in time. It was pretty funny. So we just waited for her to get one back. It’s kinda crazy because some people have data here, but most just don’t have a working phone. We have a group chat for everyone here, and people are always posting like, who has Emma, and is everyone accounted for. It’s pretty funny. Anyways, we finally took the last metro home. Literally, every minute seems full of adventure.
I have not looked at this, don’t judge me for grammatical errors.
Minha Jornada por Portugal 