So Monday and Tuesday were basically full of homework and hanging out. However, the rest of the week was spent traveling through the north of Portugal (Coimbra, Porto, Braga, Guimarães, Coímbriga).
Wednesday we got on a bus and went to Coimbra. Coimbra has a very old university (Universidade de Coimbra) which was established in 1290. However it only moved to Coimbra in 1537. It’s one of the oldest continuously functioning universities in the world. One of the most interesting things about this university was that it inspired Harry Potter. The students’ official uniforms have big black cloaks, so they look Hogwartsy. Then we went to Porto and stayed in a hostel sorta place. It was a pretty social place, but we never really participated in anything.
The next day we had a tour of Porto. We saw a huge train station that had azuleijo (painted ceramic tiles) all of the walls. We also visited the Sé Cathedral, which is like 900 years old and a mix of a lot of different past styles (Gothic, baroque, etc.). Also, we saw the Majestic Café where J. K. Rowling wrote most of the first Harry Potter book. Also, we went into a beautiful book store full of beautiful wood work. It also had a major influence on the Harry Potter books (it has a section celebrating Harry Potter in the back). We also visited the fanciest McDonald’s ever. It was huge and had chandeliers and painted glass windows. So fancy. Then we went to visit a modern art museum, which as usual was pretty interest. Thankfully it was a guided tour so the guide was able to explain some things. Then we went to a music museum, which was actually a building that was designed to have a concert hall with amazing architecture and sound quality. That was cool to learn about how the building interacted with sound. Then we went to get dinner. We all got this traditional meal called francesinha. It is basically a grilled sirloin, sausage something sandwich wrapped in cheese with a tomatoey sauce. It was alright. Very unhealthy. Then we walked along the river which was amazing. It was dark, but it is surround by bright lights and a big bridge that is lighted up. There are musicians performing everywhere and a lot of little restaurants.
Friday, we drove first to Braga where we first visited the sanctuary Bom Jesus de Braga. It sits at the top of a hill, and there are hundreds of stairs going up, and part of it they just go back and forth and back and forth in mini switch-backs. We were told that some pilgrims will kneel on each step while going up. The sanctuary has a ton of Christian symbolism. For example, at the bottom of the stairs there are a lot of Old Testament prophets depicted in statues, but at the top it’s the twelve apostles, showing like how each prophet lead to the coming of Christ. After that visit, we went had lunch and then visited a small Roman ruin site. It was some old thermal bathes, so we learned about how they worked. Then we went to a church/museum called the Sé de Braga. The museum had a ton of really cool artifacts. One of them was an old cross that Álvares Cabral (guy who discovered Brazil) used in his first sermon in Brazil. Rex (our teacher) was very excited about that. Then we left for Guimarães. We spent the night there.
The next morning we went to see the Palace of the Dukes of Braganza and a castle by it. The rooms in the palaces each explained the importance of each of the rooms. Then we went to a museum in the center of town. It had a lot of religious artifacts.Then we had an awesome lunch and left for Conimbriga. Conimbriga is awesome. It’s super small, but it has a HUGE Roman ruin site. The sad part is that the guy guesses that only 20% of the ruins have been uncovered, but still there’s so much. It has huge houses, a bath house, and a good part of a wall. A lot of the tiling in the rooms is still intact, and you can see where fountains were. It was fascinating to learn how the rooms functioned. The Romans were geniuses. That was an amazing part of this trip. Then we finally arrived in Lisbon.
Sunday was chill. We went to a museum called the Gulbenkian. It was a super rich guy’s private collection. It was amazing. There were a lot of ancient Egyptian pieces; some from like 4000 years ago. A lot of ceramic, tapesteries, statues. A lot of very famous painters like 3 Monet pieces and 2 Rembrant pieces. There was one that everyone swore looked just like me. Is that good? It was interesting to understand the stories from each piece and try to see how history and culture influenced it.
Monday was awesome. For family home evening we went to the zoo. I am a child. We first went to a dolphin show. Okay, so I have never been to one, but Rex said it was the best one he had ever seen. Dolphins are sooooooo smart. They were so synchronized and trusting. They would jump over each other or the trainers. Sometimes the trainers would get into the water and the dolphin would push the trainer’s foot so that she went flying through the water. But it wasn’t random. Like it was sometimes swirling down or across. And a couple times two trainers with their two dolphins pushing them along went into the bottom of the pool, and the trainers grabbed each others’ arms and legs and spun around for awhile. I was amazed. Then we had a picnic and looked at the animals. It was pretty big. I loved the rhinos. They are so dopey. There were some baby lions. SO CUTE! There were a lot of animal.
Today we had a cooking class where we learned to make a few traditional Portuguese pastries. They use a lot of egg yolks. We were told that this was because nuns used to use egg whites to whiten clothes or something like that, so they had a lot of yolks left over. So interesting. Everything turned out really well though! Go us! Now more exciting things to come!
Minha Jornada por Portugal 