So, last, last Thursday (5/16/19) we arrived in the island Faial and immediately started a tour. The island is composed of a TON of volcanoes. In the past 100 years they’ve had a major volcanic eruption and a major earthquake. A whole part of the island is covered in volcanic ash. And also, a whole part of the island appeared like less sometime in the past 60 years I believe. Pretty crazy.
Friday morning we took a ferry over to a nearby island called Pico. That island has the highest point in all of Portugal, and that point is a huge, active volcano. So we had a bus tour and basically drove all the way around it. Pico is known for its vineyards. The vineyards are pretty different though. To protect the vines from the ocean winds, they built maze-like short walls to protect the plants, and those walls are made from black volcanic rock, obviously. Our tour guide said that if you took all of those walls on the island and put them back to back, it would go around the world twice. Like who’s got time to do all that. Then we drove to our hotel, but when the bus dropped us off, we couldn’t see a hotel. It was just all white buildings. Turned out we were sleeping in a convent that was made into a hotel. So we got in and needed food. This area seemed like it was just full of little white red-roofed houses, no commercial stuff. But we walked along the ocean awhile and finally came to a restaurant. We had bread with butter there, and I’m telling you, something was up with that butter because it was amazing. Very fresh. Then we came back. After staying in that convent I was pretty excited to get back. They didn’t give us any towels, 6 beds to a room, weird beds, terrible wifi. I mean, I appreciate the people and everyone there, but the moderness of Lisbon started sounding pretty good.
So good old Saturday morning we got on a flight from Pico to Lisbon and went home. What a beautiful feeling to get back to a wonderfully clean room full of freshly made beds and freshly washed towels. Yay. We washed clothes and bought groceries. So exciting.
Sunday. Best day. Yay.
Monday was also chill. In the afternoon I did a walk around town for my class. I went to an old church and a museum next to it. The museum was said to have a thorn from the “crown” that Jesus wore when He was crucified. Unfortunately, the thorn was out for cleaning. Hmmmm… We had FHE. We did African dancing. Everyone was wearing jeans, and it turned out to be like an African zumba. Then we got AWESOME gelato at this place called Niva. There’s like 3 locations. I think I was told that the other two are in Italy. You know, whatever. I got chocolate (obviously) and salted caramel.
Tuesday… Class. We talked a lot about how fado (a traditional Portuguese music) came from so many different cultures that were living in Brazil like Africans and gypsies. My roommate and I went to a tapioca place that was called Ohlinda. Which is cool because I served in Olinda. I know what’s up. We went to a tile museum. Portugal is known for its painted, ceramic tiles that are used on walls and buildings. It is beautiful. So they had tiles from all different time periods. It was really cool. Then we got to paint our own ceramic tile. Mine looked pretty bad. Other people’s though were great! Good for them. Very talent.
Wednesday we went on a two-day trip because why not. We went to Évora which is about an hour and a half bus ride away from Lisbon. On the way we passed the Almendres Comlech, which is (according to Wikipedia [gotta site your sources]) a “megalithic complex”. Basically, it a bunch of rounded rocks stuck in the earth from 6000-4000 BC. Think Stonehendge. Also, that area was filled with cork trees. Cork is a MAJOR product there. The bark of each tree is harvested every 9 years, then it goes through a long process of preparing it to be actually used. When we actually got to Évora we got some lunch and then started a walking tour. We saw an old aquaduct, a cool church, an ancient Roman temple, and the Chapel of Bones. The Chapel of Bones was cool (and…. required a lot of pondering) because its walls and columns are lined with human skulls and other bones. They are from men, women, and children of all social classes, representing that we all end up there no matter who we are or where we come from. Then we went back and checked into our hotel. There was a pool there, so we swam around until it was about dinner time. We ate at this really nice restaurant that served typical dishes from that region. And it was like a course meal, oh so fancy. Meat, creamed spinach, french fries, bread with cheese… Nothing about it was too crazy, but the desserts weren’t my first choice. There were three small portions on the plate. One was basically made from eggs and sugar, one from pumpkin, eggs, and sugar, and the other from milk, eggs, and sugar. Or something like that.
THURSDAY! Thursday wasn’t actually like insanely exciting. We also had a traditional course meal that day. It was kinda similar to the other one. We had bread with cheese, a cilantro kinda fish soup on break, fresh potato chips, meat, salad, and some weird stuffing-like things but it was kinda sour… Similar desserts to the night before. Then we went to the city Monsaraz. It is a super cute walled city that sits on top of a hill. All the building are white with ceramic red roofs. All the cars have to park outside of the city, so it was very still and quiet inside. So peaceful. Then we had a long bus ride back and hung out.
Friday I worked on homework. I have to read a few books for my independent study class, and the one I’m reading now is Memorial do Convento by José Saramago. It was pretty ambitious for me to read that book. Please pray for me. So I read that in the morning. Then in the afternoon/evening we went on a walk for my class and got Asian food.
Saturday was miraculously a free day. Very rare. So we went to a beach called Cascais. It is about an hour train ride away, so it’s kinda a commitment. The beach was really nice, very soft sand. It was hot, but not terribly hot. But the water was icy cold. Still, we played frisbee and volleyball in it. Sandcastle. Laying out. Then some of us left early, got shawarma. Then we all went to go see the new Aladdin movie, which I liked but a lot of others didn’t. Then obviously the metro was broken on the way back, so we had to get a taxi.
Today was Sunday. Good church. We had a YSA class, which was basically BYU students. We talked about being an example by living the For Strength of Youth principles. Then we came home. Ate. Practiced a choir song we’re going to sing at church before we leave. Then since today was some sort of special day here, all gardens were open for free. So we walked around a garden. Now I am home. Ate more food. Pray that I will get a good chunk of that book read tomorrow.
Minha Jornada por Portugal 