Sorry for the absence but the past two weeks went so quickly and recently I've been swapped with uni readings. So before I catch you up on life and university here in Copenhagen I thought I'd share my photos from Lisbon.
After finishing the Danish language course we all had a week break before semester began so myself and four others took the chance to visit Portugal for one last week of summer before the weather got miserable back here. Our flight in was a late one so we didn't actually arrive in Lisbon centre until around midnight. After getting lost/confused by the directions to our hostel we met a Portuguese couple who were nice enough to pull up google maps on their phone for us. That night we had pizza that you pay for by the kg which confused us all thoroughly and briefly checked out the nightlife in Barrio Alto, where our hostel was situated.
On the first day Gilda, a girl from Tasmania, and I took a wander down to the shoreline and back admiring the colourful buildings along the way. Afterwards we all headed out to the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian which contains both ancient and modern(ish) art.
In the afternoon we went on a walking tour in and around the centre of lisbon. I can't remember the guides name but he was excellent and in a small group of only 7 it felt much less "touristy" than in a group of 20. On the tour we saw many interesting sights, most notable was the church of São Domingos. In 1506 a massacre of Jewish citizens was instigated there and took place in the square in front. The death toll reached almost 2000 and the instigators were duly punished. Then in 1945 a huge fire took place destroying most of the interior and, other than the roof, the city of Lisbon decided to leave it as is. The square it sits in is now called the Square of Tolerance and many speculate that the fire was punishment from god for the atrocities committed, even if it was a few centuries late.
Towards the end of the tour my camera had the audacity to break so from here on in the quality of my photos diminishes dramatically as I begin to try and use my phone instead.
Day 2 we left Lisbon to visit a nearby village with a few different palaces and beautiful gardens, Sintra. The first to be visited was the Moorish castle built from the 9th Century onwards. The next, Pena Palace, was most definitely the highlight. Originally built as a monastery and left to decay until bought by King Ferdinand II who set about rebuilding and extending the existing buildings and turning the place into a palace. The last monument we visited was the Sintra National Palace which, after Pena, paled into almost insignificance. However the palace itself has been well preserved and now stands, mostly, as a museum. Before leaving we stopped for crêpes, perused the shops, mainly for ceramics, and visited a local art gallery. That night we ate an amazing meal of curried chicken and portuguese grilled chicken at a local restaurant.
As this post has become exceptionally long, I'll save the rest of the photos for another post tomorrow x.
No comments:
Post a Comment