Portugal

While in Portugal I wrote some interesting facts/things that we learned and did....

10/16- (Lisbon) 10.5 million people in Portugal, bull fighting here is very different from spain- you don't kill the bull at the end here

10/17- (Caicais) blue with gold is a way to say "icing on the cake", the climates here are alot different than I expected, alot of pines and eucalyptus, things are cheap here! I bought a sandwich for 3 euros... you can't find that in Switzerland. It's better to drink bottled water because there is a lot of chlorine in the water

10/18- (Caicais) one of the most famous bridges in Lisbon named the "25th of April" was made by the same company as the golden gate.  The reason for this is the city needed a bridge to withstand earthquakes.  The bridge is 2.5 km long. I saw a jellyfish! Cork trees are and we're used for alot of things.  Beggars and gypsies are very pushy here.

10/19- (Mertola) drove to our hotel in the middle of nowhere, it includes a pool, ping pong, hammocks, pool table, professor and tour guide arguing, we are 4km away from Spain

10/20- (Mertola) went to an Arabic town in the middle of nowhere, it is very desert like with tiny rolling hills and with dog/cats running around everywhere.  Our professor is insane

10/21- (Evora) 9 years of mandatory school in Portugal 4 yrs elementary, 2yrs middle, and 3yrs high school.  Public college costs about 1000 euros a year and private anywhere from 300-400 euros a month. A traditional dish in Evora is pork and clams

10/22- (Evora) saw a chapel made of human bones, 5000 human skeletons were used to decorate it, it served as a place of meditation, there were peacocks everywhere

10/23- (Guimaraes) the fluffy pine trees are called Mediterranean pines, the Portugal type of eucalyptus have white leaves when they are young

10/24- (Guimaraes) Beware of bedbugs and scabies in portugal, but seriously! They eat a ton of cod here, even though they don't catch it in Portugal

10/25- (Porto) Overall, the people aren't very nice.  Not good customer service and they don't appreciate your business, which just makes our group not want to buy things.

10/26- (Porto) The river in in Porto has two dams that we went through via boat.  One is 17 meters and the other is 35 meters

This travel was an experience I will never forget, but I don't think I will be back to Portugal anytime in the near future.  Time to get better and explore new places!


XOXO