Last week in Oxford was great, after the HP6 premiere on Tuesday the highlights were going to see "Public Enemies" on Wednesday (not so good), going to Christ Church (one of the most famous colleges at Oxford and where the HP movies were filmed) on Thursday, and then heading out to the Eagle & Child again on Thursday night with the gang.
I left VERY EARLY on Friday morning to catch the bus to Heathrow, and then got a bagel with lox at the airport while I waited for my flight (again, not so good, but a little piece of home). Trevor and I found each other, then our flights to Madrid and Lisbon went seamlessly. We took a bus into the city center and found our hostel, where we dropped off our stuff.
First of all, this hostel was incredible! The interior design was really quirky and colorful (just my style), and the free breakfast was homemade crepes with Nutella! Our roommates were nice as well, and I've totally been spoiled at this point when it comes to hosteling. Next week in Amsterdam should be a definite reality check :-)
After figuring out our plan of attack, Trevor and I headed out into the city (even though our hostel was right on the main square so it wasn't exactly that long a walk). Lisbon is really an amazing city--throughout the last 2000 years it has been ruled by Romans, Muslims, Catholics, and slightly intense 20th century governments, so the culture (especially the architecture) is a blend of all of these influences. There are beautiful marble monuments EVERYWHERE--Portugal is still apparently very proud of its past as a colonial power--and many of the buildings are covered in beautiful ceramic tiles. It's colorful and vibrant and there's music playing wherever you go... basically I fell in love with it. Even the sidewalks are beautiful; they're all these inlaid mosaics, and they make the city have so much depth.
For our first adventure, Trevor and I hiked up to the castle on top of the hill, which would be the first of many uphill climbs over the weekend. The castle has been standing for 900+ years and has survived a major earthquake as well as all of the aforementioned rulers. The view was really beautiful, and on the way back down we ate at a sweet Indian-Portuguese fusion restaurant. After we changed back at the hostel, we walked up another big hill and found a little cafe in a square (with another monument, of course), and had our evening nightcaps of port, which the Portuguese are famous for. Delicious.
After our crepes the next morning, we went to Belem, an area about 6 km west of the city centre. After a bit of train confusion, we made it there and went to the Electricity Museum (Lisbon has a bagillion different weird museums, from a Water Museum to a Coach Museum to an Air Museum to a Presidents of the Republic Museum and a Pharmacy Museum). The electricity part of the museum actually wasn't all that great (fluency in Portuguese may have helped), but there was an exhibit of the International Photo of the Year contest winners, which was AWESOME. I heart photojournalism.
After the electricity museum, we went to the Torre de Belem (pictured below), a huge monument that's a tribute to Portuguese colonialism. We took a lift to the top, took a few pictures, and then went to a movie inside on the history and culture of Lisbon. After that, we went to a delicious lunch (the Portuguese ROCK the preparation of seafood), then went to the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, a lovely cathedral with the best vaulted ceiling I've ever seen. After that we went to the FREE modern art museum, where I got to show off all the knowledge about modern art I got on the travel portion :-)
After a little shopping/afternoon naps, we climbed another massive hill to go to a place recommended by my travel book for dinner. It wasn't open yet, so we went down the street to a place called "Be Gold", where everything was golden and decadent. Dinner was fantastic, and afterwards Trevor and I waddled happily back to our hostel with a quick sangria stop on the way.
In the morning we wandered up the Avenida de Liberdade to a park (on another hill) that had another great view of the city. After moseying back down and checking out of our hostel, we grabbed lunch and then went to an amazing exhibit on the Titanic at what turned out to be the Rossio train station... weird. It was super cool, though, and definitely one of the best-designed historical exhibits I've been to on this trip. It had all these artifacts recovered from the wreck, and even a fake iceberg you could touch. The coolest part (no pun intended) was definitely a perfume case recovered from the wreck that still smelled like the perfumes it used to contain after almost a hundred years under the ocean! I thought it was pretty sweet.
After traditional Portuguese custard tarts, we headed back to the airport and had an incredibly smooth travel experience on the way home (besides a long line at UK immigration). I made it back to Oxford by about 11:30 last night, when I crashed and woke up just in time for my exam this morning. Craziness.
That's all for now... it's looking like it's going to be another great week in Oxford. We're seeing Harry Potter 6 on opening day this Wednesday, then Bryan, Amy, Sydney and I are off to Amsterdam on Friday morning. Hooray!
Dara
Two photo albums for you today (sorry for the volume)--
More life in Oxford & the Potter Premiere: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016776&id=1326450024&l=9f8d8220f0
Lisbon Trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016777&id=1326450024&l=83bf20724f
Hmmm. I posted a comment on this already that got lost.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pictures of Oxford and Lisbon, both very pretty places. Are you sure you don't want to try a career in photojournalism???
Beginning the countdown until you return to Concord (however briefly).
Love,
Joyce