There is a group of students that live at the Bible institute with me and they are all studying Portuguese because they are planning to go to Angola in the Spring to do some church planting. Part of the Portuguese classes is that they go on a field trip once a month and today was the day. Their field trip this month was to Lisboa to look at some Roman ruins.....accept these weren't the normal Roman ruins. To get to these Roman ruins we basically needed to go into the sewer in a sense. Once a year Lisboa drains an underground creek that flows among these underground Roman ruins. So, once a year, usually, a guided free tour is given to people of the ruins.
The ruins were super cool and it was especially cool that we got to go underground in the middle of the road to get to them.
After we got done with the ruins we decided that we needed a little coffee before we conquered our second sets of ruins! Bring on the amazing deliciousness that is Portuguese coffee!
See the awesome thing about coffee here is that even though it might look small it carries quite a heavy punch! You can also not get a cup of coffee to go! Everywhere you go you have to drink your coffee there and I think it really adds to the coffee!
So, once we were reenergized and had a little bite to eat we went to a bank that also had Roman ruins underneath it. These Roman ruins were from an old sardine paste factory! Can you say YUM?!? Me neither!
Both tours were really awesome but they were both fully in Portugal. It was really exhausting to go on the tours because the whole tour you are trying to figure out what exactly the tour guide is trying to say. All in all, it was an awesome free tour!
After the tours with the Portuguese class my friend, her aunt, and I decided that we would do some more Lisboa exploring before we went home. The first thing we did was to take an elevator up to another street and little shopping area.
The elevator was constructed in 1902 and allows people to go to the top of a hill via a bridge at the top instead of walking up the hill. It was really beautiful and a bonus of the elevator is that it gives you a beautiful view of all of Lisboa! Right off of the bridge is an old Catholic church that is now used to hold different artifacts from all over Portugal.
In 1749, there was a huge earthquake in Lisboa and many buildings collapsed and it also brought down the power that Portugal had in sailing and exploring. During this earthquake the roof of a huge Catholic church collapsed and killed everyone inside and also started a fire in the church. Portugal decided not to fix the church but instead to keep the church as somewhat of a memorial of the earthquake and also a museum of other artifacts from all over Portugal.
It was really amazing to see things from so long ago! If you walk straight down the path in the picture you come to rooms with more artifacts and on the walls in Portuguese tile work is a pictorial depiction of life of Jesus Christ.
We visited many other places and shops but at the end of the day I fell more in love with Portugal. The architecture and feel of the city is beautiful! The colors and patterns on the tiles that are on just about every building are eye catching. I seriously think that a fabric designer should come design fabrics according to Portuguese tiles! I am pretty sure it would sell out instantly! The prices for everything were also amazing! We got to ride the subway, the trolley cars, and the elevator as much as we wanted for 24 hours for less then 4 euros and the tour of the Church was 2 euros for a student and 3 euros for general public, this means that everything was about 7 euros which is less then $10! Try and do that anywhere else!
Seriously, if you have never had Portugal on your radar to travel to I definitely think you need to put it on there! Just walking around the city is amazing! So, go book your ticket and I will see you here next week!
Peace out!
P.S. if you would like to see more pictures from my adventures please check them out on facebook. I will have them posted so anybody can see them.....
Also, I was on national news because of the ruins....supposedly they did a sweep of the crowd waiting to go underground and I was in that sweep!
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