A week ago, we took the bus from Caceres to our final stop on the year abroad, Lisbon. The first day there, we saw amazing tiles on buildings that Lisbon is famous for and we went to the oldest operating bookstore in the world, which first opened in 1732. Eliza found a stack of books that she has been reading from the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series. I decided to buy a copy of Alice and Wonderland.
After getting our books, we went to a church that was demolished in the 1755 earthquake. It now includes the archeology museum, so we also learned about Portugal before its famous Age of Exploration. They had artifacts that the Portuguese explorers such as mummies from South America.
After the church, we had some of the best seafood I have ever had! Then we got some of Portugal's famous custard dessert, "pasteis de nata."
Later that night, we watched Mexico play South Africa in the World Cup, on a big screen in the main square.
The next day we went on a very good walking tour - but we were very, very hot. Later that night, we went to see the parade of Saint Anthony, where we had an amazing time! This is the biggest festival in Lisbon, so it was very crowded. Saint Anthony is the patron saint of marriage, so the parade included dozens of couples who were married just a few hours before. There were also lots of fun sardine and beer mug hats. We also ate the best sardines at a roadside grill.
A few days later, we went to see the Monument to the Discoveries, which celebrates the Age of Exploration. We also saw Tower of Belem, which was one of the only buildings that survived the huge earthquake in 1755. Finally, we decided to make a stop at the maritime museum, where we saw a lot of boats.
For our second to last day in Lisbon, Dad treated us to a rock climbing gym outing, which was VERY fun!
Then we stumbled upon the Cape Verde vs. Spain World Cup match, where there were so many Cape Verde fans. Cape Verde was once a Portugeuse colony and we learned that there are tens of thousands of Cape Verdeans living Lisbon.
It is very hard to believe that this is the last day of the year abroad. Tomorrow we will be sleeping back in Atlanta!
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