Portugal!

Well I can honestly say that I have been to the "End of the World" and back... Friday morning we set off for Portugal. Our first stop was for something to eat and continued on to Sagres. It is in the southern part where we got to see the "End of the World"... or so explorers used to thing before time (and columbus) would actually prove them wrong. Sagres was amazing. I kept singing "it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine" Gotta love REM! We visited Prince Henry’s School of Navigation.

Next we continued on to Lisbon. We traveled into the city on a giant bridge that looked like the Golden Gate in SF... we also saw this huge aqueduct that was built in 1975 after a huge earthquake. We arrived and checked into our hotel. It was later in the day so we all went out to eat at this restaurant call "Chimarra’s". We have places similar in the States. Basically we paid 12 Euros and it was a buffet of sides a the men that worked there walked around and sliced all different kinds of meat off into your plate. It was great... and cheap! We all stuffed ourselves and headed out. We didn’t do much the first night... we just all hung out together and experienced the city a little bit.

The next morning the group left to go see a couple places on the itinerary... Jared (a buddy of mine) and I slept in ... because we wanted to do our own thing. We got up and oriented ourselves on the map... and went to grab a quick bite. We saw so much in the city! I loved it, and I am so glad that we didn’t go with the group. I feel like we got to see what they saw plus many other things that we wanted to. We allotted ourselves as much time as we wanted and saw everything! The Jeronomite Monestary was one of my favorites. We visited the building where they used to hold political sessions. Jared and I also went to this outdoor gallery they had. It was called From the Top of the World. And they were all areal photographs. It was really cool. They had a big picture of the Twin Towers.

That night we all got ready and went to the Docas (The Docks). Basically they are old warehouses that have been converted into fancy clubs, restaurants, and bars. We went to about 4 different clubs. They were all packed and hopping. The clubs in Lisbon are pretty cool. Then everyone wanted to go to The Lux. It is like one of the top 35 clubs in the world! Let me just fill you in on a little information first. The clubs there can charge basically whatever they want. Most of the time if you pay a 10 euro cover... it comes with 2 or 3 free drink passes. The Lux is a famous club, and it is also famous for being pretty cheap at the start of the night (around 12 euros) and once they start filling up... they are really expensive to get into. We get there (a group of about 8 OBVIOUS Americans) and it is well into the night ...(early for them) ... and we stand in line to get in. We approached the door ... and without even cracking a smile the door man said "that will be 180 euros." ...I automatically thought he was talking about the entire group. I was quickly corrected. Hmmm, 180 each! After we picked up our jaws, we hailed a cab and continued elsewhere. There were brazillian and Portugese people going in left and right ... apparently they were "members" haha. We got the shaft. Realized it and left! Haha.

We continued on throughout the night. Then headed back to the hotel and crashed out... only to get up a couple hours later and had breakfast and headed back. We stopped off at a battle field (Batalla de la Albuera, 1811) It was pretty cool. Dr. Ingles told us all about it. He brought a sword the was more than likely used in that battle and we got to use it chopping up melons. Some people in the group searched the ground for little buck shots from the battle.

That is all I have for now. I started Spanish 2 today. The teacher is going to be extremely hard... I can already tell! My trip is about half way over now! My 21st birthday is at the end of next week. I am pretty excited about that... but I am not sure what I wanna do yet... hmm ... Well, make sure you check out the Portugal album! http://photobucket.com/albums/v461/brandon5/

Hope all is well. Talk to you soon!

Brandon